The Mt. Gox Collapse: The Hack That Changed Crypto Forever

In 2014, the unthinkable happened.

Mt. Gox, once handling 70% of all Bitcoin trades worldwide, imploded overnight.

850,000 BTC disappeared into the void.

That was worth $450 million then. Today? Over $50 billion.

The fallout was catastrophic.

Trust in exchanges evaporated overnight.

Regulators suddenly paid attention.

The term "not your keys, not your coins" became gospel.

This wasn't just an exchange failure - it was crypto's Lehman Brothers moment.

The industry would never be the same again.

Security became priority #1.

Cold storage went mainstream.

Multi-sig wallets became standard.

The scars remain visible today in every custody solution, every hardware wallet, every paranoid crypto veteran.

Mt. Gox proved Bitcoin was antifragile.

The network survived even when its biggest gateway collapsed.

A painful lesson - but one that made crypto stronger.

#BitcoinHistory #MtGox

(Not financial advice - just remembering the event that shaped modern crypto.)