bitfreak! said "This entire thing is mind blowing... a lot of people just got royally screwed by Gox and I feel sorry for them." A lot of people are having a good time laughing at us, but they don't appreciate that several weeks ago Gox started disallowing BTC withdrawals. In other words, they closed the god damned bank door. So how in hell were people supposed to take their coins out and excape this mess? They couldn't. It's not as if they were dumb just for trading on the most active exchange in the world. True enough, Gox was currupt as hell... but Gox offered by far the highest liquidity in the world. And any smart trader knows that the way to make money is to go where the money is traded. You don't make any money trading horses if you hang out at a stockyard that trades 5 horses a week. Bottom line... Gox closed the door weeks ago and wouldn't let traders out. They literally stole the coins. Criminal charges will surely by laid. And yes, I feel sorry for the victims too. Only classless assholes would laugh at them.
I am a relative bitcoin noob, November 6th was my first purchase. That same week I wired money into Gox, which immediately disappeared into cyber whatever for three months.
I actually used Gox buying and selling BTC I had bought locally for two whole months before seeing just too many tea leaves about incompetence. I have been in too many companies run by people that have way more ego than talent. You run from those companies because when it goes bad it does so quickly, in the dark of night, after yet another BS press release.
I am a fortunate Gox user. I got all my coins out and in hindsight just in time.
On a side note, Mt Gox finally found my original wire transfer a couple of weeks ago after they had suspended Bitcoin withdrawals. I have sat helpless as I have watched my money sit in Mt Gox knowing there was a small chance I would ever see it again.
There have been plenty of warnings, I do count myself as lucky, but if I would have lost all of my money I would have nobody to blame but myself.