The much awaited update from MtGox is out, with the bitcoin exchange announcing that following weekend maintenance, withdrawals will take place soon, with a further update on “Thursday at the latest”. On Saturday, MtGox announced that it was scheduling a period of maintenance it would implement a solution to solve their transaction malleability problem that was affecting bitcoin withdrawals. They explained also that during the update period, all bitcoin transactions, including deposits and account to account transfers would be halted. In addition, they stated that they would be providing an update about the matter “shortly”.
Alluding to the weekend statement, MtGox announced today that:
Thanks to our friends at Blockchain .info, MtGox now has a workaround that will use a unique identifier created by Blockchain to show whether transactions have been modified or not. This will prevent any fraudulent use of the malleability issue and protect the assets of our customers. Resuming Withdrawals! With this new system in place, MtGox should be able to resume withdrawals soon. At the beginning we will do so at a moderated pace and with new daily/monthly limits in place to prevent any problems with the new system and to take into account current market conditions.
(for the Full Statement)
Previous to today’s update, the weekend announcement from MtGox led to speculation that the exchange would provide its update today. Going into today’s update, prices of bitcoins at MtGox have been very volatile as they react to rumors about the firm as well as being affected by a decline in Liquidity in its order book. As such, following false rumors that were posted on Reddit and Twitter yesterday, prices spiked up nearly $200 higher to $534 before crumbling down to a low of $220 this morning. Simultaneously, other exchanges, such as BTC-e and Bitstamp have been showing resiliency, as although declines have taken place, they have been met with buying demand, taking prices back above $600 today.
Following the current news from MtGox, prices are moving higher, trading at $375 after trading around $320 at the time of their update. Currently, spreads between MtGox prices and that of BTC-e continue are around $250, after hitting an all-time high of $350 when bitcoin fell to $220 at MtGox (for live prices). The deviation in prices represents that MtGox account holders remain skeptical about the future of the exchange or expecting prices to drop even further, providing more advantageous buying opportunity.
