This is ridiculous. How would Gox have only 1/3 of their obligations? Did 2/3 of the total Bitcoins on the exchange get stolen?
Keep in mind, this is a profitable exchange. It seems silly to suggest, without a large-scale theft or other compelling event, that they are so badly insolvent. There were some asset seizures in the past, but that comes nowhere near 2/3 of their deposits - in fact I am fairly certain those few millions have long since been made up by trading fees.
Further: If Gox had been stolen from so dramatically, wouldn't the evidence be in the blockchain? I'm sure someone would have noticed a huge spike in withdrawals.
Er, that 2/3 (now more like 1/2) is not my estimate, it is what their clients apparently believe, given the price that they agreed at MtGOX.
Well, I can think of three ways in which MtGOX could have lost a large part of their coins (and theft is not one of them). But there may be others.
"Too big to fail" has been said of many companies which failed soon after.
The reason I suspect that MtGOX is insolvent is because Mark is doing everything that one expects from the CEO of an insolvent company: stalling and delaying payments, communicating only through vague press releases widely spaced apart, avoiding clients, blaming "the system", moving to a high-security building...
And he is not doing any of the things that he should and could do if MtGOX were not insolvent and he cared about its business and the health of bitcoin. Like, proving that he controls a large stash of coins, giving explicit numbers (even if approximate) about their financial situation, bringing in some competent accountants and programmers, giving interviews about the crisis, checking and processing by hand some large withdrawals...
If MtGOX is not insolvent, Mark is feigning it extraordinarily well.
Good question. Perhaps because few people heard about it, and there was no follow-up?
EDIT:markup