By Tyrese Garvie
Bitcoin (BTC) has plummeted over 30% over the last few days and more so today – many people are claiming that the bubble has finally popped, but others are claiming that it was hacked by a group named ‘Iranian v3.0’.
It all started with a message posted on pastebin.com on the 19th December from an anonymous user…
The message, as seen above, mentions that the attack will be performed on the 22nd of December at midnight (GMT) – which matches the worrying news spreading across the world and internet today about Bitcoin and it’s freefall from almost $20,000 to now almost half of that.
Bitcoin < $11,000https://t.co/qD02DaDUrq pic.twitter.com/EaNqHP3Bt4
— Jonathan Garber (@BondsFx) 22 December 2017
Were the experts right – has the bubble popped or have wallets been hacked by the Iranian hacker group ‘Iranian v3.0’? – the motive seems unclear, but the message did mention ‘Iranian Riad’ [sic], which may be a typo for Rial; which is Iranian currency.
The most concerning aspect about the crudely communicated warning is the fact that it accurately matches today’s events in regards to BTC shares.
Whilst many are saying that the drop in BTC is due to rival cryptocurrencies such as ‘Monero’ and ‘Ethereum’ – splitting Bitcoin buyers into two; however, this still does not explain how an anonymous message on Pastebin.com was able to accurately predict the crashing of a major currency.
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