Glossary
Mt. Gox
The 2014 collapse of the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox exchange — at peak handled ~70% of all Bitcoin trades, then lost ~850,000 BTC to theft and accounting failures.
Mt. Gox started as a Magic: The Gathering trading-card exchange ("Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange") and pivoted to Bitcoin in 2010. At its peak in 2013 it handled roughly 70% of global Bitcoin trading volume.
In February 2014 Mt. Gox suspended withdrawals, then filed for bankruptcy after disclosing the loss of ~850,000 BTC (~450 million USD at the time, billions today) to a combination of theft and operational failures. Creditor repayments started in 2024 — a decade later — using BTC that had appreciated more than 100x.