Bitcoin price moves above $8,500 as traders dismiss Bitgrail concerns

The Bitcoin price continues to hover just above $8,000 watermark as the crypto market seems to have entered a consolidation mode after wild gyrations of the previous week.

Meanwhile, another cryptocurrency exchange went bust due to the loss of Nano coins (XRB) to the tune of $170 Million. 

The Italian exchange Bitgrail had been offline since the end of January, citing internal system optimization issues, but on February 9 it posted a notice at its official website, where it admitted that the money was stolen. The exchange reported the theft to the police to initiate the investigation.

«We have communicated unauthorized transactions to the competent authorities.

We have also communicated the email addresses associated with the thefts» - Francesco Firano, the owner and the operator of the exchange said in the Tweeter account on Friday, February 9, adding that Bitgrail cannot provide the affected users with full compensation as the company does not have enough money for that.

The Bitgrail insists that it has fallen victim of some fraudulent activities, but many users are sure that the exchange has exit scammed. Rumors have it that stolen XRBs have been transferred from this Bitgrail wallet to Mercatox and getting dumped for months. 

Whoever is right, this case is another blow to the reputation of the cryptocurrency markets, that have already suffered from a series of similar scandals.  

BTC/USD has recovered from the support line around $8,000 strengthened by 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level and 200-DMA on the daily chart. Currently, the coin is trading at $8,545.49, the next resistance sits around Saturday’s high at  $9,075.12.

BTC/USD, daily chart