Mt. Gox, the cryptocurrency exchange that lost 850,000 Bitcoin in investor funds in 2014, will begin repaying its defunct users.
Starting July 2024, the rehabilitation trustee will process repayments in Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), according to a note from the exchange issued on June 24.
“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 trustee has asked users for patience, emphasizing that the order of payments will depend on the respective cryptocurrency exchange: “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.”
Approximately $9.4 billion worth of Bitcoin is owed to about 127,000 creditors of Mt. Gox.
These creditors have waited over 10 years to recover their funds following the exchange’s collapse in 2014 due to multiple unnoticed hacks.
The repayment process includes the $9.6 billion Bitcoin transfer in May, which was already part of this process.
On May 28, Mt. Gox moved 141,686 BTC, valued at $9.62 billion, into a new wallet, “1Jbez,” from several other cold wallets associated with Mt. Gox.
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This marked the first on-chain movement of funds from the collapsed exchange in over five years.
Shortly after these reports, Mt. Gox rehabilitation trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi confirmed that the consolidation was part of the repayment plans but did not specify when repayments would start.
Kobayashi stated on May 28: “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.”
Mt. Gox was one of the earliest cryptocurrency exchanges, once handling more than 70% of all trades within the blockchain ecosystem.
The exchange went offline in 2014 after a security breach led to the loss of over 850,000 BTC in user funds, worth over $51.9 billion at today’s Bitcoin price of $61,100.
Despite the announcement, the repayment deadline could face further delays, as it was initially set for October 31, 2023.
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