The bitcoin price has recovered above $8,200 after careening significantly in the wake of the Tether hack.
As CCN.com reported, The bitcoin price endured a temporary correction on Monday following a report that Tether, a widely-used crypto token purportedly pegged to the U.S. dollar, had been hacked. According to an announcement from the Tether development team, a hacker infiltrated the Tether treasury wallet and stole approximately $31 million in USDT.
The news of the hack, which surfaced early Monday morning, led to intense volatility within the markets due to the wide proliferation of USDT usage as a substitute for fiat USD on cryptocurrency exchanges. On Bitfinex, the bitcoin price plunged from $8,285 to $7,755 in minutes, and the ripple effect caused the total cryptocurrency market cap to temporarily shed more than $10 billion.
However, the bitcoin price quickly found a footing, and over the next few hours, it climbed back near its pre-dip level. At the time of writing, the bitcoin price was trading at $8,259 on Bitfinex, placing it within $60 of the all-time high it set yesterday.
The altcoins markets were a mixed bag for investors on Tuesday, but the total altcoin market cap ultimately grew by about $1 billion despite Tether-linked volatility.
The ethereum price posted a three percent advance, enabling it to climb to $368 and a $35.3 billion market cap. Ethereum is up more than 11 percent for the week and has apparently put concerns over the recent $150 million Parity wallet bug in its rear-view mirror.
Bitcoin cash grew by about one-half of one percent, bringing its market cap within $30 million of the $20 billion mark. Ripple and litecoin, meanwhile, posted minor declines of less than one percent.
Dash returned the most impressive performance among top 10 cryptocurrencies. The dash price briefly rose to $514 — a new all-time high — before settling down to a present value of $493. This represents a 24-hour gain of 11 percent and places dash just $55 million behind litecoin in the market cap rankings.
The IOTA price declined almost eight percent, tapping the brakes on its weeklong advance. NEO, likewise, plunged by 13% after a rumored announcement did not live up to investor expectations.
Ninth-ranked monero increased by three percent to $137, and NEM declined by one percent to round out the top 10.
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Last modified: May 20, 2020 9:47 PM UTC
