Mt. Gox has filed for bankruptcy protection in the U.S.

Made late Sunday in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Dallas, the action is an attempt to stop the class action suit that is to be heard in Chicago.

If the Dallas sit is successful, lawsuits in the U.S. against the company would be temporarily halted.

The filing estimates the company has more than 100,000 creditors, assets of 6.5 billion (US$63 million) and liabilities of 3.84 billion.

Mt. Gox has only two shareholders. Tibanne Co. Ltd. holds 88 percent and an individual, Jed MacCaleb, holds 12 percent. MacCaleb developed the software that ran the service.

The case 14-31229, MtGox Co. Ltd. is in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas.