Mt. Gox

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MtGox, called "Mount Gox" or "MTGOX", is the most widely used bitcoin currency exchange market[1] since it was started, and remains the largest in terms of popularity and volume.

Each person who registers 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 on 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 - 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.

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).

Adding Funds

BTC

There are no fees incurred when transferring bitcoins to a Mt. Gox account. Funds are available once confirmed (6 blocks)[2], a process that can take roughly an hour.

Note: Even though the site displays no ads, some browser ad-blocking utilities will interfere with the exchange's web site, specifically with the Add Bitcoins function.

LRUSD

There are no fees incurred when adding Liberty Reserve LRUSD funds to an account. Funds are available in minutes.

Dwolla

This option is among the fastest and least expensive methods for adding funds to a Mt. Gox account. The transaction fee on Dwolla costs just $0.25. The process is automated and the funds are available for trading within an hour[3].

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.

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 for purchase of a Mt. Gox USD redeemable code (voucher). The code can be 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[4].

U.S.

Adding funds to Dwolla from a bank account will use ACH though. The bank wire funding method has been temporarily discontinued due to difficulties in processing. Another banking relationship is being pursued.

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. and 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. 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

AML

Recently, a number of Mt.Gox's user accounts were suspended. Mt.Gox has posted on their support page that:

"As a result of recently implemented tightened security measures which have identified these accounts as showing suspicious activity. These measures have been brought into place at the insistence of a number of banking and policing entities after an increase in the incidence of fraud, phishing attacks and money laundering being carried out using bitcoins to mask illegal transactions."

Mt.Gox requires users who have had their accounts suspended to submit personal identification such as a passport or driver's licence to get access to their funds. While a number of users have experienced delays in having their account unsuspended, Mt.Gox claims that this is due to an increase in workload reviewing submitted IDs, and that all accounts whose owners submit identification will be unsuspended in due time.[5]

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.

BTC

Bitcoins may be withdrawn at no charge.

There have been sporadic reports where withdrawing the entire bitcoin balance results in an error message. This could the be the result of a possible error where the amount available for withdrawal gets miscalculated due to a rounding error. In at least one instance, a subsequent attempt to withdraw all but the last 1 BTC completed successfully.

LRUSD

There are two fees incurred when withdrawing LRUSD. Mt. Gox themselves subtracts 1% of the transfer amount as a fee before transferring away. Liberty Reserve then subtracts as a transfer fee 1% from the amount they've received.

For example, to withdraw $100 LRUSD, Mt. Gox will send $99 ($100 less a 1% fee)[6] Liberty Reserve will subtract $0.99 ($99 less a 1% fee) leaving a net amount at Liberty Received of $98.01.

AurumXChange USD, EUR and CAD

Funds may be withdrawn by sending a Mt. Gox redeemable code (voucher) to AurumXChange Company and then wired to a USD, EUR or CAD bank account.

Paxum USD

Funds may be withdrawn to a Paxum account.

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. The direct ACH withdrawal method has been temporarily discontinued due to difficulties in processing. Another banking relationship is being pursued.

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 is subtracted and the remaining amount is converted to AUD and sent through Technocash.

Transfers to Other Customers

Mt. Gox funds, either USD or BTC, may be sent to another Mt. Gox customer using a redeemable Mt. Gox code (voucher).

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.

API

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

Criticism

After the addFunds form is displayed, it is not apparent to the user how to determine that address again. An account holder could become confused as to whether or not the correct address was used but after closing that page, there's no way to know at a later time what address "Send Bitcoins" had yielded.

Data Services

Web

Windows

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

Linux

  • goxsh command line ticker / depth chart

History

The exchange went online on July 18, 2010.[7]

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[8]. Tibanne publishes their company certificate from the Japanese government.

On June 19, 2011 the service experienced a significant security breach[9]. 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.[10]

See Also

External Links

References

  1. ↑ 2011-06-07 on #bitcoin-otc: "MagicalTux: you could use the count of users on mtgox (went over 30k recently)"
  2. ↑ How long does it take to Deposit bitcoins to MtGox?
  3. ↑ Dwolla to Mt. Gox vs. Dwolla to TradeHill
  4. ↑ MTGox: Euro deposits
  5. ↑ Security Measures Explained
  6. ↑ One member of Bitcoin-otc reports that this appears to be a 0.99% fee, not a 1.0%.
  7. ↑ MtGox announcement on forum
  8. ↑ Mtgox is changing owners
  9. ↑ Huge Bitcoin sell off due to a compromised account - rollback
  10. ↑ World's Leading Bitcoin Exchange, Mt.Gox, acquires MtGoxLive.com
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