Mt. Gox Resigns From Bitcoin Foundation

By

Robin Sidel

Feb. 23, 2014 10:08 p.m. ET

Mark Karpeles, chief executive of Mt. Gox, the embattled Toyko-based bitcoin exchange, resigned on Sunday from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The move comes as amid a string of longstanding technical issues that began last summer when Mt. Gox halted customer withdrawals in U.S. dollars. The problems became more severe earlier this month when Mt. Gox halted all customer withdrawals, saying that a bug in the bitcoin software allowed some users to alter transactions.

The problems prompted CoinDesk to remove Mt. Gox from its bitcoin pricing index earlier this month.

The exchange told customers last week that it was still working on "reinitiating" bitcoin withdrawals.

Mt. Gox is one of several industry representatives on the board of the foundation, which is essentially a trade organization that advocates for the virtual currency. Charles Shrem, another board member, stepped down in January after being charged with money laundering in connection with his bitcoin company.