The Biggest Bitcoin Controversy: Kevin Day’s Mt. Gox Nightmare of $16 Billion

Stealing from the popular Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox is controversial, but the biggest Bitcoin controversy happened with Kevin because of the same incident.
By Pooja Khardia
Updated: 30 May, 2025 | 05:37:52 AM GMT
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Mt. Gox is in the news for its $9 billion worth of Bitcoin transactions to its users, not as a gift reward but as an official return of their stolen holdings. More than a decade ago, Mt. Gox, was the biggest Bitcoin cryptocurrency exchange but failed with its security leading to the biggest crypto theft, causing a loss of 850,000 Bitcoin. It was worth more than $470 million back then, but now that has turned into $53.3 Billion. With that, thousands of holders have suffered, but in a somewhat connected experience, Kevin Day got involved in the biggest Bitcoin Controversy.

The Bitcoin Historian, a popular creator on X, revealed the Biggest Bitcoin controversy with his recent post, bringing the user’s attention to Kevin Day’s Nightmare.

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Introducing Kevin Day of This Bitcoin Controversy

Kevin Day was a video game developer and a geek of the 1990s. He was part of popular games like Mortal Komabat, NBA Showtime, and many more. He founded a business called Dot-Com but failed and pushed Kevin towards BTC when he was hunting for hosting websites.

Kevin bought his first Bitcoin when the price was barely $7, but soon luck gifted him the opportunity to buy the same at a low price of $0.01 on June 19, 2011. That Time, BTC price had a major crash, leading to the price fall from $ 17 to $0.01 within 20 minutes.

Bitcoin price Drop

Kevin immediately took the opportunity and bought $3,000 worth of BTC. However, this was the beginning of the biggest Bitcoin controversy as it was part of the Mt. Gox hack.

Mt. Gox Snatced The Bitcoins Back

With random luck, Kevin had bought 259,684 BTC at that time for $3000. Interestingly, the Bitcoin price recovered, and he has made 166,000% gains, making $5 Million with a few thousand investments.

Also Read: Bitcoin Enters Extreme Fear Zone For The First Time In 18 Months: More To Go?

But, the luck was short as Mt. Gox, the Bitcoin exchange, announced the reason behind this crash. As per the exchange, the hackers stole the tokens and sold them at low in the market. But the worst was that all of these stolen tokens would roll back, meaning all the trades made after the hack were not legit and got canceled, including Kevin’s trades.

Hero or Hacker? $16 Billion Lost

By this time, Kevin had already become part of the biggest Bitcoin controversy. More importantly, he was regarded as a hacker as he succeeded in buying BTC at such low values.

The controversy grew with the revelation that right before the rollback, he withdrew 643 BTC. With many calling him the hacker, and to sue him for stealing those 643 Bitcoin, Kevin continued his fight. He appeared in multiple interviews, answering his decency.

The Biggest Bitcoin Controversy

On the other side, he was called a hero. It is because, despite the possibility of suing Mt. Gox, Kevin refrained from this so that the Bitcoin ecosystem would not be affected.

Eventually, Kevin lost 259,684 BTC as the exchanges erased all the trades. With this Bitcoin controversy, Kevin lost 16.3 Billion worth of BTC per today’s value of $63K.

Continue Reading 5 Biggest Updates in the Crypto Market This Week

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Pooja Khardia
With a deep-seated passion for reading and five years of experience in content writing, Pooja is now focused on crafting trending content about cryptocurrency market. As a dedicated crypto journalist, Pooja is constantly seeking out trending topics and informative statistics to create compelling pieces for crypto enthusiasts. Staying abreast of the latest trends and advancements in the field is an integral part of her daily routine, fueling a commitment to delivering timely and insightful coverage
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