Mark Karpeles, founder of troubled bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, resurfaced Wednesday morning with a new statement claiming he was still in Japan.
Dear MtGox Customers,
As there is a lot of speculation regarding MtGox and its future, I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues.
Furthermore I would like to kindly ask that people refrain from asking questions to our staff: they have been instructed not to give any response or information. Please visit this page for further announcements and updates.
Sincerely,
Mark Karpeles
See also: Everything You Need to Know About Bitcoin in 2 Minutes
The statement is unlikely to soothe the worries of investors who are trying to recoup their cash from Mt. Gox and have resorted to picketing outside the company's Tokyo headquarters.
Karpeles was unreachable on Tuesday, the day the company briefly pulled the plug on its website and a "Crisis Strategy Draft" from Mt. Gox surfaced online stating that because of a "transaction malleability" glitch, some 744,408 bitcoins — the equivalent of about $350 million — had gone missing. As Mt. Gox had previously explained, "a bug in the bitcoin software makes it possible for someone to use the bitcoin network to alter transaction details to make it seem like a sending of bitcoins to a bitcoin wallet did not occur when in fact it did occur." It's not clear whether outsiders took advantage of the flaw or if Mt. Gox was complicit in the theft.
The draft included a plan to relaunch Mt. Gox as "Gox," possibly under new ownership.
Karpeles also told Fox Business that he plans to stay the course with Mt. Gox. “Giving up is not a part of how I usually do things," he said. Karpeles also addressed the leaked draft:
“As the name suggests it’s a draft, and it’s a bunch of proposals to deal with the issue at hand, not things that are actually planned and/or done,” he said.