After a decade of waiting, some creditors of the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox have reported receiving fiat repayments for their Bitcoin via PayPal. The official confirmation from the trustee is still pending.
Some creditors of Mt. Gox, the infamous crypto exchange that went bankrupt in 2014, have received a pleasant surprise in their PayPal accounts. According to posts on the Reddit page r/mtgoxinsolvency, some users have reported receiving fiat repayments for their Bitcoin that were trapped on the exchange for 10 years.
One Reddit user, Free-end254, claimed they received their payment and shared a screenshot of the email with the PayPal receipt as proof. Another user, who initially doubted the email’s authenticity, confirmed that they also received their payment when they checked their PayPal account.
The repayments were denominated in Japanese Yen, the currency of the country where Mt. Gox was based. The amount of the rebates varied depending on the claims of each creditor and the exchange rate at the time of the bankruptcy.
The repayments via PayPal are the latest development in the long and complicated process of liquidating the Mt. Gox estate and compensating the creditors. Mt. Gox was once the largest crypto exchange in the world, handling over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions. However, in February 2014, the exchange announced that it had lost 850,000 Bitcoin, worth about $450 million at the time, due to a hack or theft.
The exchange filed for bankruptcy and was later put under the supervision of a trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, who was tasked with recovering and distributing the exchange’s remaining assets. Over the years, Kobayashi managed to recover about 200,000 Bitcoin, as well as some Bitcoin Cash and other cryptocurrencies, from various sources.
In November 2021, Kobayashi sent an email to the rehabilitation creditors, informing them of the plan to start the repayments in 2023, with the process extending into 2024. The creditors had the option to choose between receiving cash or cryptocurrencies or a combination of both. However, Kobayashi did not provide any specific details about the timing or the method of the repayments.
Kobayashi or Mt. Gox has not officially confirmed the repayments via PayPal. It is unclear how many creditors have received their payments and whether they were part of the initial or ongoing repayments. It is also unknown why PayPal was chosen as the platform for the repayments and whether other platforms will be used in the future.
The creditors of Mt. Gox have been waiting for a long time to get their money back, and some of them have expressed their frustration and disappointment with the slow and opaque process. Some have also filed lawsuits against Mt. Gox and its former CEO, Mark Karpeles, seeking additional compensation.
The repayments via PayPal are a sign of hope and progress for the creditors of Mt. Gox, but they are also a reminder of the risks and challenges of the crypto industry. The Mt. Gox saga is one of the most notorious and impactful events in the history of Bitcoin, and its resolution is still awaited by many.
