Mark Karpelès was the boss of the trading platform MtGox bitcoins, which went bankrupt last year. He is suspected to have artificially created the currency. 60% of trade bitcoins were going through this Exchange. His fall has strongly damaged the image.
The king of bitcoin soon behind bars? Mark Karpelès, founder of the company MtGox, the main bitcoin Exchange market until its bankruptcy in February, was arrested Saturday in Japan, said the Japanese police. It said the accused of falsifying computer data in 2013, in order to create artificially nearly a million virtual currency.
Earlier, Japanese media quoted by AFP claimed that the French was also accused of having played a role in the disappearance in 2014 of 850,000 bitcoins, worth 355 million euros. Mark Karpelès has always said that his company had been the victim of a computer attack that resulted in the theft of these bitcoins and bankruptcy of his company, based in Japan. But according to the television channel NHK, police suspect the contrary to know the circumstances of the disappearance of the money that would have been transferred to an account controlled by him. The Yomiuri Shimbun even mentions several transfer bitcoins owned MtGox of customers on behalf of Mark Karpelès. Saturday, he has denied the accusations outright.
The bankruptcy MtGox had dealt a severe blow to the credibility of Bitcoin. At the height of its activity, MtGox ensured nearly 80% of transactions of this virtual currency, created in 2009 by one or more anti-statist computer (s) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto in Japanese sounding. The value of bitcoin is indeed not to be issued by any central bank and not dependent on any state, but only the changes in supply and demand. The flight bitcoins made public by MtGox, followed in January by the attack of another exchange platform, Bitstamp for a péjudice 5 million, has helped undermine investor confidence. The score now bitcoin 282 dollars for a bitcoin, against nearly 1000 before the bankruptcy of MtGox.
For those fears regarding security and the volatility of this virtual currency are added those of the authorities, which accused him of facilitating illegal transactions. Anonymous payment bitcoin is attractive effect for criminals. The website Silk Road, now closed, was used for example as a bargaining chip in exchange for drugs, hacking kits or false papers. Opacity pushing states to try to impose a legal framework for the use of bitcoin. In France, Michel Sapin spoke out last year for the imposition of identity checks, spending limits or the consideration of bitcoins in income taxation. The European Banking Authority has in turn asked banks not to develop applications in bitcoins as the currency will not be regulated.
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