Bitcoin Drops Below 60K as Mt.Gox BTC and BTC Cash Repayments to Start in July

Over ten years since the Tokyo-based crypto exchange Mt. Gox was hacked—with hundreds of thousands of customers’ Bitcoin stolen—those owed Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) will receive restitution beginning from July 2024.

The Rehabilitation Trustee of Mt. Gox announced on June 24 it was preparing to make repayments under the rehabilitation plan starting in July, but has asked creditors to remain patient as repayments are made. 

Bitcoin’s price fell to as low as US$59K in the past 24 hours on the back of the news as investors braced for the selling pressure the repayments could cause. But it was trading at over $60.3K at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko data.

Concerns about the impact of the distributions from the trustee are valid—given the Mt Gox Trustee has the fifth-largest holding of BTC among large entities, at 141K BTC, according to an analysis by Glassnode.

Related: Major Players Hold Over 27% of Bitcoin, Signalling Strong Market Confidence and Stability

Repayment At Last After Multiple Deadlines Came And Went

The short-lived Mt Gox exchange launched in 2010 and once handled up to 80% of global trading in Bitcoin. It became a target for hackers and experienced multiple losses, leading to its bankruptcy in 2014 and an order to liquidate to reimburse creditors.

Joy for creditors has been a long time coming, having been promised payment multiple times since 2017. After extended legal proceedings, a rehabilitation plan was established in 2021. 

Some payments in fiat had already been distributed to creditors that had registered through the rehabilitation program in 2023, but many creditors were still awaiting their dues. Creditors are supposed to be reimbursed over 140,000 BTC and 143,000 Bitcoin Cash, worth around US$9 billion (AU$13.5b).

Related: A Decade After Mt. Gox Collapse, Debtors Begin Receiving Fiat Repayments

A previous deadline for repayments was set at October 31, 2023—but the Trustee wasn’t able to meet the deadline due to the time required for discussions with banks, fund transfer service providers and crypto exchanges involved in the process. The deadline was changed with permission of the Tokyo District Court to October 31, 2024.

In its latest statement, the Trustee said repayments will be made through crypto exchanges in order of when the trustee receives and confirms required information from each exchange to implement fund transfers: 

We have taken time to ensure safe and reliable repayment to creditors, including technical remedies for safe repayments, compliance with financial regulations in each country, and discussion of repayment arrangements with the cryptocurrency exchanges.

Mt Gox Trustee