Bitcoin prices rose on Wednesday, recovering sharply from lows hit Tuesday, as authorities in the U.S. and Japan begin looking into the sudden closure of Tokyo-based exchange Mt. Gox.
Meanwhile, Mt. Gox Chief Executive Mark Karpeles said in a brief notice posted on the exchange’s website that he is “working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues,” but gave no specifics.
After initially remaining silent on Tuesday’s shuttering of Mt. Gox, a move that shocked the virtual-currency market, Japanese officials said they were looking into the matter.
“At this stage the relevant financial authorities — the police, the Finance Ministry and others — are gathering information on the case,” Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said at a regular news conference Wednesday, according to a Reuters translation of his remarks. Suga declined to comment further.
Late Tuesday, The Wall Street Journal reported that federal prosecutors based in New York had served Mt. Gox with a subpoena earlier this month. The report, citing an unnamed person familiar with the matter, said the subpoena included an order for Mt. Gox to preserve certain documents.
It’s unclear how much money was tied up on Mt. Gox, once the dominant exchange for bitcoin. Its collapse has triggered calls for regulation of the virtual currency and the exchanges tied to it, even as supporters have said bitcoin, which advocates have touted as a long-term alternative to government-issued currencies, remains viable.
The virtual currency has attracted the attention — and cash — of venture capitalists such as Marc Andreessen, who has called it transformational technology, Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss, who may be best known for their against Mark Zuckerberg over the origins of Facebook, and Fred Wilson, whose Union Square Ventures counts Coinbase as a portfolio company.
For its own part, Mt. Gox has offered little explanation for its closure. In a terse statement on its website Tuesday, it cited “recent news reports and the potential repercussions on Mt. Gox’s operations and the market” as the reason for halting transactions “for the time being.”
In the second statemement, posted Wednesday and signed by Karpeles, the exchange addressed speculation about Mt. Gox and its future.
“I would like to use this opportunity to reassure everyone that I am still in Japan, and working very hard with the support of different parties to find a solution to our recent issues,” the statement said. “Furthermore I would like to kindly ask that people refrain from asking questions to our staff: they have been instructed not to give any response or information. Please visit this page for further announcements and updates.”
Tuesday’s complete trading halt on Mt. Gox was the latest in a series of halts and delays that have plagued the exchange in the past year.
Reports about the latest problems have cited market rumors that Mt. Gox suffered a hacking theft of some 750,000 bitcoins, which The Wall Street Journal said would represent about 6% of all bitcoins in existence, a value of roughly $400 million.
Reuters said Wednesday that Karpeles had told the news agency in an email: “We should have an official announcement ready soon-ish. We are currently at a turning point for the business. I can’t tell much more for now as this also involves other parties.”
However, Karpeles didn’t offer further details or disclose his location at the time.
News that Mt. Gox had closed hit bitcoin prices hard on Tuesday, sending the virtual currency to a three-month low of $515.13, down from $545.32 on Monday.
However, the bitcoin price rebounded on Wednesday, rising almost 8% to $575.13, according to CoinDesk. The price represented that of CoinDesk’s own index, and Mt. Gox’s bitcoins have traded at a sharp discount to those at other exchanges for some time ahead of its shutdown.
Bitcoin prices had surged last year about $13 early in the year to over $1,000.
This article originally appeared on MarketWatch.com.