Many have been expecting for worst when the website of the famed Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox went offline earlier this week and true enough, the company has since filed for bankruptcy protection. The filing and the subsequent announcement was made in Japan – where the company is based at – earlier today.
Truth to be told, things have been looking quite shaky for Mt. Gox since it suddenly halted all Bitcoin withdrawals earlier this month. In today’s announcement, the company’s lawyers have stated that around 750,000 Bitcoins that belonged to customers are gone alongside the company’s own 100,000 Bitcoins.
Said to be due to weaknesses in their system, the missing Bitcoins altogether worth around USD 480 million (RM 1.57 billion). The company didn’t provide any details on its next move after the filing but in general, we don’t think customers who have lost their Bitcoins in this fiasco will ever see those digital money again.
[Source: Reuters. Image: CoinDesk by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg via Getty Images]
