Ever since the Mt. Gox stopped withdrawing user funds a few weeks ago, some users have turned to a solution dubbed Bitcoin Builder, which allowed them to sell their trapped funds in exchange for real bitcoins at heavily discounted rates.
The idea was that those who purchased the so-called “GOXBTC” may have the slight chance of acquiring actual bitcoin funds if Mt. Gox got back on its feet and resumed operations.
Since the Tokyo-based exchange filed for bankruptcy protection last week, it has been looking less and less likely that users would be able to get any value from GOXBTC — especially since the exchange posted an update on their homepage this week noting the funds have, in fact, disappeared.
As such, Bitcoin Builder announced on Tuesday that trading of BTC/GOXBTC will be halted as of 6PM Pacific time in the United States. The announcement came in the form of a tweet, which read:
With mtgox’s bankruptcy, trading will halt at 6pm today. Real BTC withdrawals of course will continue. See https://www.bitcoinbuilder.com/faq.html for more.
Already, Bitcoin Builder has stopped accepting new sign-ups, and come 6PM, all open orders will be canceled. The service says that withdrawals of “real” bitcoin will continue, being processed once-daily.
The announcement was met with confusion over at the Bitcoin community on Reddit.com:
“Seems strange to close it down. Let the free market do its thing. This was a nice speculative tool for gox news,” wrote one user.
“Doesn’t make much sense to me. If news drops that indicates Gox users WILL get at least some of their money back eventually, people might wanna buy discount BTC if they are willing to wait a long time to get it,” another said.
What do you make of it? Is it a smart or silly move?
The Arbitrageur 
Johny Derp 
FreeJack 
Carl Hopkinson 
I would have let it run. It’s the free market for goxbtc discounting any news coming out the fat imbecile (and thief).
Even the free market is supposed to have regulations and bitcoin builder is using their best judgement, which is exactly how the free market works. Free market doesn’t mean everyone does what YOU think. It means they do what THEY think is best, and thus Bitcoin Builder has made the decision they think is best given the situation. Selling fake coins is a dangerous game and that’s effectively all they can do with MtGox reporting the loss of around 850,000 bitcoins. 7% of all BTC ever mined are now ‘lost’. Also keep in mind the massive amount of incompetence it took for this to happen. MTGox is either the biggest bunch of idiots who’ve ever managed a money market, or a massive scam of epic proportions. Either way doing business with those people is foolish and counting on them to return money is ridiculous. They ran an exchange losing BTC since 2011 and didn’t notice! They never audited their exchange! They ignored the need to upgrade their wallet even while suspecting a problem since 2011. How do you expect those ppl to get your money back? I wouldn’t touch anything even remotely related to this exchange at any price.
They must be fairly confident Gox isn’t coming back. So am I.
It doesn’t matter one iota what you or they think the chances of recovery are…
Of course it matters, why would they want to dig the hole any deeper. Gox stated they don’t have but a few thousand BTC. They are holding well under 10% of what they owe people. There is about zero chance that money goes back to it’s owners and even if it did, it could take years to see anything.
It would be foolish if not fraudulent for bitcoin builder to continue it’s business. You may as well just make up a coin and declare it will someday have value and start trading on that because you’d have a better chance than getting your money out of GOXBTC, which is JUST THAT. It’s like printing fake money at this point, there is nothing backing it.
Just because Karpeles states they don’t have the coin, maybe he is lying…ever think of that, genius?? I am prepared to wait years if I can recover 1000 bitcoins I bought for 1 percent realBTC. Get it?? It’s called speculation.
I’ll sell you 1,000 FreeJackBTC for $1 apiece, if you want to speculate on their future value.
Sorry, I don’t debate dimwits and hooligans such as yourself.
I understand the desire not to lose a debate to “dimwits and hooligans,” so no hard feeling for begging off.
your comment equating lost bitcoin which if found would have substantial value and your freejackbtc which have 0
exchange value is patently absurd.
They aren’t “lost bitcoin” – they were stolen and cannot be accounted for. What bitcoin they DO still have control over is a fraction of what was supposed to be there. There is no reason to hold out hope that you’ll somehow be paid out with something, because there’s nothing for them to pay out WITH. So my FreeJackBTC will have every bit as much value…that is to say, none at all.
You are ASSuming a lot. There is evidence out today that Karpeles transferred out 200K BTC to subwallets. “Cannot be accounted for”…how in the hell do you know that??
Are things true just because you say so?
I think it is an OUTRAGEOUS breach of contract as the BitCoinBuilder FAQ indicated just a few days ago how GoxBTC’s would be apportioned under recovery proceedings issuing as a result of MtGox’s bankruptcy.