The Crypto Secret of Mt. Gox: What Happened to the Missing Bitcoins?

In 2014, the world of cryptocurrency was rocked by a massive hack that resulted in the loss of 850,000 bitcoins, worth about $450 million at the time, from Mt. Gox, the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world. The hack exposed the vulnerability of the nascent industry and triggered a global investigation into the fate of the missing bitcoins. Six years later, the mystery remains unsolved. What happened to the missing bitcoins? Who was behind the hack? And what does it mean for the future of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies?

The Rise and Fall of Mt. Gox

Mt. Gox was founded in 2010 by Jed McCaleb, an American programmer who wanted to create a platform for trading cards from a game called Magic: The Gathering Online. He soon realized that his platform could be used for trading bitcoins, a new digital currency that was gaining popularity among enthusiasts. He sold the site to Mark Karpeles, a French developer living in Japan, who turned it into the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world, handling over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions by 2013.