Ever since the Mt. Gox stopped withdrawing user funds a few weeks ago, some users have turned to a solution dubbed , which allowed them to sell their trapped funds in exchange for real bitcoins at heavily discounted rates.
The idea was that those who purchased the so-called “GOXBTC” may have the slight chance of acquiring actual bitcoin funds if Mt. Gox got back on its feet and resumed operations.
Since the Tokyo-based exchange filed for bankruptcy protection last week, it has been looking less and less likely that users would be able to get any value from GOXBTC — especially since the exchange posted an update on their homepage this week noting the funds have, in fact, disappeared.
As such, Bitcoin Builder announced on Tuesday that trading of BTC/GOXBTC will be halted as of 6PM Pacific time in the United States. The announcement came in the form of a tweet, which read:
With mtgox’s bankruptcy, trading will halt at 6pm today. Real BTC withdrawals of course will continue. See for more.
Already, Bitcoin Builder has stopped accepting new sign-ups, and come 6PM, all open orders will be canceled. The service says that withdrawals of “real” bitcoin will continue, being processed once-daily.
The announcement was met with confusion over at the Bitcoin community on Reddit.com:
“Seems strange to close it down. Let the free market do its thing. This was a nice speculative tool for gox news,” .
“Doesn’t make much sense to me. If news drops that indicates Gox users WILL get at least some of their money back eventually, people might wanna buy discount BTC if they are willing to wait a long time to get it,” .
What do you make of it? Is it a smart or silly move?