The cryptocurrency market’s credibility took a hit late Wednesday New York time when Japanese exchange Zaif said it had been hacked, resulting in the loss of nearly 6,000 bitcoin.
As for pricing action, however, the news had little immediate impact, with bitcoin steady and the ongoing Ripple rally boosting alt-coins.
The latest hack was the second for a Japanese exchange this year after Coincheck said more than $500 million worth of NEM tokens were stolen in January.
In a press release, Zaif said “it is estimated that the total loss due to the damage more than the current investigation is equivalent to about 6.7 billion yen (including MONA and BCH) in Japanese yen.”
According to data from CoinMarketCap, Zaif reported $69.1 million in trading volume of the past 24 hours.
Bitcoin, the world’s No. 1 digital currency, was relatively unchanged Thursday, with a single bitcoin BTCUSD, -0.15% last worth $6,416.34, down 0.1% since Wednesday at 5 p.m. on the crypto exchange.
The market cap for all digital currencies continues to hover on either side of $200 billion.
Read: ‘Wild West’ cryptocurrency market needs to be regulated, says U.K. Treasury committee
Ripple continues to lead altcoins
Ripple’s XRP XRPUSD, +11.69% coin has continued to push higher, making a 6-week high of 37 cents, up 7.6% Thursday, adding to Wednesday’s 20% rally after the payment protocol said PNC Financial Services has signed onto RippleNet, the company’s payment services.
“It is a positive update for the integration of XRP into the U.S. financial system, so the 20% spike actually seems a bit light,” said Mati Greenspan, senior market analyst at eToro.
Elsewhere, most altcoins, coins alternative to bitcoin, were drifting lower Thursday. Ether ETHUSD, +0.21% was down 0.4% at $210.17, Bitcoin Cash BCHUSD, -0.27% was off 0.5% at $434.20 and Litecoin LTCUSD, -0.16% was down 0.4% at $54.39.
In futures trading, the Cboe Global Markets Group Inc.’s September contract expired Wednesday, making the October contract XBTV8, -0.04% the most active, which was up 0.4% at $6,420 and the CME Group Inc. September contract BTCU8, +0.39% was up 0.6% at $6,415.
Read: Bitcoin is flirting with a new low for the year after the SEC stopped trading on two funds
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