Not necessarily suggesting that Mt. Gox is a Ponzi scheme, but I can't help being reminded of certain events during the collapse of Bitcoin Savings and Loan:

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=50822.0

So many investors held out much longer that many might have expected, clinging to the belief that pirateat40 was true to his word, and that the Ponzi stench existed only in the minds of cynical observers.

In the end though, the last groups of investors lost almost everything.

Well if it were a ponzi scheme and they didn't have the assets they were supposed to, it would be in their best interest to convince people as long as possible that everything is okay.

Collapsing banks have very little choice. You can physically go to their branch and withdraw money (and historically everyone doing this at once has been one of the more common _causes_ of collapse), and if they stop withdrawals for no reason the regulators will be on them like a shot.

The regulators will also keep track of their reserves, particularly if there seems to be a problem.

None of this applies to MtGox; it's an unregulated company running in a country with very different law to that of the countries most of its customers live in.