When did Jed McCaleb launch Mt. Gox as a bitcoin exchange?

Jed McCaleb launched Mt. Gox as a bitcoin exchange on the 18th of July 2010 after reading about cryptocurrency on Slashdot.

What sentence did Tokyo District Court give CEO Mark Karpelès in March 2019?

Tokyo District Court found Mark Karpelès guilty of falsifying data and sentenced him to 30 months imprisonment suspended for four years meaning no jail time unless reoffending occurs.

Mt. Gox: the story on HearLore

Q: How many bitcoins were stolen from Mt. Gox according to the leaked internal crisis management document?

The leaked internal crisis management document claimed insolvency after losing 744,408 bitcoins undetected for years.

In late 2006, programmer Jed McCaleb conceived a website for users of the Magic: The Gathering Online tradable card game service. He purchased the domain name mtgox.com in January 2007 to facilitate trading these digital cards like stocks. The service went live around late 2007 but operated for only three months before McCaleb abandoned it. He later reused the domain name in 2009 to advertise his own card game called The Far Wilds. On the 18th of July 2010, McCaleb launched Mt. Gox as a bitcoin exchange using that same spare domain name after reading about cryptocurrency on Slashdot. This pivot transformed a niche hobby platform into the world's leading Bitcoin intermediary by early 2014.

On the 13th of June 2011, the Mt. Gox bitcoin exchange reported that BTC 25,000 had been stolen from 478 accounts. That amount was worth US$400,000 at the time. Three days later, the user database leaked for sale to pastebin, signed by ~cRazIeStinGeR~ and tied to auto36299386@hushmail.com. A stream of fraudulent trades caused the nominal price of a bitcoin to drop to one cent on the exchange. Hackers used credentials from an auditor's compromised computer to transfer large amounts of bitcoins illegally. By October 2011, transactions appeared in block chain Block 150951 sending BTC 2,609 to invalid addresses. These coins were effectively lost because no private key could ever be assigned to them. New evidence presented in April 2015 by Tokyo security company WizSec concluded most missing bitcoins were stolen straight out of the hot wallet over time beginning in late 2011.

By April 2013, Mt. Gox handled over 70% of all world Bitcoin trades as the largest intermediary. On the 2nd of May 2013, CoinLab filed a $75 million lawsuit alleging breach of contract regarding their partnership formed in February 2013. The US Department of Homeland Security issued a warrant on the 15th of June 2013 to seize money from Mt. Gox's U.S. subsidiary account with payment processor Dwolla. Between May and August, DHS seized $2.9 million from Dwolla and another $2.1 million from Wells Fargo. Wired Magazine reported in November 2013 that customers faced withdrawal delays lasting weeks or months. The Mizuho Bank branch in Tokyo pressured Mt. Gox to close its account after suspending withdrawals on the 20th of June 2013. By the 5th of September 2013, few US dollar withdrawals had been successfully completed despite an announcement of full resumption on the 4th of July 2013.

On the 7th of February 2014, Mt. Gox halted all bitcoin withdrawals citing technical issues requiring a clear view of currency processes. CEO Mark Karpelès stated the problem stemmed from transaction malleability allowing hackers to alter transaction details. On the 24th of February 2014, the company suspended all trading and hours later took its website offline displaying only a blank page. A leaked internal crisis management document claimed insolvency after losing 744,408 bitcoins undetected for years. On the 28th of February 2014, Mt. Gox filed for civil rehabilitation in Tokyo reporting liabilities of about 6.5 billion yen ($65 million) and assets of 3.84 billion yen. The company admitted losing almost 750,000 customer bitcoins plus around 100,000 own bitcoins totaling roughly 7% of all existing coins worth $473 million near filing time. Bitcoin prices quoted by Mt. Gox dropped below 20% of other exchange values reflecting market skepticism about repayment capabilities.

CEO Mark Karpelès was arrested in August 2015 by Japanese police charged with fraud and embezzlement involving manipulation of computer systems. Prosecutors accused him of misappropriating ¥315M ($2.6M) in bitcoin deposited by investors approximately six months before failure. On the 14th of March 2019, the Tokyo District Court found Karpelès guilty of falsifying data to inflate holdings by $33.5 million. He received a sentence of 30 months imprisonment suspended for four years meaning no jail time unless reoffending occurs. The court acquitted him on charges including embezzlement based on belief he acted without ill intent regarding missing funds. Nevertheless verdicts stated Karpelès inflicted massive harm to user trust abusing his status and authority to perform clever criminal acts. Creditors claimed losses reaching $2.4 trillion by May 2016 while only $91 million in assets had been tracked down for distribution.

On the 16th of April 2014, Mt. Gox abandoned plans to rebuild under bankruptcy protection requesting liquidation approval from a Tokyo court. By the 15th of January 2021, Bloomberg News reported CoinLab Inc reached an agreement with trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi offering up to 90% of remaining Bitcoin tied in proceedings to creditors. At the 20th of October 2021 creditors meeting, the Civil Rehabilitation Plan was accepted by 99% representing 83% of total voting rights. Billions of dollars in Bitcoin were promised as compensation officially approved the 16th of November 2021. As of the 6th of July 2022, a Japanese trustee held close to 142,000 Bitcoins. Payments were initially promised before the 31st of October 2023 but later pushed back one year to the 31st of October 2024 though some distributions may begin earlier for compliant creditors.

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