Bitcoin prices plunged early Friday after Mt.Gox, the major exchange for the virtual currency, said it was forced to halt withdrawals for customers.

Mt.Gox said an increase in withdrawal requests caused technical problems for its systems.“To understand the issue thoroughly, the system needs to be in a static state,” Mt.Gox said in a statement. “We apologize for the sudden short notice.”

Related: What is Bitcoin?

Mt.Gox did not halt trading in the currency.

The exchange said it would resolve the problem as soon as possible and provide an update on the situation on Monday.

Bitcoin prices fell on the news from a high of $831 just after 7 p.m. ET Thursday to a low of $658 before rebounding to $719.

36 U.S. Cities in 20 States “Abandon” the Dollar

By MONEY MORNING STAFF REPORTS

Recently, famed billionaire Warren Buffett warned we should “fear paper money.”

And with the U.S. dollar losing 38.5% of its value since 2002, Buffett’s concerns are unfortunately justified.

However, he probably couldn’t have imagined a secret currency crisis that’s developing very quickly across America now.

36 cities in 20 states have taken aggressive measures to abandon the U.S. dollar.And more are planning to do so in the near future.

In an exclusive interview with Money Morning, Silicon Valley veteran and Fox Business analyst, Michael Robinson investigated this startling trend.

“These cities and towns are essentially telling people they no longer want them to pay their water and heating bills, or parking tickets, really anything with U.S. dollars anymore,” Robinson said.

However, it’s not just the cities taking steps to protect themselves from the rapid decline of the once mighty dollar.

It’s the citizens themselves.

“Look at Vicco, Kentucky. Everything escalated here so fast, police are refusing to be paid their salaries in U.S. dollars.” Robinson revealed.

“And the mayor and city commission couldn’t do anything to stop it.  In fact, they had to pass legislation to allow it.”

And if that wasn’t shocking enough, this crisis is now spreading from local governments into the private sector.

Throughout America, 200,000 businesses have followed the lead of these cities and are now giving their employees the option of being paid their salaries in something other than the U.S. dollar.

But it’s what that “something” is that has many people at the Federal Reserve and on Capitol Hill worried.

Michael Robinson is a former board member of one, Silicon Valley venture capital firm and a senior advisor for two others.

He worked alongside Lee Iacocca and Roger Smith, the CEOs of Chrysler and GM, as they led the robotics revolution that saved the U.S. automotive industry in the 1980s.

In the 1990s he was one of five people involved in the early meetings for what would become the $160 billion “cloud computing"phenomenon.

And post-911, as cyber security was becoming a focus for our National Intelligence Community, Robinson was with Dave DeWalt, the CEO of McAfee Inc.

But his Silicon Valley, venture capital background is only one hat of many he’s worn during his career.

A Dangerous Trend For Paper Money

Since 1913 every major currency has lost over 90% of its value. Click here to see what’s replacing “money” all over the world.

Robinson was also a Pulitzer Prize-nominated, investigative journalist, who has been featured in The New York Times, Detroit News, The Wall Street Journal, San Francisco Examiner, and the Kansas City Times….

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