To bypass the paywall: TOKYO—A lawyer for Mt. Gox announced at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court that the embattled bitcoin exchange was filing for

To bypass the paywall: TOKYO—A lawyer for Mt. Gox announced at a news conference at the Tokyo District Court that the embattled bitcoin exchange was filing for bankruptcy protection and that Mt. Gox had outstanding debt of about ¥6.5 billion ($63.6 million). The exchange has been under fire from investors since it stopped bitcoin withdrawals in early February, citing a technical issue that potentially made fraudulent withdrawals possible. On Tuesday, Mt. Gox, which at one point handled more than 80% of trades in the virtual currency, stopped all transactions, dealing the severest blow to the bitcoin industry yet and raised concerns about a lack of protection for users. Several Mt. Gox investors say they have little hope of recovering their funds, with some individual investors saying they had bitcoins valued at hundreds of thousands of dollars in Mt. Gox.