Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is bankrupt

After weeks of issues Mt. Gox went offline earlier this week and now the well-known Bitcoin exchange announces it's filing for bankruptcy protection. One of the firm's lawyers revealed that Mt.Gox has an outstanding debt of about ¥6.5 billion ($63.6 million), and that 750,000 of its customers' bitcoins and 100,000 of its own had been lost. At current market prices that represents a loss of $473 million.

The exchange had been pulled offline earlier this month amidst fears that is was possible to carry out fraudulent transactions. Understandably, this caused a great deal of frustration and anxiety for those with money and currency invested in the system. What this new development means for those customers still remains unclear, but for now at least, it's in the hands of official process.

Source: Engadget and WSJ