Mt. Gox is an amazing cautionary tale for bitcoiners. In short, 10 years ago it was much harder to self-custody, we didn’t have seed words yet to make it user friendly, tools and guides were sparse and people found it easier to leave their hundreds (yes, hundreds) of bitcoin to the biggest exchange.
That was Mt. Gox.
It was a Magic the Gathering trading card site that happened to stumble into being the biggest bitcoin exchange in the world.
The person who founded Mt. Gox ran it as best as he could but he ran into regulatory problems. He sold it, and the next person simply rug-pulled everybody one day.
Since then, the owners of those bitcoins have been waiting for some of them to be given back.
It’s worth mentioning that Mt. Gox liquidation has recently started to pay back some of the owners, but at a mere fraction of what they once had and if you do the math on the actual fiat exchange rate if only they had held onto the keys…
You’ll cry.
Seriously. Being Mt.Goxxed became synonymous with getting rug-pulled, and this event bred a huge generation of single-minded self-custody bitcoiners screaming about custodial risks.
Here’s Isabella from the Bitcoin Magazine explaining this event.
Watch this and let it serve as a warning not to trust any custodial. That doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t use any custodial solutions. Lightning becomes a breeze for example with custodial solutions, and other services like Bitrefill’s debit card are useful in using bitcoin in the real world.
Just be aware of what you’re doing and keep your main stack in self-custody, preferably in cold storage. Read our wallet guide to help you choose a wallet for this important task. https://loveisbitcoin.com/wallets
And remember, don’t get Mt. Goxxed. Not your keys, not your coins.
