Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes dark, digital currency biz calls it a ‘tragic violation’ of user trust
Less than a year ago when we took a long look at Bitcoin, exchange Mt. Gox reportedly handled some 80 percent of global traffic in the digital currency. Tonight however, the exchange’s website is offline, all tweets have been deleted from its account, and customers are unsure what will happen to fiat currency (cash) or Bitcoin that it holds. There were signs of trouble before this however, as Mt. Gox hasn’t been the leading Bitcoin exchange since late last year, and it halted customer withdrawals on February 7th. The Bitcoin Foundation, which advocates for the digital currency, announced that Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles resigned on Sunday. A price index from digital currency tracker CoinDesk currently shows the value of Bitcoin has dropped $100 in 12 hours to $463, while Coinbase lists a buy price of $448.
Prices for Bitcoin on Mt. Gox had fallen as low as $135, as the exchange issued a statement on the 17th that it had halted withdrawals while dealing with security issues. Rumors have flown about what’s going on, and Reddit poster relliMmoT, who posted the screenshot above, reports trading halted at 8:59PM ET before the site went offline. Several other companies involved in digital currency including Coinbase, Blockchain.info, Circle, Kraken, Bitstamp.net and BTC China have issued a joint statement in response, decrying Mt. Gox’s “tragic violation” of user trust. They’re also promising to reassure customers and the public about their security, and to “lead the way” in consumer protection measures. Curiously, the statement originally referred to the exchange as insolvent (and still does on Circle), but that reference has been removed. According to Re/code a spokesman for the group stated that the troubled exchange has informed members of the community that it will file for bankruptcy, but that can’t be confirmed at this time.
Filed under: Internet
Source: Coinbase blog, Reddit
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