The trustee of Mt. Gox, the defunct Japanese crypto exchange that collapsed a decade ago, announced Friday that the company has started issuing payments in Bitcoin BTC/USD and Bitcoin Cash BCH/USD to some of its creditors.
Additional repayments to other users of the compromised exchange would follow, contingent upon meeting specific requirements.
This marks a pivotal step in resolving the long-standing bankruptcy case that has left many creditors in limbo for years.
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These include completing account verification and subscribing to one of the designated digital asset exchanges approved by the bankruptcy estate for disbursements in digital tokens.
“We ask eligible rehabilitation creditors to wait for a while,” the statement urged.
Mt. Gox, once the largest crypto trading platform globally, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after a series of hacks led to the loss of up to 950,000 Bitcoin—valued at approximately $58 billion at today’s rates.
The exchange attributed the massive loss to a flaw in Bitcoin’s framework, which allowed hackers to siphon off coins while users received incomplete transaction messages.
Post-bankruptcy, about 140,000 of the missing Bitcoin were recovered, translating to around $9 billion in today’s market.
At the time of the bankruptcy, Bitcoin was priced at approximately $600 per coin. It’s currently over $54,000, marking an almost 9,000% increase.
According to Arkham Intelligence, Mt. Gox transferred billions of dollars in Bitcoin from its crypto wallets on Thursday and Friday ahead of the repayment announcement.
This includes over 47,000 Bitcoin worth $2.7 billion moved from an offline wallet associated with Mt. Gox.
Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank received a portion of these funds, valued at $84.9 million. Bitbank is among the platforms facilitating repayments to Mt. Gox users.
An additional $63.6 million worth of Bitcoin was sent to an unidentified recipient. Arkham speculated it to be another exchange involved in the repayments.
Arkham further reported that Mt. Gox wallets still hold 138,985 Bitcoin, worth approximately $7.5 billion at current prices. Aubstantial amounts are still pending disbursement.
As the cryptocurrency community watches these developments closely, the upcoming Benzinga’s Future of Digital Assets event on Nov. 19 promises to delve into such pivotal issues. It offers insights and discussions on the future trajectory of digital currencies and asset management.
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