The exchange had originally filed for bankruptcy protection in February, but documents published on the company's site this week show it has been placed into administration and will commence bankruptcy proceedings.

The document states: ‘The Tokyo District Court recognised that it would be difficult for the company to carry out the civil rehabilitation proceedings and decided to dismiss the application... and at the same time issued an order for provisional administration.  The future outlook is that, although it is subject to the decision by the Tokyo District Court, it is expected that the commencement of bankruptcy proceedings will be ordered.’

Mt Gox once claimed it handled around 80% of all global dollar trades for bitcoin. At the time of its collapse it had outstanding debts of JPY6.5bn (£40m), 850,000 lost bitcoins and 127,000 creditors.

The trading exchange said that the bitcoins' disappearance was down to a software glitch which meant users were receiving incomplete transaction messages when using the exchange, but experts suggested hackers may have targeted accounts.

Of the 850,000 lost bitcoins, 200,000 have been recovered since the original bankruptcy filing. However, that still leaves around £193m of the cryptocurrency unaccounted for.

Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles has said there is currently no prospects for the restart of the business, stating: ‘Mt Gox is continuing the negotiations with sponsor candidates but the concrete selection process has not yet started.’