Bitcoin exchange shuts up shop

published 27 February 2014

The oldest and best-known bitcoin exchange closed down in mysterious circumstances this week. Tokyo-based Mt Gox shut down its website while a document circulating online appeared to suggest that 744,000 bitcoins around $400m had been lost to hackers.

Earlier this month the exchange had suspended withdrawals, citing a bug making it difficult to track transactions. The price of bitcoin dropped by almost 10% on other exchanges. The volatile virtual currency is down by almost 55% from November's all-time high.

What the commentators said

Bitcoin isn't backed by a central authority, so it depends entirely on people's confidence in it, as the FT pointed out. And while this is "the biggest crisis" in its five-year history, overall confidence appears to be holding up. Bitcoin users are pointing out that there have been episodes of theft before, albeit not on this scale, and saying that Mt Gox was always an inferior exchange.

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"It always had the spit-and-sawdust feel of a site a couple of people knocked together on a weekend coding binge," said Willard Foxton on Telegraph.co.uk. If bitcoin is to survive and prosper, "the collapse of early, shonky pioneers is a good thing". Exchanges are already starting to become more professional as far as tech expertise and accounting know-how are concerned.

Commentators have pointed out that those who may have been robbed are on their own, as with bitcoin there is no regulatory framework. Yet far from dooming the currency, this can help it thrive, said Peter Spence in City AM. "A vast financial institution has been able to fail, and to do so relatively safely."

The price decline is manageable. And as long as people need an "untraceable, untaxable currency" offering fast transfers and low transaction costs, alternative currencies such as bitcoin will be in demand.

Andrew is the editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He grew up in Vienna and studied at the University of St Andrews, where he gained a first-class MA in geography & international relations.

After graduating he began to contribute to the foreign page of The Week and soon afterwards joined MoneyWeek at its inception in October 2000. He helped Merryn Somerset Webb establish it as Britain’s best-selling financial magazine, contributing to every section of the publication and specialising in macroeconomics and stockmarkets, before going part-time.

His freelance projects have included a 2009 relaunch of The Pharma Letter, where he covered corporate news and political developments in the German pharmaceuticals market for two years, and a multiyear stint as deputy editor of the Barclays account at Redwood, a marketing agency.

Andrew has been editing MoneyWeek since 2018, and continues to specialise in investment and news in German-speaking countries owing to his fluent command of the language.