Bitstamp Back Online, But Did Bitcoin Traders Return?

Following the 5th January announcement that it was suffering a ‘hot wallet issue’ later determined to be the work of malicious actors, Bitstamp spent much of the last week offline, temporarily closing what had been among the top three exchanges for BTC/USD trading.
The unexpected news set off a flurry of concerns that, less than one year after the demise of then-leading USD/BTC exchange Mt Gox, history could be repeating itself, and that Bitstamp may be the latest bitcoin exchange to close its doors due to a high-profile hack.
By 9th January, however, Bitstamp indicated it would resume services, promising it was back and better than ever. The exchange initiated trading in the global markets at 21:00 UTC, boasting multisig security, a new back-end cloud infrastructure and commission-free trading.
Indeed, the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index showed that Bitstamp’s 19:40 UTC announcementthat it would resume services caused a spike in the market, with the price of bitcoin rising from $285.66 to a high of $290.71 on the BPI before declining.
But, while Bitstamp is back online, questions still remain regarding whether Bitstamp can win back traders and regain its former market position.
A step off pace
Though rival exchanges ANXBTC, Bitfinex and BTC-e all saw notable increases in weekly volume, data from Bitcoinity indicates that Bitstamp has mostly regained its former position in the BTC/USD market.
BTC/USD exchange trading volume over the last seven days:

This post was published at Coin Desk on January 13, 2015.