Mt Gox Abruptly Stops Trading Bitcoins...Company at Turning Point According to CEO

Virtual money company closes up shop and disappears in Tokyo Japan. Well you might say, so what. But in this case real money was used to buy that virtual money. So this is a big deal. Bitcoins are coins purchased with real money that can be used to buy goods or services via a "bitcoin bank" account or cell phone or Ipad. An actual bitcoin ATM just opened up here in Sacramento this past week. Anyway, Mt Gox, once the world's largest bitcoin exchange abruptly stopped trading bitcoins on Tuesday. And the CEO said the "company was at a turning point" but gave no further details. At the Mt Gox offices in Tokyo, they were closed and looked like a ghost town. The CEO says, they were having security issues at the offices and had to relocate the offices. There were only a few protesters outside the offices with signs asking where their money was. The Mt Gox bitcoins have lost value and prior to Feb 7 they were trading for just $828.99 when the exchange halted withdrawals. And now they only worth $135.00; that's an 83.7 % plunge! Coins at Bitstamp, another large exchange, at one point hit $400 on Tuesday, down 40 percent since February 7. It had recovered lately to $530, while on Bulgaria-based rival btc-e, it traded at $521. This has turned into some kind of a nightmare for some of the people who have spent all of this real money on this fake ass virtual money. It is really sad for them. They should have stuck with the Japanese Yen! Sigh! Personally, I don't understand why these investors didn't buy diamonds or gold. If you are going to make such a risky investment with your money, buy something that has a real monetary value rather than a fake virtual value. Common sense folks!!! Japanese people are known for hoarding cash in safes in their homes. Most don't like traditional banks. I wonder if the Japan has a Federal Deposit Insurance like we do here in the USA? Bitcoins are not regulated and there is no oversight federal agency monitoring them. So, that's another reason they are a very risky investment. So, not only the Bitcoins lost value, there are many missing from Mt Gox. According the article that I read on Yahoo News, "A document circulating on the Internet purporting to be a crisis plan for Mt. Gox, said more than 744,000 bitcoins were "missing due to malleability-related theft", and noted Mt. Gox had $174 million in liabilities against $32.75 million in assets. It was not possible to verify the document or the exchanges financial situation.

If accurate, that would mean approximately 6 percent of the 12.4 million bitcoins minted would be considered missing." Wow, I sure hope this is not true, but it probably is. Good luck to those who lost money, maybe the value will go back up? Only time will tell.