Bitcoin’s value falls 10% as Mt. Gox continues to self-destruct

Bitcoin fell below $100 on major exchange Mt. Gox early Friday, dropping under a key psychological threshold. Traders pushed the digital currency as low as $91.50, far below its price at around $537 on two other exchanges tracked by CoinDesk.com. The price on Mt. Gox later recovered to around $100, but it remains the cheapest exchange in the world to buy Bitcoin. The price drop followed another update about a technical issue that prompted it to suspend Bitcoin withdrawals to outside addresses two weeks ago. 

Mt.Gox promised to get its house in order, and get back to the Bitcoin community and its users today. It did, but didn’t open up withdrawals, or set a firm timetable as to when users might be able to get their currency off the exchange. In response, the price of Bitcoin on Mt.Gox has cratered, again. It now rests just above $110. That’s down from around $260 the day before. Users are betting more heavily now that their Bitcoin on the exchange is never coming back. This turbulence has not left the larger Bitcoin market unmolested. According to theaveraged Bitcoin price, the dollar cost of a Bitcoin has shed around 10 percent of its value today, falling from $625 to $560. Mt.Gox, previously trading at around a 50 percent deficit, is now trading at one-fifth the regular price.