After a decade of anticipation, July might finally bring restitution to the users of the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange. The rehabilitation trustee for Mt. Gox announced that repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash will start in July 2024. This comes after the exchange lost 850,000 Bitcoin in 2014.
Repayment Process Set to Begin
The trustee outlined in a note issued on June 24 that the repayments will commence soon. The statement read:
“The Rehabilitation Trustee will commence the repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in due course to the cryptocurrency exchanges with which the Rehabilitation Trustee has completed the exchange and confirmation of the required information for implementing the repayments.”
The order of payments will depend on the respective cryptocurrency exchange. Users have been asked to remain patient as the repayments are processed.
“We will commence the repayments in the order of the cryptocurrency exchanges with which the Rehabilitation Trustee will complete the exchange and confirmation of the required information. Please wait for a while until the repayments are made.”
Over $9.4 Billion Owed to Creditors
Mt. Gox owes more than $9.4 billion worth of Bitcoin to approximately 127,000 creditors. These individuals have been waiting for over a decade to recover their funds following the exchange’s collapse in 2014 due to multiple unnoticed hacks.
Recent Movements and Plans
On May 28, Mt. Gox transferred 141,686 BTC, worth $9.62 billion, into a new wallet from several other cold wallets associated with the exchange. This marked the first on-chain movement of funds from Mt. Gox in over five years.
Mt. Gox rehabilitation trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi confirmed that this consolidation was part of the plan to start repaying creditors, though he did not specify when the repayments would begin. Kobayashi stated:
“The Rehabilitation trustee is preparing to make repayment for the portion of cryptocurrency rehabilitation claims to which cryptocurrency is allocated… As the Rehabilitation trustee is proceeding with the preparation for the above repayments, please wait for a while until the repayments are made.”
The 2014 Collapse and Its Impact
Mt. Gox was one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges, at one point handling over 70% of all blockchain trades. The exchange went offline in 2014 after a security breach resulted in the loss of over 850,000 BTC in user funds, worth over $51.9 billion at current prices.
The price of Bitcoin fell to a low of $420 in February 2014, shortly after the exchange went offline. Mt. Gox was reportedly hacked six times between 2011 and 2014.
Despite the announcement from the trustee, there is a possibility of further delays. The initial deadline was set for September 2023, a month before the planned repayments by October 31, 2023.
