The price of bitcoin fell Tuesday, one day after US officials announced that they managed to recover most of the bitcoin that was paid as ransom to the Colonial Pipeline hackers.
Bitcoin traded almost 12 percent lower on Tuesday. The crypto was exchanging hands at about $31,800 per coin as of noon ET.
Other cryptos such as ether, binance coin, cardano and dogecoin also saw double-digit drops. And shares of crypto exchange Coinbase fell more than 4 percent in midday trading.
Tuesday’s losses put bitcoin about 50 percent below its peak earlier this year.
Anthony Denier, CEO of trading platform Webull, said the Department of Justice’s announcement that they were able to retrieve the ransom payment is hurting the price of bitcoin.
He noted that it’s unclear how the government got the crypto back, but regardless, “this shows bitcoin isn’t as secure as many people believe,” Denier told The Post.
“Criminals have been using bitcoin because of the supposed inability of governments to get at it, but if the US did reclaim the money, that destroys that claim,” he said. “This could be a very big problem for people trying to get money out of countries with poor economies.
