Mt. Gox

MtGox, called "Mount Gox" or "MTGOX", has been the most widely used bitcoin currency exchange market since it was started, and remains the largest in terms of popularity and volume.

A registrant on MtGox has at least two sub-accounts: one for bitcoins (BTC), and one for US dollars (USD or MTGUSD) or other national currency. Bitcoins are bought using funds from the trader's national currency account, and the proceeds from the sale of bitcoins are deposited into the same account. Trading must always involve bitcoins as trading between different national currencies is not offered.

Trades on Mt. Gox's execute from balances on deposit with the exchange which in turn makes trading on the market instantaneous, compared to some other Bitcoin markets where a subsequent settlement occurs manually between the trading partners. The disadvantage of this is that a third party must be trusted with keeping the money safe.

MtGox was originally started by Jed McCaleb in July 2010, and was sold to Tibanne Co. in Japan in March 2011. It is currently operated by Tibanne Co., managed by Mark Karpeles (MagicalTux).

Trading

Buying and selling

Buying and selling Bitcoins is simple. A buy order is executed partially or in full when the price bid can be matched against a sell order that is at or below the bid amount. A sell order is executed partially or in full when the price asked can be matched against a buy order that is at or above the ask amount. Orders that cannot be matched immediately remain in the orderbook.

Unfunded orders do not appear in the order book, but are automatically readded if a deposit is credited. For example, Mt. Gox allows the entry of a "buy" order even if the account has insufficient funds. If possible, Mt. Gox will execute a portion of the order if it can be partially funded. If a deposit is later credited and the deposit resolves the insufficient funds status of an outstanding order, the order will be immediately activated, and if possible, executed.

Fees

Mt. Gox charges a trading fee of up to 0.6% from each party of successful trades made through the market. The fee appears in the account history next to each trade. The trading fee is discounted for larger customers based on volume, which is calculated as a sliding window over the last 720 hours (30 days).

The fees are, by default, subtracted from the proceeds of each trade (e.g., a buy of 1.0 BTC will add to the account balance 0.994 BTC when the exchange fee is 0.6%). An account setting will allow fees to be added to the purchase amount instead (e.g., buying 1.0 BTC at $5 will cost about $5.03 when the exchange fee is 0.6%).

Adding Funds

BTC

There are no fees incurred when transferring bitcoins to a Mt. Gox account.

Funds are available once confirmed (6 blocks), a process that can take roughly an hour.

The deposit address is presented along with a QR code that can be scanned with a mobile. This address does not change with each deposit request.

The Add Bitcoins function experiences issues with some browser ad-blocking utilities even though no advertisements are displayed on the website.

Redeemable Code

Bitcoins from another Mt. Gox user sent by Mt. Gox redeemable code (A.K.A. "coupon") may be deposited and will be available for trading immediately.

Dwolla

Dwolla is among the fastest and least expensive methods for adding funds from the United States of America to a Mt. Gox account. The transaction fee on Dwolla is merely $0.25. The process is automated and the funds become available for trading within an hour.

OKPay

OKPay may be used for depositing funds to USD, EUR, GBP, CHF, and RUB.

Cash Deposit

U.S. (USD)

• BitInstant - Cash (U.S. dollars) may be deposited at any of thousands of banks, 7-11, Walmart, CVS, Moneygram and more that BitInstant uses to transfer funds to your Mt. Gox account.

Brazil (BRL)

• BitInstant - Cash (Brazilian real) may be deposited using Boleto or through Banco Recomendito.

Brazil (BRL)

• BitInstant - Cash (Russian rubles) may be deposited using QIWI or Cyberplat

UK (GBP)

• Barclays - Cash (British pound sterling) may be deposited at any Barclays location. There is a 1.5% fee on deposits made with this method.

Bank Wire

International USD

Funds in USD may be wired to the exchange's bank in Japan. Each wire is subject to a per-wire fee plus any intermediate fees.

