Investing.com - Bitcoin prices extended last week’s rout on Monday to lose another 20%, after Tokyo-based Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox released a statement saying that all Bitcoin withdrawals remain halted.
In a statement released earlier Mt. Gox said, “The problem we have identified is not limited to MtGox, and affects all transactions where Bitcoins are being sent to a third party. As a result we took the necessary action of suspending Bitcoin withdrawals until this technical issue has been resolved.”
The statement continued that, “MtGox will resume Bitcoin withdrawals to outside wallets once the issue outlined above has been properly addressed in a manner that will best serve our customers.”
Mt. Gox was once the world's largest Bitcoin trading exchange, with volume topping 1 million trades a day at its peak. The exchange was forced to halt all Bitcoin withdrawals late last week due to an "increase in withdrawal traffic."
The Bitcoin exchange crown now falls to Slovenia-based BitStamp, which currently processes nearly twice as much daily volume as Mt. Gox. The second-biggest Bitcoin exchange is BTC-e, which is based in Bulgaria. Mt. Gox is third.
BTC/USD fell to a session low of USD500.00 on the Tokyo-based Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange, before trimming losses to trade at USD596.00 during U.S. morning hours, down 10.8%.
The price of a Bitcoin last traded at USD644.00 on BitStamp, down 16.1%, while prices on BTC-e lost 16.1% to trade at USD648.95.
According to the CoinDesk Bitcoin Price Index, which averages prices from exchanges including Mt. Gox, prices of the crypto-currency dropped 7.45% to hit USD631.20.
Bitcoin is digital cash for the internet and it is not backed by a government or central bank to regulate or issue it. It can be used to purchase goods and services from stores and online retailers.
Prices of the virtual currency soared to an all-time high of USD1,241.10 on November 29. It was trading at USD100 in early October.