In short: no speculative positions.
A hacker attack has swept across the globe encrypting user files and crashing corporate services. In an article on CoinDesk, we read:
Extortionist hackers who may be using leaked computer exploits from the U.S. National Security Agency infiltrated computers in dozens of countries in a fast-spreading attack that forced British hospitals to turn away patients and breached systems at Spain’s Telefonica SA and organizations from Russia to Taiwan.
The ransomware used in Friday’s cyber-attacks encrypts files and demands that victims pay $300 in bitcoin for them to be decrypted, the latest in a vexing style of security breaches that, at the very least, forces organizations to revert to backup systems to keep critical systems running. The malicious software has infected more than 75,000 computers in 99 countries worldwide on Friday, most of them concentrated in Russia, Ukraine and Taiwan, according to Dutch cybersecurity company Avast Software BV.
Several other well-know companies have been affected such as Deutsche Bahn or Renault. Reports have also emerges claiming that people are unwilling to pay the ransom since it’s relatively complicated for them to set up a Bitcoin wallet.
This is bad publicity for Bitcoin as it highlights the features of the currency that have captured the imagination of mainstream media for some time now – the superficial anonymity and the possibility to use Bitcoin for illegal transactions. It is perhaps not fair for the currency – it is only a tool in the hands of criminals and there’s nothing inherently criminal in Bitcoin itself. Actually, the more interesting part of the story is that it is still too hard for people to use Bitcoin – a state of things that has prevailed for a couple of years now.
For now, let’s focus on the charts.
On BitStamp, we saw a correction. Not a strong one, but a move down nonetheless. Does this mean that the situation is bearish now? Let’s recall our recent comments:
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