According to the bitcoin police ; )
Jeff McDonald, who is associated with the NEM Foundation backers of the XEM cryptocurrency, said that the stolen coins from Coincheck in the $500M heist last week, are trying to be "spent' on six exchanges.
McDonald says the location of the account was not yet known, nor could he confirm how much of the stolen coins had been spent.
I don't know how you "spend" the stolen coins on an exchange. Perhaps he means "sell" and then cash into a "real currency of exchange" like US dollars. Owners of bitcoin, can not easily spend $500 million (or even $5 million).
We must remember, the "white collared" thieves may have taken $500 million from wallets of Coincheck, but even if they cash in a fraction of that amount - say $2 million or $5 million, or $10 milllion - it still represents a sizeable amount. Sure beats working for a living as a real bank robber. Plus the old owners don't have their coins anymore (for them to cash in).
So what is happening in the bitcoin world (using Bitstamp).....
Perhaps some reality of risk is weighing on the market.
The price of bitcoin is moving lower and away from key MAs today. The price is down about -$800 to $10,425. The low reached $10,204 and the high stalled at $11,230 today. Looking at the hourly chart above, the price has stayed below the 100 and 200 hour MAs (at $11,253 and $11,121 respectively). That is bearish. The price had been waflling around those MA levels of late, but not today. It is also moving below a lower trend line. That too is more bearish.
On the daily chart, the price is moving away from its 100 day MA today. That MA comes in at $11,382 today (blue line in the chart below). The high today stalled ahead of that level (more bearish). The price has been doing its own waffle above and below that moving average over the last 9 trading days. Today's break away is showing sellers are winning that battle.
