Mt Gox website down amid solvency issues

The website of Mt. Gox appears to have been taken down, after six major Bitcoin exchanges released a joint statement distancing themselves from the troubled Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange.

Mt. Gox homepage failed to load, but there was no error message displayed. Bitcoin exchanges allow trading bitcoins for US dollars and other currencies.

"This tragic violation of the trust of users of Mt.Gox was the result of one company's actions and does not reflect the resilience or value of bitcoin and the digital currency industry," the companies - Coinbase, Kraken, Bitstamp, BTC China, Blockchain and Circle - said in the statement.

"As with any new industry, there are certain bad actors that need to be weeded out, and that is what we are seeing today. Mt. Gox has confirmed its issues in private discussions with other members of the bitcoin community," the companies said.

"There are hundreds of trustworthy and responsible companies involved in bitcoin. These companies will continue to build the future of money by making bitcoin more secure and easy to use for consumers and merchants," the six Bitcoin exchanges said in the joint statement.

Tokyo-based Mt Gox, a founding member was also one of the three elected industry representatives on the board of the Bitcoin Foundation.

Meanwhile CNET reported that the abrupt shutdown was linked to an alleged hacking that continued over years without being detected, according to a purported internal Mt Gox document circulating on the internet.

Labeled "Crisis strategy draft," according to the document, the exchange suffered a loss of 744,000 Bitcoins, worth about $350 million at yesterday's trading, and outlined a scheme for restoring confidence in the exchange.

According to Ryan Galt, a Bitcoin blogger and former venture capitalist, he received the unverified document from "an otherwise reliable source."

Galt, wrote that he would work "feverishly" to determine the validity of the document as also its authenticity. He termed the situation outlined in the document as "catastrophic."

"I do believe that this is one of the existential threats to Bitcoin that many have feared and have personally sold all of my Bitcoin holdings," Galt wrote.