The Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox that stopped withdrawals earlier this month has gone offline as peers in the industry have distanced themselves from the company that is based in Tokyo in an attempt to defend the online currency.
Efforts to make contact with the website on Tuesday directed users to just a while page that was completely blank. This just 24 hours after Mark Karpeles, the CEO of Mt. Gox resigned from the digital money’s key advocacy group Bitcoin Foundation.
The foundation sent a statement through email that said it could not comment on the business operations of Mt. Gox or its accounting procedures, but the foundation assured the public that the protocol for Bitcoin was functioning correctly.
On that announcement, prices on the exchanged that had been quoted plunged due to speculation that Bitcoin account holders would not be able to receive their coins back.
On Tuesday morning Bitcoin plummeted by 15% to $464.67 in London, according to CoinDesk Bitcoin, which averages the prices from different exchanges. That price was down from a December 4 high of $1,150.
Bitcoin wallet operator Coinbase Inc criticized on Tuesday Mt. Gox and sought to give reassurance to its users that the virtual currency funds were safe.
The statement Coinbase released said the loss of the trust by Mt. Gox of its users was just from one company’s actions, but does not reflect upon the value or resilience of Bitcoin and the digital currency.
The Mt. Gox troubles are just the latest setback for the digital currency after authorities in China, Israel and Russia looked to restrict the digital currency, while authorities in the U.S. seek ways to stop money laundering and illegal sales without killing the currency.
In 2008, Bitcoin was first introduced by programmers and has since then gained in traction with some merchants across the globe.
There does not exist any central authority to issue the currency and it uses just a public ledger to verify it transactions while preserving anonymity for users.
