Don’t hold your breath for a comeback (or for your missing bitcoins). Mt. Gox will never rise from the dead. Not unless some brave soul buys it that is.
If you were one of the unlucky customers who still had bitcoins on Mt. Gox during its epic meltdown, chances are you’re not getting your BTC back. Probably ever.
The Tokyo District Court has officially shot down the collapsed Bitcoin exchange and trading platform’s bankruptcy application, its CEO Mark Karpeles said in an announcement on the company’s defunct website today.
Instead, Mt. Gox is calling it quits and heading for liquidation, reports .
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“People familiar with the situation” told the Journal that the complicated nature of a possible Mt. Gox recovery was unfeasible due to the challenges of meeting with creditors scattered throughout the world and the Tokyo-based company’s “lack of realistic rehabilitation plans.”
If the court green lights Mt. Gox’s request for liquidation, Karpeles will hand the reins over to a trustee who will handle -- and likely attempt to sell off -- the company’s assets. Who’d be brazen enough to buy (and somehow resuscitate) the failed company, we wonder?
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Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy protection back on Feb. 28. Karpeles blamed hackers for his company’s demise, claiming they preyed on a “transaction malleability” vulnerability within its system that enabled them to swipe almost half a billion U.S. dollars worth of the virtual currency.
During its collapse, the company lost some 750,000 of its customers’ BTC and 100,000 of its own. A month later, Karpeles announced that the discovery of 200,000 “missing” bitcoins.
Karpeles likely won’t be prosecuted in Japan because Mt. Gox isn’t entirely subject to current regulations there.
Meanwhile, news broke today that he’ll be a no-show at a hearing in Washington, D.C., this Friday, despite being ordered to by the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. According to a statement filed by his lawyers, Karpeles is “not willing travel to the U.S.” not until he can “get up to speed” on the case and gather additional legal advice.
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