Bitcoin's Price Drops $1K in Sharp Break Below $10K

Bitcoin's price fell sharply during mid-day trading on Wednesday, dropping more than $1,000 amid reports of exchange issues.

CoinDesk's Bitcoin Price Index (BPI) hit a low of $9,494.45 – representing a decline of more than $1,200 from the day's opening price of $10,709.53. The sharp drop is notable, considering that the cryptocurrency's price had risen above $10,800 earlier in the day.

At press time, bitcoin's price had recovered slightly, and was trading at $9,714.

While it's not entirely clear at this time what factors sparked the sell-off, the timing coincides with reports of unauthorized sells on cryptocurrency exchange Binance. The exchange has since suspended withdrawals, according to statements, with the situation coming less than a month after a prolonged system upgrade raised fears of a hack.

"We are investigating reports of some users having issues with their funds. Our team is aware and investigating the issue as we speak," a representative wrote on Reddit Wednesday, adding:

"As of this moment, the only confirmed victims have registered API keys (to use with trading bots or otherwise). There is no evidence of the Binance platform being compromised."

Similarly, cryptocurrency derivatives exchange BitMEX announced that some users were having difficulty logging into its platform and that it was investigating the issue. BitMEX later reported that it was back online, citing a spike in load as the underlying cause.

Market data indicates that other cryptocurrencies are experiencing price declines as well. With the exception of monero, all of the top-10 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization have fallen in excess of 10 percent in the past 24-hours, according to CoinMarketCap.

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