Failed MtGox exchange finds 200,000 Bitcoins in old 'digital wallet'

Updated

Failed Bitcoin exchange MtGox says it has found 200,000 coins worth $US116 million ($127 million) in an old "digital wallet".

The discovery comes after the Tokyo-based currency exchange collapsed in February saying it had lost 850,000 coins, worth nearly half a billion dollars, in a possible theft.

But 200,000 Bitcoins were left in a "wallet" used before June 2011, the company said in a statement on its website.

Bitcoin wallets are used for online transactions between currency holders.

The find has been reported to the court overseeing the company's bankruptcy case, the company said.

MtGox, which at one time reportedly processed 80 per cent of global Bitcoin transactions, said the 200,000 Bitcoins - discovered on March 7 - had been moved to an offline wallet.

"Taking into account the existence of the 200,000 BTC, the total number of Bitcoins which have disappeared is therefore estimated to be approximately 650,000 BTC," the statement said.

The company filed for protection under US bankruptcy law earlier this month, 10 days after doing the same in Japan after a huge loss of the digital currency.

MtGox's lawyer said 750,000 Bitcoins belonging to customers had gone, along with MtGox's own store of the currency, which she said was about 100,000 units.

Japanese officials say they are closely monitoring MtGox's bankruptcy proceedings, as they try to understand how and why the exchange imploded.

The global virtual currency community was shaken by the failure of MtGox, which froze withdrawals in early February because of what the firm said was a bug in the software underpinning Bitcoin that allowed hackers to pilfer them.

Unlike traditional currencies backed by central banks, Bitcoin is generated by complex chains of interactions among a huge network of computers around the world.

After trading for cents per Bitcoin for the first two years of its existence, it began a frenzied climb in 2011.

By late 2012 a coin was worth $US40 and it reached $1,100 last year, before falling off to the current $580 level.

Its relative anonymity and lack of regulation has been attacked by critics who fear it could be used to finance organised crime or terrorism.

AFP

Topics: currency, markets, business-economics-and-finance, internet-technology, internet-culture, japan

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