Its been over five years since Mt.
Gox filed for bankruptcy, and its a pretty messed up story.
Climbing Mt.
Gox was one of the first Bitcoin exchanges on theweb, but it wasnt always related to cryptocurrency.
McCalebs involvement in Mt.
Karpeles at the helm
It was under the control of Karpeles that Mt.
Gox would witness a series of hacks and scandals that would lead to the platforms eventual demise.
But it wasnt without becoming the worlds leading Bitcoin exchanges by 2013.
At one point, Mt.
Gox washandling around 70 percentof the worlds Bitcoin trades (by volume).
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The first major crisis for Mt.
Gox came in June 2011, just months after Karpeles took over.
Gox and the hack did not affect the underlying Bitcoin protocol.
Another report statedthat 25,000 coins were presumed missing or stolen from 478 different user accounts.
These coins were valued at over $8.5 million at the time.
Gox admins took the exchange offline while they tried to rectify the situation.
This was a process that would become all too common for the exchange.
Gox users had experienced withdrawal issues.
In some cases, users still hadnt received their funds even weeks after they had requested withdrawal.
A BitcoinTalk forum thread amassed over 3,000 posts that featured claims of being unable to access Mt.
Gox funds,Coindesk reportedat the time.
On February 7, 2014, Mt.
Ten days later, the exchangedpublished a statement.
At the time, that amount was valued at aroundhalf a billion dollars.
On February 28, 2014, the exchange accepted its fate andfiled for bankruptcyin Tokyo.
It would also file for bankruptcy in the US later in March.
Despite the case against him, Karpeles continues to maintain his innocence.
Litigation for victims of Mt.
Goxs crumbling
Since Karpeles arrest, Mt.
Gox creditors (read: victims) have faced an arduous journey.
It tookuntil August of last yearfor things to finally start looking up for victims of the scandal.
Many creditors wereforced to take it upon themselvesto campaign for their Bitcoin back.
But not long after, news broke that stated Mt.
Indeed, those affected by Mt.
Goxs collapse must be anxious, especially those that are yet to be repaid.
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Story byMatthew Beedham
Matthew is the editor of SHIFT.
He likes electric cars, and other things with wheels, wings, or hulls.
