📜 Legend of Mt. Gox: The Tale of the “Card Shop that Sold Dreams”
Once upon a time… in a faraway land called the Internet, there was a small online shop that sold Magic: The Gathering cards. The owner got bored selling dragon cards, and then said: “Ah, better sell future money: Bitcoin!”
This shop changed its name to Mt. Gox, short for Magic: The Gathering Online eXchange, but everyone pretended not to know its origin to look cool.
Eventually, everyone came to Mt. Gox to buy and sell Bitcoin. In fact, in 2013, 7 out of 10 Bitcoins in the world passed through here. It was like a chicken noodle shop; this was Elon Musk's chicken noodle.
💰 One morning in 2014
A customer wanted to withdraw Bitcoin, but the “withdraw” button turned into an “error 404” button. The admin said: “Please be patient, this is just maintenance.”
But it turned out that the maintenance was equivalent to a long vacation to the moon without a return ticket.
Suddenly… news leaked: 850,000 BTC disappeared without a trace.
If compared to fried rice, it would be enough for everyone in the world to eat 3 times a day… for 1 year.
📉 The price of Bitcoin plummeted. Investors panicked. The crypto lovers WhatsApp group turned into a group for sharing heartbreak over lost partners.
Mark Karpelès, the big boss, was called by the police. Some said he was careless, others said he was a genius but unlucky, and some said he was just too busy eating ramen while watching anime.
⏳ Year after year passed…
Some of the lost Bitcoins were found (about 200,000 BTC). The rest? Still a mystery.
Victims started to receive refunds in 2024, but only partially, like an ex who only replies “ok” after 10 years.
