MTGox lost 750K Bitcoins?

[davidpbrown]

If it's a small team all of whom 'know' that they are making shed loads of profit, then perhaps they didn't do the obvious checks. That takes a staggering amount of incompetence though and does tempt conspiracy theories, because surely people are not that stupid.. so it 'must be' deliberate.

[chinacoinbase]

no 750k bitcoins lost from Mt.gox,  Mt.gox still use cold storage strategy, but only half of its bitcions, so lose bitcoin number is less than 220k bitcoins, please never enlarge the rumor.

[quone17]

That's like how they were blaming transaction malleability.  I mean, after like the 3rd time in a week someone says "hey you never sent me the 100 btc", you might think they'd check into it more carefully.

[BitCoinsLOL]

Sounds like bullshit

 They just mentioned this on CNBC.

[sinica]

Mt gox is dead. 

[chinacoinbase]

http://www.businessinsider.com/reports-mtgox-halts-all-trading-2014-2

at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation

[FrictionlessCoin]

http://www.businessinsider.com/reports-mtgox-halts-all-trading-2014-2

at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation

Bullish for BTC!

[marcotheminer]

Somebody please say it isn't so.

http://two-bit-idiot.tumblr.com/

I heard about 4000BTC

but I must say I do not care about MtGox at all.

Still quite a bit. This means people who had some of that won't get their btc :-/

[Meuh6879]

at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation

not exactly.
"virtual BTC" generated by the incompetent mtgox is gone ... it's the 744k BTC.  

[FrictionlessCoin]

at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation

not exactly.
"virtual BTC" generated by the incompetent mtgox is gone ... it's the 744k BTC.  

Agree.  I don't think any BTC was lost.  This was "virtual BTC" that Mt.Gox sold to their customers.

Mt.Gox owes them real BTC.

I doubt that there will be any company that will takeover Mt.Gox and take this liability.

[brush242]

If you notice, it also says that cold storage got wiped out due to a leak in the hot wallet.  That can't be explained by transaction malleability alone. Something had to be very, very wrong with MtGox's accounting procedures for them not to realise that they had paid out more than they should have over such a long period of time.

But why would that be surprising? Something is often very wrong with very large and sophisticated companies' accounting; however, they are large enough to handle the corrections and writeoffs that often ensue.

Given what I know about Mt. Gox and its founder, no surprise there at all. Especially given the short time it has existed.

[brush242]

I remain skeptical about its authenticity for many reasons, not least of all because it reads like something put together by a complete amateur.

Well, right. That is precisely the issue. A "complete amateur" is a term that applies well to Mt. Gox. They made it this far in spite of themselves.

[brush242]

A rather interesting question is whether the failure of MtGox to maintain proper accounting measures rises to the level of negligence.  I sure as hell wouldn't like to be the person explaining to whoever investigates corporate failures in Japan exactly why their accounting systems were so woefully inadequate.

As far as I know, the Japanese have chosen not to regulate bitcoin (rightfully so), so that may not be an issue at all.

Fraud or theft? That's another story of course. 8^]

[mport1]

http://www.businessinsider.com/reports-mtgox-halts-all-trading-2014-2

at least 744,408 BTC — about 6% of all coins in existence — are now out of circulation

Only if they were lost and not stolen.  If they were stolen, they've likely been being sold over the past months or years and are still in circulation.

[kendog77]

I call bullshit. Even though Mt. Gox was grossly incompetent, it's hard to believe that they didn't have very basic accounting practices in place to catch this sort of issue.

Surely someone did audits and helped them do their taxes every year

[FrictionlessCoin]

I call bullshit. Even though Mt. Gox was grossly incompetent, it's hard to believe that they didn't have very basic accounting practices in place to catch this sort of issue.

Surely someone did audits and helped them do their taxes every year

I think they did have accounting controls.   

The real problem which they are not admitting is that they sold virtual BTC and the price exploded in their faces.

They have not been able to cover the short fall since early 2013.

[brush242]

I call bullshit. Even though Mt. Gox was grossly incompetent, it's hard to believe that they didn't have very basic accounting practices in place to catch this sort of issue.

Surely someone did audits and helped them do their taxes every year

So, I take it that you're of the mind that Bernie Madoff did his own taxes, and that Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling did Enron's taxes? Or that Henry, Emanuel, & Mayer Lehman would be doing their taxes? Arthur Andersen anyone? Ernst and Young? KPMG?

Financial regulation does not prevent financial fraud, or even slow it down. If you are willing to lie, you lie to your clients, you lie to your auditors, and you lie to whoever thinks they are regulating you. Then, you watch how often those that think they are regulating you decline to prosecute.

"Ja, Emanuel, I vas villing to lie und break zese 98 laws, to make zeven billion, but I vill not break 102 laws. ZAT iz unacceptable!!!"

Get real, fools.

[harkonnen]

here is what mark says to you:

@ EvilPanda

of course! cheap coins