Bitcoin prices fell sharply early Friday after Mt.Gox, the major exchange for the virtual money, said it had no choice but to halt withdrawals for all its customers.
Mt.Gox said an increase in withdrawal requests caused major technical issues for its servers.
“To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state,” Mt.Gox said in a statement. “We apologize for the sudden short notice.”
Mt.Gox did not halt trading in the currency, just withdrawls.
The company said it would fix the issue as soon as possible and give an update on the situation on Monday.