Mt. Gox Files for Bankruptcy, Admits Loss of 850,000 Bitcoin
Mt. Gox officially files for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo, with CEO Mark Karpelès announcing the exchange had lost 750,000 customer bitcoins and 100,000 of its own.
Making the collapse official, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection in a Tokyo court. At a press conference, a visibly shaken CEO Mark Karpelès bowed in apology and confirmed the staggering losses: approximately 850,000 bitcoins, valued at nearly half a billion dollars at the time, were missing and presumed stolen.
This figure represented roughly 7% of the total circulating supply of Bitcoin. The announcement confirmed the largest cryptocurrency theft in history and marked the formal end of the industry's first and most dominant exchange. The bankruptcy filing initiated a complex, international legal process that would drag on for years, with creditors fighting to recover a fraction of their lost funds.
The event was a watershed moment for Bitcoin. While it was a catastrophic failure that caused immense financial and reputational damage, it also proved the resilience of the Bitcoin network itself, which continued to operate flawlessly. The collapse forced the ecosystem to decentralize, with trading volume migrating to other, more professionally run exchanges.It served as the ultimate, painful lesson in the dangers of centralization.