In 2014, Mt. Gox — once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange — collapsed overnight. Traders logged in, only to discover their balances had vanished. The reason? A staggering 850,000 BTC had mysteriously disappeared. At the time, that loss was worth $BTC
450 million — but at today’s price of $1INCH
14,000 per coin, it totals a mind-blowing $1000XEC
0 billion.
The downfall wasn’t triggered by a single explosive hack. Instead, it was a slow, silent drain — Bitcoin quietly siphoned from Mt. Gox wallets over the years, while users kept trading, unaware of the disaster unfolding behind the scenes. By the time anyone noticed, it was too late. The exchange imploded in chaos.
Investigators eventually traced the stolen BTC to wallets linked to Alexander Vinnik, a Russian national and operator of the infamous BTC-e exchange. Authorities claim BTC-e was the crypto laundromat that cleaned billions in stolen funds, including the Mt. Gox fortune.
Vinnik’s 2017 arrest sparked an international legal battle, with the U.S., France, and Russia all vying to prosecute him. Meanwhile, Mt. Gox creditors are only now beginning to receive partial repayments — more than a decade after the collapse.
The shadow of Mt. Gox still looms large over the crypto industry.
