MapleChange , Bad Psychology and the collapse of BTCThis Morning at approximately 7 a.m. , the price of Bitcoin and other major cryptos began to fall precipitously, as the market had finally exhausted all of the automated buy in positions hovering around 6400.00 and slightly below. The rubber band like snap back behavior had lessened over the past few days, until it became too tenuous a hold, and there were not enough limit buy's in place and BitCoin is now trading at 6268.65 U.S.D.
The collapse of Maple Change is in my opinion partly to blame, it is unnerving to say the least that Hackers can rob one so easily of their stored currency, touted recently as "less volatile," and a "safe haven" in the coming storm.
The price of Bitcoin is attempting to recover , as this mornings action, which in my opinion was actually necessary for Bitcoin to move in any direction , has put the flagship cryptocurrency quickly and decidedly close to a supply point.
Nobody seemed to want to do anything with the price so firmly affixed to the 6400.00 U.S.D. mark it has stubbornly remained at for so long; but now people are and will be compelled to DO SOMETHING.
Caveat Emptor.
Maplechange
Canadian Exchange "Hacked," all funds "gone."Imagine logging on to your exchange platform, a place where you sought refuge from the impending market crash , to find that the site is gone. To find your funds, your BTC , ETH..... what have you - is gone. Maplechange is the name of the exchange that Hackers took down just in the past few hours.
Your 2fa didn't help, neither did your 12 digit, cryptic password, because they took down the exchange itself. There are folks out there whom at this moment are wishing they hadn't sought refuge there. Who are trying to figure out where there reserve for times of hardship have gone. People left with even more uncertainty and even less money with which to ride out the impending crash.
Hackers are in a continual tug of war. Code makers and code breakers as it were , have actually been struggling with one and other for centuries , but in this computer age - with the tools available to a hacker it seems the scales have tilted towards the code breakers , at least for today.
MapleChange had some 2,000 followers on Twitter. That measure is not a very reliable metric, but at least 2,000 people trying to make a profit in this market , as hard as it is already , have lost what for many likely constitutes a large portion of their savings, if not all of it.
There is no FDIC in Canada, and with varying levels of de-centralization across the crypto spectrum, there is little hope of those funds ever finding their way back to their rightful owners.
MapleChange , according to the news at least , is apparently broke. Bank records will only be written proof of loss, of theft. Look to Palladium - this precious metal is inside likely every electronic device you own , and in those to follow. No hacker can go and steal all of it.
Shelter from the Storm. Never forget how easily your digital assets can be taken from you. "Sim Jacking" is a practice all too common , where compromised phone numbers are made available to hackers on the darkweb. It's how 2fa ends up failing.
If you remain in crypto - vet your exchange well. Blockchain , a well known site that provides a wallet service amongst many others, is a great place to test a password, as they estimate how long your password would take to hack as you create it.
Caveat emptor.