Tokyo bitcoin exchange files for bankruptcy

Mt. Gox, once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan on Friday, saying it may have lost nearly half a billion dollars worth of the virtual coins due to hacking into its faulty computer system.

The collapse caps a tumultuous few weeks in which the company has remained virtually silent after halting trades of the crypto-currency, shaking the nascent but burgeoning bitcoin community.

Wearing a suit instead of his customary T-shirt, Mt. Gox’s French CEO Mark Karpeles bowed in contrition and apologised in Japanese at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court, blaming his firm’s collapse on a “weakness in our system”, but predicting that bitcoin would continue to grow.

“First of all, I’m very sorry,” he said. “The bitcoin industry is healthy and it is growing. It will continue, and reducing the impact is the most important point.” Angry investors have been seeking answers for what happened to their holdings of cash and bitcoins on the unregulated Tokyo-based exchange.

Mt. Gox said the exchange, used overwhelmingly by foreigners, had lost 750,000 of its users’ bitcoins and 100,000 of its own. At the current bitcoin price of about $565 (Dh2,074), that would total some $480 million — representing about 7 per cent of the estimated global total of bitcoins.

It also said there was a discrepancy of 2.8 billion yen ($27.4 million) in its bank accounts when it checked on Monday