Japan’s Mt Gox exchange, once the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world has thrown in the towel today and has filed for bankcruptcy, the company’s lawyer announced, citing outstanding debts of $63.2 million, after their entire online operation mysteriously went offline on Monday.
Mt Gox once claimed to host nearly 80 percent of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide, and was the primary source cited for Bitcoin prices. After it the site crashed on Monday, the value of Bitcoin fell to $440, a 3 month low after the currency reached highs above $1000 at the end of November.
Speaking about the Mt Gox closure, Japan’s vice finance minister Jiro Aichi says that the government will respond if necessary but that Bitcoin regulation needs to be international.
Meanwhile, US Fed chair Janet Yellen has responded to a letter from West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin about Bitcoin in which he calls it disruptive to the US economy. “To the best of my knowledge there’s no intersection at all, in any way, between Bitcoin and banks that the Federal Reserve has the ability to supervise and regulate. So the fed doesn’t have authority to supervise or regulate Bitcoin in anyway.” said Yellen.
Mt Gox Investigation Begins
Yesterday it emerged that Japanese authorities are conducting a high level investigation into the stricken Bitcoin exchange Mt Gox after it dramatically ceased trading earlier this week.
A string of high-level financial regulatory bodies in Japan are currently investigating the situation at Mt Gox, an exchange with as many as a million account holders, following its controversial halting of trading on Tuesday, according to Yoshihide Suga, Japan’s chief cabinet secretary.
“At this stage, the relevant financial authorities, the police, the Finance Ministry and others are gathering information on the case,” he told reporters.
