Bitcoin prices on Mt Gox went as high as $348.98 in intraday trading because of rumours that the troubled Japanese exchange was testing its withdrawal system and that users will be able to get back their BTC soon.
Rumours first surfaced on Reddit through different threads (here and here) wherein users claimed that withdrawals are being processed and some of them have been cleared.
Screenshots and transaction affirmations on Reddit led many investors to believe that Mt Gox could indeed be testing the withdrawals and because of new trades, the prices nearly touched the $350 mark during intraday trading after correcting to $278.
Mt Gox suspended withdrawals on February 7 citing technical issues. Later on the exchange revealed that they had halted the withdrawal because they wanted to rectify the ‘transaction malleability’ bug and withdrawal requests were hampering their efforts.
Suspension of withdrawals and subsequent inability of the exchange the reinstate the facility sent Bitcoin prices to as low as $91.50 on February 21. Mt Gox still didn’t have an answer as of February 20 and investors have been weary of the fate of the exchange.
Surprisingly, Bitcoin prices on other exchanges have been stable throughout the Mt Gox snafu and recently saw a surge of around 10 percent. The crypto-currency was trading at $627.95 on BitStamp, and $610 on BTC-e.