International Wire

An account can be configured with a wallet for each of the currencies that the exchange supports. When a wire is received in one of these currencies, that account will be credited.

• USD - U.S. Dollar
• EUR - Euro (SEPA or Int'l wire)
• CAD - Canadian Dollar
• GBP - British Pound (Domestic or Int'l wire)
• CHF - Swiss Francs
• RUB - Russian Rubles
• AUD - Australian Dollars
• SEK - Swedish Krona
• DKK - Danish Krona
• HKD - Hong Kong Dollars
• PLN - Polish Zloty (Domestic or Int'l wire)
• CNY - Chinese Yuan
• SGD - Singapore Dollars
• TBH - Thai Baht
• NZD - New Zealand Dollars
• JPY - Japanese Yen (Domestic or Int'l wire)

AurumXChange USD, EUR and CAD

Funds may be wired to AurumXChange Company as USD, EUR or CAD (the latter two of which would then be exchanged into USD) for purchase of a Mt. Gox USD redeemable code (voucher). Other digital currencies such as Liberty Reserve can be converted for transfer to Mt. Gox as well. The redeemable code provided is then used to load USD funds into an account with Mt. Gox.

Direct Deposit

EU

Funds in EUR may be added using SEPA Direct Debit for free, with funds convert to USD at the current ECB rate at the time the funds are received.

U.S.

Mt. Gox doesn't directly support an ACH-based (direct deposit) deposit method. Dwolla supports ACH-based fund transfers and those funds can then be deposited with Mt. Gox.

UK

Funds may be sent as a GBP direct deposit free of charge.

Australia

Funds may be sent using direct deposit (BPay) for a AU$2.00 per-deposit fee. The funds will be converted to USD at the current rate.

Withdrawing Funds

MtGox imposes a $1,000 USD limit for withdrawals per 24 hours and a $10,000 USD limit for withdrawals per month with most non-verified accounts. Bitcoins withdrawn are counted toward this limit as well and the USD value is calculated at the market rate at the time of the attempted withdrawal. Customers that have been Verified have higher limits and customers that have Trusted status have limits even higher. Any account-to-account transfers made also count toward this limit as well.

Requests for higher withdrawal limits may be submitted by email

• For higher limits for withdrawal of USD funds, email: aml@mtgox.com
• For higher limits for withdrawal of BTC funds, email: btcupd@mtgox.com

See the AML section regarding verification levels for AML purposes.

Dwolla

Dwolla is among the fastest and least expensive methods for withdrawing USD funds from a Mt. Gox account. The transaction fee to do so is just $0.25. Dwolla withdrawals are processed every hour during business hours (Japan time) and every 12 hours on weekends.

As of 25 May 2012, MtGox requires account holders to be "verified (level 1) - 'see below'" to withdraw via Dwolla.

The status of the withdrawal request will show one of the following status codes:

• Preparing: System is running checks to see if the transfer can be executed.
• Confirmed: Transfer can be executed and is pending in queue.
• Todo: Transfer is near the top of the queue and will be executed soon.
• Processed: Transfer has been processed.

BTC

Bitcoins may be withdrawn at no charge.

A green address option is available though this type of transaction could experience a delay if the exchange's wallet funding level for green address transactions is insufficient. The withdrawal form also offers an "open transaction" option which forces the transaction to go through the blockchain. If the recipient of a BTC withdrawal happens to also be from Mt. Gox's EWallet, then that transfer would occur instantly and the transaction would not be broadcast to the Bitcoin network. This "open transaction" option forces a withdrawal to be broadcast to the Bitcoin network.

Redeemable Code

Mt. Gox no longer allows bitcoins or other currency to be withdrawn using a redeemable code.

Direct Deposit

U.S.

There is currently no option for withdrawing funds through a direct deposit bank transaction. Funds withdrawn to Dwolla may then, in turn, be withdrawn with bank funds deposited as an ACH transaction.

EU

You may withdraw any amount as a direct deposit to your bank. There is a 2% fee on these withdrawals. Contact the exchange by e-mail for this service.

