In a move reminiscent of the Jerry Seinfeld character “Soup Nazi”, the Japanese-based bitcoin exchange MtGox on Friday released a statement stating that all bitcoin withdrawals would be halted until further notice. They do however promise to release an updated statement on Monday.


Since yesterday, when we first broke this story, the rumor mill on Bitcoin Talk has shifted into overdrive with many speculating that MtGox simply does not have the bitcoins on hand to meet customer withdrawal demands. To best guess what will happen next we might gain a few clues by looking into the past. In June of 2013, MtGox released a statement that USD withdrawals would be suspended for two weeks:


Of course we all now know that USD withdrawals were never fully reinstated as promised in the June announcement. And according to data collected by CoinDesk an estimated 70% of MtGox customers were unable to withdrawal money from their accounts even before the new and frightening bitcoin freeze.

So for now, regardless of whether you have cash or bitcoins parked in your MtGox exchange account, the soup kitchen is closed until further notice. Now let’s all form a single straight line, keep our mouths closed and fingers crossed, and hope that history doesn’t repeat itself once again.

Let’s make a wish that on Monday we don’t hear a Japanese speaking Soup Nazi loudly proclaim, “No soup for you! One year!”

Original story: http://altcoinpress.com/2014/02/mtgox-to-clients-no-soup-for-you/