After filing for bankruptcy protection last Friday, Mt. Gox issued another statement on Monday.
Much of that statement repeats information that was leaked last week: That 750,000 Bitcoins that belonged to customers have been lost, and that another 100,000 Bitcoins held by the company were also lost.
The statement also reiterates that a transaction malleability problem may have allowed hackers access to Mt. Gox reserves, from which the funds were lost.
This seems to resonate with The Daily Beast’s story last week that Mt. Gox was trying to act with the best of intentions but quickly got in over its head. There were allegations from an anonymous employee that simple incompetence, bad accounting practices and lazy coding opened up the holes through which those Bitcoins poured out.
The statement
From the statement on Mt. Gox’s website:
“Mt.Gox Co., Ltd is under several orders issued by the Court: a preservative order prohibiting it from paying its debts, transferring its assets or establishing security over its assets, an order establishing a comprehensive prohibition of forced attachment of its assets by its creditors and a supervisory order ordering supervision by a supervisory committee. In consequence, Mt.Gox hereby informs you as follows.
We first express our most sincere regrets and apologies for this situation and for causing so much inconvenience to all our users and other interested parties. We will fully respect the above orders and maintain our assets with all the necessary care.”
Karpeles’ own statement
On Friday, Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles briefly spoke to the press. He mostly repeated the company’s statements that the money appears to be lost and that he regrets the error.
“So, we had a problem with our system that caused [losses] to our customers,” he said. “We identified the problem [and] we are working on this.”