Australia

A per-withdrawal fee (2,000 JPY) is subtracted and the remaining amount is sent via international wire in the chosen currency. If not AUD then an exchange fee of 2.5% will be charged.

International Wire

To any IBAN, SWIFT/BIC and ABA routable bank. Fee applies.

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Customer Service

The preferred method for obtaining service is to place a request through the exchange's help desk. Another method is to send e-mail with the request.

Wallet/Banking

An account at this exchange can be considered to be an eWallet. This service also offers eCommerce merchant payment services.

Security Center

The Security Center allows an account to be secured through the use of one or more One Time Password (OTP) solutions such as what YubiKey and Google Authenticator offer. Features can be protected where the OTP must be provided for each action and are configured independently.

For example, a typical configuration is to set OTP as being required for both withdrawals and security center changes but not for login. With that configuration, the worst damage that can happen from a compromised account or session would be that bitcoins would be bought or sold (though they could also be bought and sold over and over until funds are depleted).

• Login - The OTP must be provided for each login.
• Withdraw - The OTP must be provided for each withdrawal request.
• Security - The OTP must be provided during each configuration change to be performed.

AML

Varying degrees of verification will allow for greater per-day and per-month total amounts to be withdrawn.

Unverified (Level 0)

Designed for basic users, consumers and Bitcoin enthusiasts where 10,000 USD (monthly) is enough for most needs.

Verified (Level 1)

The "verified" status is designed for active traders and/or small companies.

Trusted (Level 2)

The “trusted” status is designed for day traders, professionals, and companies.

API

Mt Gox offers an API which can be used to automate operations.

Data Services

Web

• Bitstock live watcher for trades, depth, history bitstock.info (Websockets browser required)
• Bitcoin Charts
• Clark Moody's Real Time Bitcoin Market Data including Ticker, Order Book and Time Sales (Websockets browser support required)
• MtGox Live (Websockets browser support required)
• Bitcoin Arbitrage Opportunities (Websockets browser support required)
• Bitcoin Prices market rates in multiple currencies

Windows

• Sierra Chart MtGox Bridge trading and charting tool.
• ToyTrader command line trading tool

Mac OS X

• BitTicker for Mac OS X
• MtGox Watcher for Mac OS X

Mobile

• BitcoinX mobile app with bid, ask and 24 hour history. For Android
• MtGox Live Bitcoin Trader with buy, sell, send, chart and depth for Android and iOS
• Bitcoinium for Android on Google Play

firefox addon

• [1] firefox ticker addon

Linux

• goxsh command line ticker / depth chart
• tulpenmanie graphical trading platform

E-Commerce

Online sellers can accept bitcoins for payment using the Mt. Gox's E-commerce Solution, which is an interface to the exchange's Merchant System API.

History

The exchange went online on July 18, 2010.

On October 10, 2010 the exchange switched from PayPal to Liberty Reserve as the main funding option as a result of this attack. Former PayPal customers still had the possibility to withdraw their USD using alternative methods.

On March 6th, 2011 ownership of the exchange changed hands. Tibanne publishes their company certificate from the Japanese government.

On June 19, 2011 the service experienced a significant security breach. The incident caused a selloff down to BTC/USD of $0.01 due to fraudulent trading. The site was disabled and all trading following the point that fraudulent trading began was rolled back. Complicating this breach was the release of a list of the exchange's accounts including username, email address and a password hash, which forced the exchange to implement an account recovery method for customers to regain control of their accounts.

In July, 2011 it was observed that the exchange no longer allows new registrations to occur without having a valid e-mail address.

On July 19, 2011 a press release announced that MtGox had acquired MtGox Live.

Announced on March 6, 2012 was the Merchant Solution and API

See Also

• Buying bitcoins
• Selling bitcoins
• API
• Bitcoin Ladder

External Links

• MT. Gox exchange website
• Mt. Gox Merchant Services
• Customer Service Help Desk