mtgox acts like a central authority. basically all these trades were happening in mysql database within the exchange between internal accounts, there were no actual bitcoin transactions.
But if you bought a bunch of BTC at $0.01 and then withdrew them, Mt.Gox should have irreversibly sent that over the real Bitcoin network.
It sounds as if Mt. Gox managed to shut things down before anyone could do that.
Yeah, but my guess is that not many people managed to withdraw them because of the stability problems the site had/have. Mt.Gox will probably have some losses, but not that high I think.
This exactly. People _could_ have withdrawn a bunch, but mostly that didn't happen.
there is daily limit though. you can only withdraw up to 80 BTC a day.
What source are you getting this 80 BTC / day withdrawal limit from?
Due to some US law, they restrict withdrawals to $1000/day. That includes bitcoins. Presumably, they do that to make sure they are well within the law.
Before they closed it, the BTC traded for $0.01 each, which means they could withdraw 100,000 BTC under the $1000 rule.