Mt. Gox users can check out their wallet balance, even if withdrawing Bitcoins is blocked

Mar 18, 2014 07:54 GMT  ·  By

Mt. Gox is back online, but you really shouldn’t get too excited, as the company is still bankrupt. Instead, the company is allowing users to log into their accounts and check their balance.

“This balance confirmation service is provided on this site only for the convenience of all users. Please be aware that confirming the balance on this site does not constitute a filing of rehabilitation claims under the civil rehabilitation procedure and note that the balance amounts shown on this site should also not be considered an acknowledgment by MtGox Co., Ltd. of the amount of any rehabilitation claims of users,” reads the announcement posted by the company on the site.

Basically, nothing changes for users, aside from getting the opportunity to check their accounts. The Bitcoins continue to be stuck in limbo and users may eventually get to receive a percentage of their wallet’s worth back based on the official numbers that the Japan’s authorities reach.

Mt. Gox’s company assets are currently being counted by local authorities, after Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy several weeks ago.

The method for filing claims will be announced at a future date, the company said.

The announcement posted by Mt. Gox
The announcement posted by Mt. Gox
On February 28, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in Japan after several weeks of issues. The company initially announced that it was having some technical difficulties and blocked off Bitcoin withdrawals, saying that it needed the system to be stagnant while the issue was investigated.

A couple of weeks later, the problem was still there. Transactions were eventually frozen and the site went down completely.

Mark Karpeles, Mt. Gox CEO, quit his spot on the Bitcoin Foundation board right before the site stopped working, making everyone panic about the entire situation. To add fuel to the fire, an internal Mt. Gox document emerged, mentioning some 744,000 Bitcoins being lost.

A day later, the site was back and displaying a message on the page, explaining that everything was done to protect the users as the company assessed the situation. Another day went by and Karpeles added a personal note on the page, saying that despite rumors, he was still in Japan, working to fix the situation.

By the end of that week, however, the dreaded announcement was made – Mt. Gox was filing for bankruptcy in Japan, with an entire trove of Bitcoins being lost, both belonging to the company and to the users.

There are still some questions left unanswered that users are eager to find the answer to, the most important being when they’d be getting their Bitcoins back and how many of these would be returned to them.

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Mt. Gox lets users check their balance
The announcement posted by Mt. Gox
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