Mt Gox was a bitcoin exchange based in Tokyo, Japan. Founded in 2010 by Jed McCaleb, it was the world’s leading bitcoin exchange until February 2014 when its website and trading engine went offline following what is now known as the Mt Gox hack. The hack resulted in an estimated loss of approximately 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers and the company itself, worth around $450 million at the time.
In April 2014 Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy protection with debts totaling over $64 million. In 2016 creditors of Mt Gox reached a settlement with Mark Karpelès (the former CEO) after he pleaded not guilty to charges of embezzlement and data manipulation during his tenure as head of the company. Under terms of this agreement all remaining assets were distributed among creditors according to their claims against Mt Gox’s estate.
Since then there have been multiple attempts to revive or restart operations at Mt Gox but none have been successful due largely to legal challenges from creditors who are still looking to recoup losses incurred during the initial hack or subsequent bankruptcy proceedings. As such, while some reports suggest that there may yet be hope for a revival at some point in future these remain mere speculation at present given current legal constraints preventing any potential re-opening or relaunch of services under new ownership or management structure.
