One of the main mishaps since the birth of Bitcoin is the collapse of the Tokyo-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox in February 2014, which handled around 70 percent of all bitcoin transactions about a year back. The collapse of the prominent bitcoin exchange wiped clients' as well as its own holdings of around 850,000 bitcoins, then worth nearly $500 million, owing to theft that went unnoticed for several years. The site was dogged by hacking instances, technical glitches and temporary shutdowns in 2013. The winding up of the bitcoin exchange served to weaken the confidence in the digital currency.Bitcoin is often alleged to be one of the main reasons behind the growth of global darknet markets that almost transact exclusively using bitcoins, thanks to the perceived anonymity linked to the digital currency. Months before the Mt. Gox collapse, an online black market for selling illegal drugs called Silk Road was shutdown by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Launched in February 2011, the website was founded by Ross Ulbricht, a self proclaimed champion of libertarian idealism. The website was known to be the first modern darknet market, where sellers and buyers of products, mainly drugs, could interact anonymously and securely. The different charges slapped on Ulbricht included money laundering and there were claims that Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles was the real administrator of the site.In November 2015, the Financial Times reported that Chinese were flocking to an investment plan, bearing all hallmarks of a pyramid scheme, run by a Russian fraudster Sergey Mavrodi. Bitcoins can be bought by new members to join the scheme, which are then sent to other members as “mutual aid” in exchange for a 30 percent return per month plus bonuses for promoting the scheme online. The FT report claimed that the surge in the price of bitcoin then was mainly due to more and more Chinese getting attracted to MMM.