Mt. Gox Allegedly Loses $350m in Bitcoin (744,400 BTC), A document has surfaced suggesting that troubled Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox
will close for one month as part of a four-step rebranding plan, and
that CEO and former Bitcoin Foundation board member Mark Karpeles will
step down from his executive position as part of the process.
The bitcoin price has been tumbling all morning amid the news, hitting a low of $419 so far.
Entitled
“Crisis Strategy Draft,” the document suggests the company’s
increasingly dire financials are greatly impacting the decision. By Mt.
Gox’s own estimates, it has only 2,000 BTC and approximately $22.4m in
fiat currencies in its possession.
The document was first reported by Ryan Galt, aka the Two-Bit Idiot, who later confirmed to CoinDesk:
The document is branded with the current Mt. Gox logo and a
redesigned version, and claims to have detailed inside knowledge of Mt.
Gox and its financial affairs, but appears to be written by a team
external to Mt. Gox’s current management.
The document is publicly available for viewing here and embedded below this article.
According to the leak, Mt. Gox has lost close to 744,408 BTC or $350m at current prices, and faces an unconfirmed additional $55m in fiat liabilities. The company suggests that theft related to transaction malleability has been ongoing for several years, but was not reported by the company.
We can assume now that withdrawals will not recommence, at least not in the foreseeable future. Customers with Mt. Gox accounts
will not be receiving their bitcoins or possibly even other currencies
in what is effectively an insolvency, though no-one in an official
position is using that word.
At Japan time on the eve of the statements, Japan’s finance and banking regulator the Financial Services Agency (FSA) said it would not be intervening in the issue as it did not view supervision of digital currency exchanges as part of its obligations.
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