Mt. Gox holds his infamous part of Bitcoin's history as the most important cryptocurrency exchange that has entered a cloud of confusion and anger.

February 2014, a little over four years ago was a disturbing month. to capitulate ending in the company filing for bankruptcy. Gox said that nearly 750,000 Bitcoins of his clients, as well as 100,000 of his own Bitcoins, had been stolen. The total loss accounted for about seven percent of all available Bitcoins, and was worth about $ 473 million at the time

. Gox saga, many questions and concerns were raised about Bitcoin, and it took a few years for digital currency to recover from this incident, but to date, there is news emanating from these stolen coins.

The Gox was launched in 2010 by the American programmer Jed McCaleb (who then founded Ripple) but in March 2011, it was bought by a Bitcoin French developer and enthusiast, Mark Karpelès. The name Mt. Gox meant "Magic The Gathering Online eXchange".

Mark Karpelès was involved in a recent radio interview on March 6 in which he summarized his journey and that of his company towards fame and fortune.

"It was as if … when you fall off a building and you see the ground getting closer, and that you have the impression that you are going to die." Mt Gox went from an interesting project to being, and I would say, a daily nightmare of relationships with banks, governments, people I never knew existed. "

At the time, something like seven Bitcoin transactions out of 10

"I'm really sorry that when I was in charge, things were going as they did."

The First Hack

The Mt Gox hack 2014 is known throughout the crypto community, and its influence is still felt, but Mount Gox was hacked in 2011. It is most likely due to a compromised computer belonging to a listener of the company.

At that time, hackers used their access to the stock market for artificially change the face value of a Bitcoin to a cent, and then transfer about 2,000 Bitcoins from customer accounts on the exchange.

80% dominant

Despite this beginning of decline, the Mont. Gox grew quickly and became the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world in 2013, handling up to 80% of all Bitcoin transactions.

While the company was building a considerable presence in the market, not everything went well.

In 2013, Coinlab, a former trading partner of the Exchange, filed a lawsuit against the company for $ 75 million, alleging breach of contract. The contract stipulated that Coinlab would take over the US customers of Mt. Gox, but it never happened.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has received complaints that a subsidiary of Mt. Gox operating in the United States did not have a license and therefore functioned as an unregistered money issuer.

As a result of the investigation, the department seized more than $ 5 million in bank accounts from the company. ]

The Infamous Hack

The so-called hack that led to the collapse of Mount. Gox is still so far mysterious as the month of February 2014 saw a confused procession of events.

Feb. 7, 2014: Mt. Gox has stopped all withdrawals of Bitcoin due to the malleability of transactions. "A bug in the Bitcoin software allows someone to use the Bitcoin network to change the details of the transaction to give the impression that sending Bitcoins to a Bitcoin wallet does not it's not produced while it's actually produced. "

Feb. March 17, 2014: Withdrawals were still suspended as the company outlined the steps it was taking to address security issues.

Feb. November 23, 2014: Mark Karpelès resigned from the Bitcoin Foundation Board of Directors. On the same day, all messages on his Twitter account were removed.

Feb. 24, 2014: All the commerce has been suspended, then the website is completely disconnected. A leaked internal document claimed that the company was insolvent after losing 744,408 Bitcoins in a robbery that has not been detected for years.

Feb. 25, 2014: Mt. Gox reported on his website that a "decision had been made to close all deals for the time being," citing "recent news reports and potential repercussions on Mt's operations. Gox. "

Feb. 28, 2014: Mt. Gox filed an application for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo, and then on March 9, filed for bankruptcy protection in the United States.

February shook the Bitcoin world. Gox fell in piles, leaving thousands of pocket people, confused and angry. From February to the end of March, the value of Bitcoin decreased by 36%.

<img alt=" Mt.Gox "src =" http://cointelegraph.com/storage/uploads/view/e686d2b2f34181bd77bac0398ba8d109.png "title =" Mt.Gox "/>

Image Source: Bitcoincharts

The Consequences

The repercussions of piracy have affected not only Mount Gox and his clients, but also Karpelès

The CEO of Mt. Gox was arrested again in Japan in August 2015, after being introduced earlier this year, and charged with fraud and embezzlement, charges not directly related. In July 2016, when he was released on bail.

Prior to his arrest, Karpeles admitted to having "found" 200,000 of the missing bitcoins in his cold room on his own. and Karpelès' reputation in the community started raining as everyone else Its allegations have emerged, for example, that it has spent money driving Bitcoin money on prostitutes.

In mid-2017, Karpelès was brought to court in Tokyo to answer charges of embezzlement and data manipulation. During the trial, Karpelès admitted to having operated a "Willy Bot" (exchange of bonds).

BTC-e

At the same time that Karpelès was in Tokyo, a strange connection was made: another exchange operator was arrested in connection with the bitcoin stolen from the mount . Gox.

In July 2017, a Russian national named Alexander Vinnik was arrested by US authorities in Greece and accused of having played a key role in the the theft of bitcoins stolen from Mt. Gox.

BTC-e was attacked by the FBI, causing the site to fall. It was the first time that an American authority had seized a foreign currency on foreign soil.

Investigations by Wizsec, a group of Bitcoin security experts, identified Vinnik as the owner of the portfolios where the stolen Bitcoins had been transferred. , many of which were sold on BTC-e.

Still in the news

The investigation being still in progress, it is not surprising that Karpelès, and Mt. Gox, has always been attending the news until now.

Thus, in November 2017, Karpelès suggested bringing an OIC to raise $ 245 million to "revive" the mountain. Gox.

This week, unofficial investigations have claimed that a British "shell" company was involved in the 650,000 BTC bleaching of Mt. Gox. The company Always Efficient LLP reportedly participated in the processing of pirated funds in Tokyo

In addition, experts have suggested that the recent fall in Bitcoin prices to about $ 6,000 in February 2018 was due to a Mt.Gox . trustee "panicking" and selling $ 400 million of Bitcoin.

Nobuaki Kobayashi sold more than 35,000 BTC and 34,000 BCH (Bitcoin Cash) to pay the creditors of the defunct purse.

Never Forget

There has been a lot going on in Bitcoin's life, but probably something of the magnitude of Mount. Gox will never happen again. Exchanges are studied more closely and the distribution of transactions is much wider.

But, the echo effects of this major hacking continue to be felt, and will likely continue for a while. This could be an important case for the community, and a harsh warning that the crypto ecosystem needs to be taken care of.