Feb 28, 2014

Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox announced Friday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection, admitting that it had lost 850,000 bitcoins. The company said it lost 750,000 bitcoins belonging to customers, and an additional 100,000 of its own bitcoins. Those bitcoins today would be worth more than $450 million. Mt. Gox also said it has debts of about $63.6 million. -Reuters

: Protester Aaron holds a placard during a demonstration against Mt. Gox, in front of the building where the digital marketplace operator is housed, in Tokyo. The website appears to be taken down, shortly after six major Bitcoin exchanges released a joint statement distancing themselves from the troubled Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange. (REUTERS/Toru Hanai)

: Kolin Burges, a self-styled cryptocurrency trader and former software engineer who came from London, holds a placard to protest against Mt. Gox, in front of the building where the digital marketplace operator is housed in Tokyo. The website of Mt. Gox appears to be taken down, shortly after six major Bitcoin exchanges released a joint statement distancing themselves from the troubled Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange. (REUTERS/Toru Hanai)

: Mock Bitcoins are displayed on a table in an illustration picture taken in Berlin on January 7, 2014. (REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski)

: The Liberty Teller bitcoin purchasing terminal is seen at South Station in Boston on February 25, 2014. (REUTERS/Dominick Reuter)

: Dave Mitchell (left) purchases bitcoin at the Liberty Teller kiosk as Liberty Teller co-founder Chris Yim looks on at South Station in Boston on February 25, 2014. (REUTERS/Dominick Reuter)

: A customer inserts U.S. currency into the Liberty Teller bitcoin purchasing terminal at South Station in Boston on February 25, 2014. (REUTERS/Dominick Reuter)

: A mock Bitcoin is displayed on a table in an illustration picture taken in Berlin on January 7, 2014. (REUTERS/Pawel Kopczynski)

: People sit inside the Bitcoin Embassy in Tel Aviv on February 2, 2014. The sparely furnished property opened a few months ago to support a community of Bitcoin fanatics, perhaps the most active in the world, who are out to build just that – a next-generation trading system based on the digital currency. (REUTERS/Baz Ratner)

: An employee of a bitcoin exchange company displays bitcoin vouchers, which are worth around $1.15, in Hong Kong on February 11, 2014. About 50,000 such vouchers were distributed as “lai see” or red packets during the Lunar New Year in the territory to promote the use of bitcoin. (REUTERS/Bobby Yip)

: Bitcoin Foundation Vice Chairman Charlie Shrem (left) leaves the Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York on January 27, 2014. Shrem has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiring to commit money laundering by helping to funnel cash to illicit online drugs bazaar Silk Road. Shrem, who was also charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and was released on a $1 million bond. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

: Bitcoin Foundation Vice Chairman Charlie Shrem exits the Manhattan Federal Courthouse in New York on January 27, 2014. Shrem has been charged by U.S. prosecutors with conspiring to commit money laundering by helping to funnel cash to illicit online drugs bazaar Silk Road. Shrem, who was also charged with operating an unlicensed money transmitting business, appeared in U.S. District Court in Manhattan and was released on a $1 million bond. (REUTERS/Lucas Jackson)

: A chain of block erupters used for Bitcoin mining is pictured at the Plug and Play Tech Center in Sunnyvale, Calif., on October 28, 2013. (REUTERS/Stephen Lam)

: A customer uses the world’s first ever permanent bitcoin ATM, unveiled at a coffee shop in Vancouver, British Columbia on October 29, 2013. (REUTERS/Andy Clark)

: One of Bitcoin enthusiast Mike Caldwell’s coins in this photo illustration at his office in Sandy, Utah, (REUTERS/Jim Urquhart)

: Some of Bitcoin enthusiast Mike Caldwell’s coins in this photo illustration at his office in Sandy, Utah, (REUTERS/Jim Urquhart)

: Bitcoins created by enthusiast Mike Caldwell are seen in a photo illustration at his office in Sandy, Utah. (REUTERS/Jim Urquhart)

: Bitcoin enthusiast Mike Caldwell poses at his office in Sandy, Utah, on September 17, 2013. Caldwell produces physical coins Bitcoins, which have been around since 2008, and have become a form of electronic money that can be exchanged without using traditional banking or money transfer systems. (REUTERS/Jim Urquhart)

: Tembusu Terminals’ partners Peter Peh Sik Wee (second from right) and Jarrod Luo (right) speak to the media before launching the first Bitcoin vending machine at a pub in Singapore on February 27, 2014. According to Tembusu Terminals, this is the first Bitcoin vending machine in Asia. (REUTERS/Edgar Su)

: Kolin Burges (right), a self-styled cryptocurrency trader and former software engineer from London, holds a placard to protest against Mt. Gox, as photographers take photos of him in front of the building where the digital marketplace operator was formerly housed in Tokyo. (REUTERS/Toru Hanai)