Mt. Gox

Mt. Gox was a cryptocurrency exchange in Tokyo that operated from 2010 to 2014. Jed McCaleb made the website for Mt. Gox exchange. Initially, it was a way for fans of the card game "Magic: The Gathering" to be able to trade cards online. Mt. Gox is an acronym for "Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange." In 2011, the site was bought by Mark Karpeles.

Mt. Gox launched in July 2010, and by 2013, it was handling about 70 percent of worldwide bitcoin (BTC) transactions. In February 2014, the platform suspended trading, shut down its website and exchange service, and filed for bankruptcy protection from its creditors. By April 2014, liquidation proceedings began. A week after the exchange suspended all trading and shut down, a document leaked that revealed that 744,408 BTC was taken from customers by hackers. Another 100,000 of the company’s BTC was missing. About 200,000 BTC was later found in an old-format bitcoin wallet.

The CEO of the company, Mark Karpelés, resigned and stepped down from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation. All posts made on the company's twitter account were deleted. After the company filed for bankruptcy and liquidation, claiming a debt of $63.6 million, Attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi was made the exchange’s bankruptcy trustee entrusted with the administration and disposal of its assets.