Mt. Gox Co., the bitcoin exchange that filed for bankruptcy in Tokyo after millions of dollars' worth of virtual currency vanished from customer accounts, won a temporary halt to lawsuits it faces in the U.S.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Harlin Hale in Dallas agreed Monday to shield the company's assets from creditors and halt two suits, both of which are in their early stages. The company will return to court April 1 to seek to extend the protection until the Japanese case is resolved.

The Tokyo-based exchange filed for bankruptcy in Japan last month after losing bitcoins worth about $473 million at the time. The company said in its U.S. filing that almost 750,000 customer bitcoins and 100,000 of its own, about 7 percent of all bitcoins in existence worldwide, were missing and probably stolen.