Bitcoin’s Rally May Be Short-Lived, Coinsecure Reaches Out To Investors After Hack

Bitcoin has fallen to its lowest level in about a month, after climbing to a high of nearly $10,000 in early May, Coindesk reported. The popular cryptocurrency reached $7,925 on Bitfinex on Friday (May 18), which marks its lowest level since April 18.

Since reaching a low of $6,425 on April 1, the cryptocurrency rallied, but it has shed about 50 percent of that gain. And the remainder? A Coindesk analysis reported that “the gains will likely be short-lived as the odds are stacked against the bulls, according to technical charts.” Bitcoin was trading at $8,239.21 as of 4:15 pm on Friday (May 18).

In China, a crypto product arrested six individuals who allegedly defrauded investors through a crypto project, Coindesk reported. Police from the Chinese city of Shenzhen took the individuals into custody for bilking investors out of $47 million through the sale of digital currency backed by tea. Through a firm named PEB, the suspects rolled out tokens that were called Pu’er Coin. Those who bought the tokens were reportedly entitled to a contract that represented an ownership stake in Pu’er Tibetan tea, but police said the firm had a “very limited amount of the tea in stock.” Even so, it promoted a high and fast investment return to investors through events at swanky venues.

In other news, it appears that an Indian crypto trading site may be helping its users reclaim funds lost in a multi-million dollar heist that occurred in April, TheNextWeb (TNW) reported. Coinsecure has reportedly sent emails to some of the customers affected by the incident to tell them that they can begin sending claims. Though TNW was able to verify the email’s authenticity, the outlet noted that Coinsecure did not publish this information on the website. According to reports from Coinsecure users, the email does not appear to have been sent in bulk, and some users haven’t received such an email as of yet.

In addition, Coinsecure has appeared to have re-opened its exchange panel, through which users can access its trading platform. That access hadn’t been available since the hacking incident. Furthermore, TNW reported that the panel also seemed to be available to users who haven’t received an email from the exchange.

In April, Coinsecure reported that roughly $3 million worth of bitcoin were stolen from the company’s bitcoin wallet. The number of bitcoins stolen, the company said, comes to about 438. Reuters reported that the theft stands among the largest in the country’s nascent cryptocurrency arena and might have the impact of dampening trading activity: The cryptocurrency exchange currently has 200,000 users trading on a daily basis.

The bitcoins themselves had been stored in a password-protected digital wallet and transferred to a destination, thus far, unknown. The company said it would compensate its customers affected by the theft.