A website which recently stood as the most popular Bitcoin exchange in the world has filed for bankruptcy.

Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in a court in Texas late last night.

The company said without US bankruptcy protection it would spend substantial funds defending itself against a US lawsuit seeking class action status that was filed in Chicago.

The site shut down suddenly last month leaving users without access to almost €300 million worth of Bitcoin.

The news comes only hours after hackers broke into the blog of the CEO of the site, and claimed he had access to some of the missing money.

Bitcoin is a decentralised digital currency that can sent through the internet and can be transferred directly from person to person, without going through a bank.