Mt.Gox CEO leaves Bitcoin Foundation

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The CEO of Bitcoin-trading exchange Mt.Gox has left the digital currency's top advocacy group, the latest sign of trouble for the embattled exchange.
Mt.Gox chief executive Mark Karpeles resigned from the Bitcoin Foundation's board of directors on Sunday. Former colleagues said he left the organization to focus his attention on Mt. Gox's copious issues.
Mt.Gox has been mired in problems ever since Feb. 7, when it halted withdrawals from its trading accounts. The company's computer programmers hadn't accounted for a quirk in the way Bitcoin works, allowing cyber attackers to dupe Mt.Gox with a scheme resembling receipt fraud. When Mt.Gox discovered it was under attack, it stopped any investors from pulling their money out of their trading platform -- but it has yet to allow them access to their money.
Related: What is Bitcoin?
Many doubt they'll ever get their money back, so the price of a Bitcoin on Mt.Gox has spiraled down to $201. Meanwhile, the price is closer to $571 on other major exchanges that ran into similar issues but quickly recovered.
Mt.Gox did not respond to requests for comment. But members of the Bitcoin Foundation's board say Karpeles left on good terms -- and wasn't pushed out by his colleagues.
"There's no hard feelings. Mt.Gox did the right thing," said board member Elizabeth Ploshay. "They have their hands full. It's better for them to be taking care of the matters they have in front of them."

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Today, people with thousands (or even millions) of dollars or yen in real money tied up in Bitcoins can't touch it—there have been huge delays and blackout periods when customers try to remove their funds. Earlier this month, Mt.Gox stopped all withdrawals completely, and this month has seen the value of a single Bitcoin plunge from around $700 to a low of $75.

Mt.Gox's CEO, Mark Karpeles (above) recently quit the Bitcoin Foundation's board of directors, and hasn't tweeted any explanation for anything since January—he's been busy literally trying to avoid his customers on the streets of Tokyo. The company's official Twitter account just deleted its entire history, a sort of social media paper-shredding that can't bode well for anyone.

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