Leaked Document Alleges 744,000 BTC Lost at Mt. Gox
A leaked internal 'Crisis Strategy' document appears online, alleging that Mt. Gox had lost 744,408 customer bitcoins over several years in a theft that went unnoticed.
In the immediate aftermath of the Mt. Gox website going dark, a damning internal document, purportedly a 'Crisis Strategy Draft,' was leaked and circulated online by blogger Ryan Selkis. The document painted a picture of staggering incompetence and catastrophic loss, alleging that 744,408 BTC belonging to customers had been quietly siphoned off by hackers over several years.
The theft, according to the leak, had gone completely unnoticed by the exchange's management. The document also mentioned the loss of 100,000 of the company's own bitcoins. While the document's authenticity was not immediately confirmed, its details were horrifyingly specific and aligned with the scale of the unfolding disaster.
It provided the first plausible, albeit devastating, explanation for the exchange's insolvency. The leak spread like wildfire through the community and the mainstream press, putting a number to the catastrophe and revealing that the issue was not a recent hack, but a long-term, systemic failure of security and accounting.It set the stage for the official bankruptcy announcement that would soon follow.