What Is Mt. Gox?

Mt. Gox is a cryptocurrency exchange that first operated in July 2010, quickly became the world's largest platform for Bitcoin trading. It is estimated that more than 70% of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions were made through this platform in its first three years.

However, in February 2014, Mt. Gox underwent a dramatic change. An announcement was made that more than 850,000 BTC had been stolen by hackers, with 750,000 BTC of which belonged to customers. The value of the crypto loot at that time reached around $450 million which could now be worth billions of dollars.

Site Closure of Mt. Gox

A month after the closure of Mt. Gox, around 200,000 BTC was found in an old wallet. Despite efforts being made to trace the missing cryptocurrencies, most of them remain unaccounted for. More than 127,000 compensation claims were filed, but victims are likely to receive only a fraction of their losses.

A court in Japan is in charge of the compensation process, however, most likely, the victims will only receive a small portion of the lost amount.

The Mt. Gox had a huge impact in the cryptocurrency world as it resulted in a large amount of Bitcoin's total supply disappearing forever. Additionally, this incident increased scrutiny of cryptocurrency exchanges and encouraged the emergence of decentralized alternatives, where investors can keep their assets more secure.

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DISCLAIMER: This article is informational in nature and is not an offer or invitation to sell or buy any crypto assets. Trading crypto assets is a high-risk activity. Crypto asset prices are volatile, where prices can change significantly from time to time and Bittime is not responsible for changes in fluctuations in crypto asset exchange rates.