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Chinese Bitcoin Exchange Vanishes, Taking £2.5m of Coins With It

Posted by timothy on from the later-chumps dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A Chinese Bitcoin exchange has vanished without trace, taking more than $4 million of the virtual currency with it and leaving profit-hungry investors out of pocket. GBL, the Chinese Bitcoin exchange was launched in May 2013 and putatively based in Hong Kong, despite its servers being registered in Beijing. However GBL's Hong Kong offices do not exist. GBL mysteriously disappeared in early November taking an estimated $4.1m (£2.6m) of Bitcoins with it." (Beware the auto-playing ads, with sound.)

9 of 346 comments (clear)

  1. Who can you trust now? by bobbied · · Score: 4, Informative

    Another exchange bites the dust, millions lost!

    BitCoin has some *serious* problems, mostly caused by not being officially sanctioned currency that is regulated... But then, that's it's strong point too. But, being a pirate has it's down days. So, if you sleep with dogs, you wake up with fleas (or in this case, w/o your BitCoin. ..

    Oh the humanity... Yawn.

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
  2. Here, random stranger, hold my wallet for me by petteyg359 · · Score: 5, Informative

    What idiot stores their cash in somebody else's wallet with no guarantee of that somebody's legitimacy and no insurance? Maybe these morons will have finally learned their lesson, and will keep their cash in their own wallets in their own pockets.

  3. Current Market Capitalization by janeuner · · Score: 5, Informative

    For those curious, there are currently 12 million bitcoin in existence, with a net value of about $4.3 billion.

    Source: http://coinmarketcap.com/

  4. Re:Distributed security HEIST? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    You need to use exchanges to trade the bitcoins for real money, and these represent a handful of large points of failure.

  5. Re:Money for nuthin'... by MarkvW · · Score: 4, Informative

    My dollar isn't just backed by lying bureaucrats. It's backed up by people with guns--big guns. And don't you forget it!

  6. Re:Don't worry guys by Bengie · · Score: 3, Informative

    What do people expect when they hand over money to someone, especially when the money isn't regulated and is being held by an unregulated company.

  7. Re:Recurring theme? by Ralph+Wiggam · · Score: 5, Informative

    Banks are insured.

  8. Re:Recurring theme? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    It's not untraceable. Why are detractors so uninformed? After 4 years you have still failed to learn anything about it.

  9. No by justthinkit · · Score: 3, Informative

    Historically, the FDIC pays insured deposits within a few days after a bank closes, usually the next business day.

    --
    I come here for the love