I think you're mistaken when you say that there were no signs. There were many signs, and here are some of the worst. As a point of reference, Feb 7, 2014 is when Bitcoin withdrawals were frozen.
May 2, 2013: CoinLab sues MtGox, says MtGox promised to let CoinLab operate its North American branch. This makes no sense -- why would MtGox surrender its most valuable territory to a virtual unknown? -- but MtGox doesn't explain what's going on and simply shrugs their shoulders. They will be doing this a lot.
May 15, 2013: US Government seizes $5 million from a bank account held by MtGox. MtGox shrugs their shoulders.
June 20, 2013: MtGox stops USD withdrawals; bitcoin and JPY withdrawals continue to operate normally. People ask when they'll be restored, MtGox shrugs their shoulders.
July 4, 2013: MtGox says USD withdrawals are back to normal. This is a lie. When people ask why USD withdrawals are still not going through, MtGox.. well, you guessed it. They shrug their shoulders and just repeat the lie.
By this point, alarm bells should have been blaring in people's heads. Anyone who claims that this kind of crap was the norm for the bitcoin world should keep in mind that Coinbase had launched in 2012 and was running a much tighter ship.
By this point, people still had more than 6 months to get their bitcoins out.
August ~13th, 2013: CEO blames issues on Mizuho bank; claims that Mt. Gox was greater than 50% of Mizuho's SWIFT volume (!) and DOSed their banking systems multiple times (!!); also says that Mizuho has limited them to ~10 outgoing wires per day.
Yeah, I forgot about that one! While we're on the subject of lies they told, my favorite was in Feb 2014 when bitcoin withdrawals got frozen. The claim was that they turned off withdrawals while they dealt with the bitcoin malleability issue that was in the news at the time. It was obviously a lie but they just stuck with it.
Given the USD ~1.64 TRILLION in assets Mizuho had in 2014, presumably this claim is beyond insane? Is there some mechanism to look up SWIFT transaction volumes by bank?
May 2, 2013: CoinLab sues MtGox, says MtGox promised to let CoinLab operate its North American branch. This makes no sense -- why would MtGox surrender its most valuable territory to a virtual unknown? -- but MtGox doesn't explain what's going on and simply shrugs their shoulders. They will be doing this a lot.
May 15, 2013: US Government seizes $5 million from a bank account held by MtGox. MtGox shrugs their shoulders.
June 20, 2013: MtGox stops USD withdrawals; bitcoin and JPY withdrawals continue to operate normally. People ask when they'll be restored, MtGox shrugs their shoulders.
July 4, 2013: MtGox says USD withdrawals are back to normal. This is a lie. When people ask why USD withdrawals are still not going through, MtGox.. well, you guessed it. They shrug their shoulders and just repeat the lie.
By this point, alarm bells should have been blaring in people's heads. Anyone who claims that this kind of crap was the norm for the bitcoin world should keep in mind that Coinbase had launched in 2012 and was running a much tighter ship.
By this point, people still had more than 6 months to get their bitcoins out.