Japanese Bitcoin Exchange MtGox has released a statement regarding the Bitcoin withdrawal issues users are experiencing over the past few days.
On Thursday February 6th, users of the world’s first BTC exchange began complaining about Bitcoin withdrawals from MtGox wallets to external third party wallets. Today, 4 days after users have begun reporting issues, MtGox has released a statement addressing the matter.
MtGox claims issues regarding suspicious activity on its internal Bitcoin wallets is the reason for the withdrawal freeze. The unusual activity “confirmed the presence of transactions which need to be examined more closely”.
“A bug in the Bitcoin software makes it possible for someone to use the Bitcoin network to alter transaction details to make it seem like a sending of bitcoins to a Bitcoin wallet did not occur when in fact it did occur. Since the transaction appears as if it has not proceeded correctly, the bitcoins may be resent. MtGox is working with the Bitcoin core development team and others to mitigate this issue,” stated the release as the non-technical explanation for the freeze.
Many state this reason as improbable due to how the Bitcoin network is designed. Since the statement was released the exchange for 1 BTC has plummeted from $675 to around $510.
MtGox does plan to have withdrawals reinstated as soon as the matter is addressed accordingly.
“MtGox will resume Bitcoin withdrawals to outside wallets once the issue outlined above has been properly addressed in a manner that will best serve our customers.”
The official statement from MtGox can be viewed here. We will be reporting more on this matter as more information is made available.
