Mt. Gox, a bitcoin exchange, said in February 2014 that about 850,000 bitcoins had disappeared. None of the outcomes this Stickler Files episode follows, from a Tokyo conviction to a US guilty plea and charges announced in 2023, is a conviction for taking them.
Its boss, Mark Karpelès, was convicted of falsifying records. Alexander Vinnik pleaded guilty in the US to a laundering conspiracy over another exchange, BTC-e, and was released in a prisoner exchange in 2025.
Key highlights
- The exchange closed its site on 25 February 2014 and applied for civil rehabilitation in Tokyo three days later, blaming probable illegal access through “a bug in the bitcoin system”.
- In March 2014 it found about 200,000 bitcoins in an old wallet, cutting the missing total to about 650,000, a figure still under investigation.
- In 2023 US prosecutors announced charges against two Russian nationals of conspiring to launder about 647,000 bitcoins from what they call the 2011 hack of Mt. Gox.
- In March 2019 a Tokyo court acquitted Karpelès of embezzlement and gave him two and a half years, suspended for four, for falsifying records; a higher court upheld the verdict in 2020.
- Repayments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash began in July 2024; in October 2026 the trustee moved the deadline a fourth time, to 31 October 2027.
Video: Stickler Files · Mt. Gox Lost 850,000 Bitcoin. Who Actually Went to Prison? · 2026-11-08. More from Stickler Files.
Who was convicted in the Mt. Gox story, and of what
Karpelès was convicted in Tokyo of falsifying records, by tampering with electronic data, and acquitted of embezzlement. Vinnik, whose 2017 US indictment alleged he laundered funds from the Mt. Gox hack, was convicted in Paris in 2020 of laundering the proceeds of the Locky malware, and in 2024 pleaded guilty in the US to conspiracy to commit money laundering for his role in operating BTC-e. The Justice Department’s announcement of that plea doesn’t mention Mt. Gox. The 2023 charges against Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner are allegations, and both men are presumed innocent.
Questions answered
What happened in the Mt. Gox hack?
There are two accounts. In February 2014 the company blamed probable illegal access through what it called a bug in the bitcoin system. In 2023 US prosecutors alleged that from about September 2011 two Russian nationals and others got into the server in Japan holding Mt. Gox’s wallets, causing the theft of at least about 647,000 bitcoins through at least May 2014. The first is the company’s statement; the second is an allegation.
Have Mt. Gox creditors been paid back?
Many have, many have not. The trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, began repayments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash in July 2024, and by March 2025 had repaid more than 19,500 creditors that way. On 16 October 2026 he said the base, early lump-sum and intermediate repayments were largely complete, apart from certain types, for creditors who had completed the procedures without issues. Many who had not completed them, and a considerable number who hit issues, were still unpaid, and with the court’s permission he moved the deadline to 31 October 2027.
Archive and sources
For a break-in at another bitcoin exchange, see our report Hackers Break Into Bitcoin Exchange Site Bitcoinica. The primary sources here are Mt. Gox’s own announcement of 28 February 2014, the Justice Department’s releases on the 2023 charges and on Vinnik’s 2024 plea, and the trustee’s notice of 16 October 2026 moving the repayment deadline.
Watch the full story on YouTube: Mt. Gox Lost 850,000 Bitcoin. Who Actually Went to Prison?
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