Report: Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox closes

Tokyo – Major Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has reportedly gone offline with no advance notice or explanation. According to NBC News, the Mt. Gox website is blank, its offices are closed, its Twitter account has deleted all tweets, and all trading has been halted.



Mt. Gox previously served as an online platform where global Bitcoin users could buy and sell the virtual currency using different international denominations. However, Mt. Gox users had been unable to translate Bitcoins into U.S. dollars since the beginning of February 2014, which the company blamed on a glitch in Bitcoin software that allegedly lets hackers make it appear as if transactions have not occurred.



On Sunday, Feb. 16, Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles resigned from the Bitcoin Foundation board, and the company also reportedly recently moved its Tokyo-based headquarters due to what it called security problems. NBC also reports there are unsubstantiated claims that due to the software glitch cited by Mt. Gox, the company has lost as much as $350 million to fraud.