On February 24th, 2014, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange MtGox went offline. The embattled CEO Mark Karpeles alleged that they had been a victim of a massive hack, with over 750,000 bitcoins in customer funds lost. Investigations revealed that the theft had actually been spread over some time, and MtGox … (read more)

On February 24th, 2014, the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange MtGox went offline. The embattled CEO Mark Karpeles alleged that they had been a victim of a massive hack, with over 750,000 bitcoins in customer funds lost. Investigations revealed that the theft had actually been spread over some time, and MtGox had been insolvent as far back as 2013.

In proceedings that lasted until March 2019, Karpeles was acquitted after it was ruled that he had acted without ill intent. By then the lost bitcoins had appreciated in value by over 20x.

The efforts to compensate some 24,000 MtGox customers are still ongoing.

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About this Series

"Bitcoin: A Visual History" is a series of 21 illustrations and cinemagraphs commemorating remarkable people and landmark events throughout Bitcoin history. BVH is divided into 3 series of 7 illustrations each, with Series 1 dropping in late August 2020. Series 2 and Series 3 are scheduled to drop in the last quarter of 2020 and the first quarter of 2021, respectively.

Each illustration in BVH interlocks with the illustration immediately preceding it, and once completed, all three sets will form one massive unbroken chain of interconnecting illustrations.

Each segment is available as a 1-of-1 ultra-rare cinemagraph, or as a 10-of-10 limited edition illustration.

This series was created by CRYPTOPOP! with the support of WavesWorld.io.


About the Artist

Cryptopop.net is a project of artist Luis Buenaventura (@helloluis), and began in 2017 as an attempt to blend the esoteric and often opaque nature of cryptocurrencies with the accessibility of pop culture iconography. He has created artwork for Coindesk, CoinMarketCap, Litecoin Foundation, Monero Foundation, is a coauthor of The Little Bitcoin Book (@littlebitcoinbk), and is the founder of BloomX (@bloomxorg).