Bitcoin Crashes as US Agency Recovers N947.6million From Hacker Group
- Department of Justice in the United States have shown bitcoins cannot only be tracked but recovered after it took back the ransom paid to a hacker group
- About N947.6 million was paid by Colonial Pipeline to hacker group, DarkSide after the company's operation was attacked with ransomware
- The recovery of the bitcoins crashed the cryptocurrency market, affecting Ethereum, Binance and Cardano value in the crypto community
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Following the United States' recovery of bitcoins paid as ransom by Colonial Pipeline to hacker group, DarkSide, the value of the digital coin crashed in the cryptocurrency market.
The recovery shows that the cryptocurrencies are no longer as secured as previously thought, as the US Department of Justice (DOJ) proved that bitcoin can be tracked and taken from a wallet.
Colonial Pipeline had been hacked by Darkside, with its operations disrupted after the company's critical infrastructure was taken out with ransomware.
In order to restore operation, the firm paid 63.7 bitcoins valued at N947.6 million. The DOJ had given Colonial Pipeline instructions in the process of paying in order to track the payment and recover it.
Source: Getty Images
Following the report of the recovery on Tuesday, the cryptocurrency market plunged, and bitcoin was down by 8 per cent, with its market price falling from above $39,000 to $$32,779 according to data from CoinDesk.
Other cryptocurrencies like Ethereum followed the same downward path as it plunged by 12 percent, Binance was down 14 percent and Cardano plummeted by 10 percent.
Meanwhile, Legit.ng had reported that the World Bank has changed its economic projections for Nigeria, as the African largest economy is growing faster than previously predicted.
The World Bank's new projections showed that despite the country still battling with the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, Nigeria's economy is withstanding the bashing.
The international creditor also reviewed its prediction for Africa's economy, which it stated would grow as well.
Source: Legit.ng
