CNET

Mt. Gox is now officially on its last legs.

The District Court in Tokyo has ordered the liquidation of the bitcoin exchange, according to a document posted on the Mt. Gox website. The decision follows a request earlier this month from Mt. Gox that its assets be liquidated so creditors can recoup at least some of their money.

Posted by Mt. Gox's bankruptcy trustee, the document also states that "it is unlikely that the company can restart the exchange." Mt. Gox's assets will be converted to cash amid an investigation into the claims of creditors, a meeting of whom will be held on July 23.

In late February, Mt. Gox revealed that it had filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan in the wake of a security bug that led to the alleged theft of almost 750,000 customer bitcoins, as well as 100,000 of the exchange's own bitcoins.

The court's move to grant liquidation comes after Mt. Gox's bankruptcy administrator said on April 16 that it would be difficult to rehabilitate the company at this point, according to Reuters.

Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles has maintained that the missing bitcoins were stolen. But hackers who broke into Karpeles' Reddit account and personal blog last month have alleged that the exchange kept some of the bitcoins that were reported as stolen.

Investigators have been probing Mt. Gox's bankruptcy filing. Earlier this month, US Bankruptcy Judge Stacey Jernigan ordered Karpeles to appear in Dallas on April 17 to answer certain questions. But Karpeles didn't make the trip, as his attorneys said that he was " not willing to travel to the US."

In related news, bitcoin wallet provider Xapo has announced a new MasterCard debit card that can tap into your bitcoin holdings, as spotted by The Next Web. Now available for preorder and expected to ship in another two months, the card will work like a regular bank debit card.

(Via Reuters)