Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox goes offline

After weeks of issues Mt. Gox, one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges, went offline and and is reportedly close to bankruptcy. According to a leaked crisis strategy draft plan viewed by Wired, the exchange is insolvent after losing hundreds of millions of dollars due to a security bug that went unnoticed for two years. The authenticity of the document can't be confirmed, but if it's correct the firm lost 744,408 bitcoins, worth about $350 million at Monday's trading prices.

The hacking attack is detailed in a leaked “crisis strategy draft” plan, apparently created by Gox and published Monday by Ryan Selkis, a bitcoin entrepreneur and blogger (see below). According to the document, the exchange is insolvent after losing 744,408 bitcoins — worth about $350 million at Monday’s trading prices. The plan paints a bleak picture of the exchange’s finances and outlines an arbitrage scheme to restore the exchange to solvency. “The reality is that Mt. Gox can go bankrupt at any moment, and certainly deserves to as a company,” the document states.