Alistair Barr

USA TODAY

SAN FRANCISCO - The price of Bitcoin dropped on Friday after one of the leading exchanges that handles trading of the crypto-currency halted withdrawals.

Mt. Gox, which calls itself the most established Bitcoin exchange, said all Bitcoin withdrawals "will be on pause." It did not say when withdrawals would resume but said it would provide an update on Feb. 10.

Mt. Gox said an increase in withdrawal requests caused "technical" problems.

"To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state," it added in a statement on its website. "We apologize for the sudden short notice."

The price of a Bitcoin dropped to $701.56 on Friday, down 8.2% from $764.35 the previous day, according to Coinbase, a Bitcoin digital wallet and online platform.

The number of Bitcoin transactions on Friday totaled 35,497, as of midday EST in the U.S. That was about half the level of activity on Thursday and the lowest since July, Coinbase data showed.