Mt.Gox

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mt.Gox

logo
legal form Kabushiki-gaisha (joint stock company)
founding 2010
Seat Shibuya , Japan
management Mark Karpelès
Number of employees 19th
Branch Exchanges
Website MtGox.com

Mt.Gox KK ( Mt.Gox Co. Ltd. ) was one of the world's largest trading centers for bitcoins . It was founded in 2009 as an exchange for trading cards , rededicated as a Bitcoin exchange in 2010 and quickly became one of the most important competitors in Bitcoin trading. In August 2013, 60% of the global Bitcoin trading volume was brokered through the platform. On February 28, 2014, the company filed for bankruptcy in a Japanese district court.

functionality

At Mt.Gox, users had two accounts: a Bitcoin account and an account with money in the currency assigned to the user profile. The latter can be used, for example, by bank transfers, and the former by a Bitcoin transfer to an assigned Bitcoin address. The Bitcoins were managed centrally by Mt.Gox, the Bitcoin client did not need to be installed on the user's PC. The Bitcoins could be transferred at any time free of charge to another Bitcoin address outside the access of Mt.Gox. The user can create offers to buy or sell via the web interface. A maximum price can optionally be specified when buying, and a minimum price when selling. The platform determined the market price on the basis of the orders placed and automatically merged the transactions. There was a transaction fee i. H. v. 0.6% (in Bitcoin) of the transaction volume due.

history

Since Mt.Gox was originally founded as an exchange for trading cards for the game Magic: The Gathering , the name is derived from Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange . The company was founded by Jed McCaleb, who ceded ownership to the current owner, Tibanne Ltd., in March 2011. The exchange was last led by Mark Karpelès .

Exchange rate for 1 Bitcoin in US dollars on Mt.Gox

The exchange was founded by the Japanese company Tibanne Ltd. established in 2009 and registered with the Tokyo Chamber of Commerce .

Special occurrences

On June 13, 2011, the user Allinvain stated that an amount of 25,000 BTC had been stolen when his computer was broken into (the equivalent of 502,750 USD at that time). The stolen credit was put back into circulation undetected by the thief.

On June 19, 2011, a vulnerability on MtGox.com caused the price to drop to one US cent per Bitcoin after a hacker used a Mt.Gox employee's credentials to send a large number of Bitcoins to himself. After a few minutes the price corrected to the previous trading price. Accounts with total values ​​greater than $ 8.75 million were affected.

On August 11, 2011, the Japanese operating company of Mt.Gox, Tibanne, surprisingly announced that it would take over the Bitomat.pl service and integrate the users into its own user base. The users' credit would be taken over in full. The users' deposits would be paid out through Mt.Gox and it would still be possible to deposit and withdraw Polish zloty through local Polish bank transfers.

On February 22, 2013, some Dwolla accounts were temporarily restricted after Dwolla introduced new anti- money laundering conditions. As a result, transactions from Mt.Gox accounts to Dwolla accounts were canceled, but not posted back to Mt.Gox. It was not until May 3, more than three months later, that the amounts were posted back.

Suspensions of trade

From April 11 to April 12, 2013, Mt.Gox suspended trading to allow the market to “cool down”. The price of a bitcoin fell to a rock bottom of $ 55.59 after resuming before stabilizing above $ 100.

Payouts were suspended on June 20, 2013.

On July 4, 2013, the company announced that withdrawals would be fully processed again, but only a few US dollar withdrawals were successfully completed as of September 5, 2013.

Lawsuits and legal matters

On May 2, 2013, CoinLab, the first leveraged Bitcoin company, announced that it would sue Mt.Gox for breach of contract for $ 75 million in damages and that it would cease business.

On May 15, 2013, the United States Department of Homeland Security confiscated accounts on the Mt.Gox online exchange at the payment service provider Dwolla because Mt.Gox failed to register as a payment service provider in the United States.

insolvency

As of February 7, 2014, Mt.Gox no longer allowed withdrawals. On February 10, the company announced in a press release that the withdrawal lock would remain in place for the time being due to the problem in the Bitcoin protocol known as Transaction Malleability . A solution was being worked on, however.

As of February 25, 2014, the Mt.Gox website was no longer accessible or only contained two brief messages that they were still working on a solution to the latest problems. Gox's entire Twitter feed has also been emptied. A few hours earlier, the head of the exchange, Mark Karpelès, had resigned from his board seat in the Bitcoin Foundation.

On February 28, 2014, Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in a Japanese district court. In addition, 750,000 bitcoins in customer deposits and 100,000 bitcoins of the company would have been lost. Based on the market price in the previous month, this represented a loss of more than $ 800 million. The company's attorney said at the press conference that the company had a debt of 6.5 billion yen (approximately $ 63.6 million), which was offset by 3.84 billion yen in assets.

