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Feb 2014 The Mt. Gox collapse
In February 2014, Mt. Gox, then the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, stopped withdrawals and later filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan.
- Date
- Feb 2014
- Reported missing
- ≈ 850,000 BTC
- Found later
- ≈ 200,000 BTC
What happened
Mt. Gox reported that roughly 850,000 BTC belonging to customers and the company were missing, in what it described as the result of theft. About 200,000 BTC were later found, and creditors waited years for repayment.
The failure shook trust in the young market and pushed Bitcoin into a long downtrend. It also gave the community a lasting rule of thumb: not your keys, not your coins.
Why it mattered
Mt. Gox is the origin story of self-custody culture. Read the year in full on Bitcoin in 2014.
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