Mt. Gox Is Gone for Good

Mt. Gox has given up its bid to rebuild itself, and appears headed for liquidation after a Tokyo court rejected its rebuilding plan. The court appointed provisional administrator Nobuaki Kobayashi to take control of the company's assets from CEO Mark Karpeles, Reuters reports. Karpeles is likely to be investigated for liability in the once-mighty bitcoin exchange's collapse, Kobayashi said. One source tells the Wall Street Journal that several companies are still interested in buying the defunct firm, but Japanese bankruptcy experts say that's rare.

The company ditched its rehabilitation efforts in part because it would be hard to get approval from 127,000 creditors spread across the globe, and in part because it lacked a credible plan or sponsors, sources tell the Journal. An order for Karpeles to appear at a US bankruptcy hearing tomorrow apparently sped up the decision. Karpeles won't show, a source says, because he thinks the US would arrest him, either for alleged fraud, or over Mt. Gox's possible connections to Silk Road. He'll also be blowing off a Friday subpoena from a Justice Department anti-money-laundering division. (More Mark Karpeles stories.)