- Prior to the announcement, the exchange moved significant amounts of Bitcoin, including $2.7 billion, from an offline wallet.
- Mt. Gox was once the largest crypto exchange but filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing approximately 950,000 bitcoins to hackers.
Mt. Gox has finally begun repaying its creditors in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash ten years after its dramatic collapse. The trustee of the exchange announced on Friday that they had started making repayments to some creditors, with promises to address other claims upon meeting certain conditions.
These conditions include account verification and subscription to designated digital asset exchanges facilitating the disbursements. In the statement, the company also asked other eligible creditors to wait for a while.
“On July 5, 2024, the Rehabilitation Trustee made repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to some of the rehabilitation creditors through a part of the Designated Cryptocurrency Exchanges, etc. in accordance with the Rehabilitation Plan,” the statement noted.
See Related: Mt.Gox Trustee Announces Payments To Users In July
The Fall And Rise of Mt. Gox
Mt. Gox was once the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange before filing for bankruptcy in February 2014. The collapse followed a series of hacks that saw approximately 950,000 bitcoins, worth around $58 billion at current prices, vanish, CNBC reported. Mt. Gox attributed the losses to a bug in Bitcoin’s framework, which allowed hackers to illicitly move coins from user accounts while showing incomplete transaction messages.
After declaring bankruptcy, 140,000 of the missing bitcoins were recovered, translating to roughly $9 billion at today’s prices. At the time of the bankruptcy, Bitcoin traded at approximately $600, compared to over $54,000 today, an almost 9,000% increase.
According to Arkham Intelligence, Mt. Gox moved billions of dollars in Bitcoin from its crypto wallets ahead of the repayment announcement. Over 47,000 bitcoins, worth $2.7 billion, were transferred from an offline wallet associated with Mt. Gox.
A portion, worth $84.9 million, was sent to Japanese exchange Bitbank, which supports the repayments, while $63.6 million went to an unknown counterparty likely involved in the repayment process. Mt. Gox wallets reportedly hold 138,985 bitcoins, valued at around $7.5 billion.
