YEREVAN, March 11. /ARKA/. MtGox, once the world's largest bitcoin exchange, received U.S. bankruptcy protection on Monday to temporarily halt U.S. legal action against the Japanese company by traders who allege the operation was a fraud. The papers were filed in federal court in Dallas, RBC reports.

MtGox, which filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan in February, said without U.S. protection it would spend substantial funds defending.

127,000 creditors, of which only 1,000 are the Japanese, seek retribution from MtGox.

MtGox has been sued by an Illinois resident. The lawsuit proposes to represent all U.S. residents who paid trading fee to MtGox and those who had bitcoins or other currency with the exchange when it halted bitcoin withdrawals on February 7.

This is may be the first of many U.S. lawsuits seeking to recoup millions of dollars of losses linked to a hacking attack that led to the exchange's bankruptcy.

On February 25, the website of MtGox stopped operating and all records were removed from its pages in social networks. This retirement prompred investors' concern – many of them had assets at MtGox. -0----