Bitcoin Crashes As The World’s Most Famous Exchange Halts All Withdrawals
The Fall Of Mt. Gox — The World’s Most Famous Bitcoin Exchange
ROB WILE
BusinessInsider.com
FEB. 7, 2014
Mt. Gox, the Japan-based Bitcoin exchange, was forced to halt all currency withdrawals this morning amid an “increase in withdrawal traffic.”
According to a memo on Mt. Gox’s website, “In order for our team to resolve the withdrawal issue it is necessary for a temporarily pause on all withdrawal requests to obtain a clear technical view of the current processes. We apologize for the sudden short notice.”
Prices on the exchange were down as much as 20% — nearly $180.
While the issue is now believed to have been pinpointed, this is not the first time Mt. Gox customers have had trouble accessing their accounts.
And Bitcoin traders have taken notice. According to Max Pelham, a German physics student who was one of the first to spot the withdrawals on his blog CoinWatch, the Bitcoin community may now be ready to give up once and for all on the exchange.
“People will be leaving Mt. Gox either way, the trust isn’t already very high, and with this now people are going to trust them even less,” he said. “I think Mt. Gox is going to lose relevance even more now, they’re not very forthcoming in their public relations, their technical problems and their withdrawal problems aren’t going away. Even if they fix it now, the withdrawal problem still remains with USD and Euro withdrawals.”
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