Bitcoin’s value continued to fall over the weekend, declining to as low as $265 apiece on Sunday, with other major cryptocurrencies following suit, according to the International Business Times.

Similarly, the price of litecoin, peercoin, dogecoin and namecoin dropped between 3 and 7 per cent.

In contrast, the value of dogecoin’s more secure and anonymous version (dogecoindark) soared by more than 50 per cent, pushing its market cap beyond US$75,000.

Meanwhile, Slovenia-based Bitcoin exchange Bitstamp resumed operations after it went offline for nearly a week following the theft of 19,000 bitcoins from its operational wallets on January 4. Based on current prices, the stolen bitcoins are estimated to be worth US$5 million.

“We are happy to announce that we are back open for business with a newly redeployed website and backend systems that are safer and more secure than ever,” said its Chief Executive Officer Nejc Kodric.

Meanwhile, darkcoin’s founder and lead developer, Evan Duffield, won Coins Source’s first “Proof of Honor” award for alternate currency developers in recognition of his X11 algorithm and the instant transaction capability of his anonymity-oriented cryptocurrency.

“What darkcoin’s trying to be is just like cash, except you can transact over the internet with it,” he said. “It’s like me handing you ten bucks over the internet and there’s no trace of that and it’s instantaneous between the two of us.”

With darkcoin, people get all the perks of cash, such as anonymity and security, without the need to wait for an hour as is the case with Bitcoin, Duffield added.