On March 20, 2014, Mt.Gox announced that 200,000 Bitcoins believed to have been lost had reappeared, reducing the total loss suffered to 650,000 Bitcoins.

The Japanese newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun reported on January 2, 2015 that the Tokyo police assume internal manipulation after an investigation. Only 7,000 bitcoins were stolen from outside by hacker attacks, the remaining 643,000 were embezzled by an unknown insider.

arrest

On August 1, 2015, the former head of Mt.Gox, Mark Karpelès , was arrested by Japanese authorities. The Japanese authorities accuse Karpelès of interfering with the stock exchange system for his own benefit.

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ https://www.mtgox.com/about-us ( Memento from February 15, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Bitcoinity; 30 day market share. Retrieved August 5, 2013 .
  3. ↑ Mtgox files for bankruptcy. on golem. February 28, 2014, accessed February 28, 2014 .
  4. ↑ Wayback Machine: Mt Gox. Archived from the original on August 17, 2007 ; Retrieved April 12, 2013 .
  5. ↑ Mtgox is changing owners.
  6. ↑ Mt Gox Barons of Bitcoin
  7. ↑ http://www.mtgox.com/
  8. ↑ TIBANNE Co., Ltd. ( Memento of 12 November 2013, Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=83794.0#post_allinvain_theft
  10. ↑ Mark Karpeles: Clarification of Mt Gox Compromised Accounts and Major Bitcoin Sell-Off. Tibanne Co. Ltd. as of June 30, 2011, archived from the original on September 19, 2011 ; Retrieved November 7, 2013 .
  11. ↑ a b Jason Mick: Inside the Mega-Hack of Bitcoin: the Full Story. DailyTech , June 19, 2011, archived from the original on April 22, 2013 ; Retrieved November 8, 2013 .
  12. ↑ Timothy B. Lee: Bitcoin prices plummet on hacked exchange. Ars Technica, June 19, 2011, accessed November 8, 2013 .
  13. ↑ Richard Chirgwin: Bitcoin collapses on malicious trade - Mt Gox scrambling to raise the Titanic. The Register, June 19, 2011, accessed November 7, 2013 .
  14. ↑ Mt.Gox, The World's Largest Bitcoin Exchange to Acquire Bitomat.pl, Compensate Loss Of Bitcoins ( Memento from November 12, 2013 in the Internet Archive ), mtgox.com on August 11, 2011.
  15. ↑ https://twitter.com/MtGox/status/322355614414147588 ( Memento from November 13, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  16. ↑ Robert McMillan: Bitcoin's Big Bank Problem: Why Did Mt. Gox Halt US Payouts? Wired, accessed June 20, 2013 .
  17. ↑ Paul Vigna: Bitcoin operator Mt. Gox resumes withdrawals. Wall Street Journal, July 5, 2013, accessed November 8, 2013 .
  18. ↑ Paul Vigna: Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox still grappling with slowdown. Wall Street Journal, July 31, 2013, accessed November 8, 2013 .
  19. ↑ Status Update ( Memento from August 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  20. ↑ Massive Bitcoin Business Partnership Devolves Into $ 75 Million Lawsuit
  21. ↑ Romain Dillet: Feds Seize Assets From Mt. Gox's Dwolla Account, Accuse It Of Violating Money Transfer Regulations. Retrieved May 15, 2013 .
  22. ↑ US Department of Homeland Security prohibits payments to MtGox http://www.coindesk.com/us-government-stops-payments-to-main-bitcoin-exchange/ ( Memento from June 28, 2013 in the web archive archive.today )
  23. ↑ Axel Kannenberg: Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox blocks all Bitcoin withdrawals. In: heise online. February 7, 2014, accessed February 7, 2014 .
  24. ↑ https://www.mtgox.com/press_release_20140210.html ( Memento from February 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  25. ↑ Bitcoin: Mtgox is offline - Golem.de
  26. ↑ Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox disappears from the radar - and the bitcoins of customers - heise.de
  27. ↑ Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy Protection. on The Wallstreet Journal Online. February 28, 2014, accessed February 28, 2014 .
  28. ↑ Information about the stock of bitcoins. (PDF; 192 KB) mtgox.com, March 20, 2014, accessed March 24, 2014 (Japanese, English).
  29. ↑ Axel Kannenberg: Downfall of the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox: Investigations indicate an insider act. In: heise online. January 2, 2015, accessed January 6, 2015 .
  30. ↑ Mt. Gox losses likely 99% fraud. In: The Japan News. January 2, 2015, archived from the original on January 6, 2015 ; accessed on January 6, 2015 .
  31. ↑ dpa: Former head of the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox arrested in Japan. In: heise.de. August 1, 2015, accessed August 1, 2015 .