Repayment registration for victims of the Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange saga has closed. The company has also issued a new statement regarding what to expect now that its registration period has ended.
April 7 saw the publication of a statement from the former exchange’s rehabilitation trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, announcing that the deadline for creditors to provide repayment information (clarification of payee and payment type) has passed.
The document continued stating that “base repayment, intermediate repayment, and early lump-sum repayments” will be made until October 31, 2023. However, this final deadline “may be extended with the Tokyo District Court’s permission.”
The note also stated that the trustee would make the “necessary preparations” for the repayment, including confirmation of the repayment selections and information sharing with banks, fund transfer providers, cryptocurrency exchanges, and any other custodian involved.
The note stated, “In light of this, it is anticipated that repayment will take some time to commence.”
In 2014, the exchange was compelled to close following a hack that stole 850,000 Bitcoin. Despite the FTX disaster in November 2022, Mt. Gox’s collapse remains the most significant crypto theft in the history.
Persistent delays have plagued the situation regarding the repayment of funds to those affected. A Japanese court approved a compensation scheme in 2018, nearly four years after the incident.
In March 2020, Kobayashi announced a new system for creditors to claim the remaining funds using bank statements, transaction records, and identification documents as proof of claim.
The deadline for submitting claims was initially scheduled for October 2020 but has since been moved to December. After receiving all allegations, the quantity exceeded the available funds by nearly $16 billion.
Mt. Gox Investment Fund, the largest creditor in the situation, decided in February 2023 to opt for an early reimbursement in BTC for 90% of what was owed rather than wait longer for a larger payment.
