Now-defunct Mt. Gox crypto exchange will proceed with the repayment of its defunct users in Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) starting July 2024 after over a decade.
On June 24, the exchange issued a written note announcing that the rehabilitation trustee of Mt. Gox will commence the processing of reparations in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in July 2024.
“The Rehabilitation Trustee will commence the repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash in due course to the cryptocurrency exchanges with which the Rehabilitation Trustee has completed the exchange and confirmation of the required information for implementing the repayments.”
The trustee has once again requested that users exercise forbearance, noting that the order of the payments will be contingent upon the specific cryptocurrency exchange.
“We will commence the repayments in the order of the cryptocurrency exchanges with which the Rehabilitation Trustee will complete the exchange and confirmation of the required information. Please wait for a while until the repayments are made.”
Approximately 127,000 creditors of Mt. Gox are debtors of over $9.4 billion in Bitcoin. The creditors have been awaiting the return of their funds for more than a decade due to the exchange’s collapse in 2014, which was caused by numerous undetected breaches.
The repayment procedure was already underway when Mt. Gox transferred $9.6 billion in Bitcoin in May.
Mt. Gox’s repayment plans were among the most closely monitored industry developments, with users anticipating reimbursement for their lost BTC for over a decade.
Mt. Gox transferred 141,686 BTC worth $9.62 billion from several other cold wallets associated with Mt. Gox to a new wallet, “1Jbez,” on May 28. This is the initial on-chain transfer of funds from the collapsed exchange in more than five years.
Following the reports, Nobuaki Kobayashi, the rehabilitation trustee of Mt. Gox, has confirmed that consolidation is a component of the exchange’s strategy for commencing the repayment of creditors. However, he did not specify the date on which the repayments will commence. Kobayashi stated in an announcement on May 28:
“The Rehabilitation trustee is preparing to make repayment for the portion of cryptocurrency rehabilitation claims to which cryptocurrency is allocated… As the Rehabilitation trustee is proceeding with the preparation for the above repayments, please wait for a while until the repayments are made.”
Mt. Gox Collapse 2014
Mt. Gox was one of the first cryptocurrency exchanges, and it once facilitated over 70% of all transactions conducted within the blockchain ecosystem.
In 2014, Mt. Gox was rendered inoperable due to a security compromise that resulted in the loss of over 850,000 BTC in user funds, valued at over $51.9 billion. The current price of Bitcoin is more significant than $61,100.
Immediately following the exchange’s closure in February 2014, the price of Bitcoin plummeted to a local low of $420. There are reports that Mt. Gox was compromised six times between 2011 and 2014.
The repayment timetable may be subject to additional delays despite the announcement from Mt. Gox’s rehabilitation trustee. This deadline was established in September 2023, a month before the exchange’s initial obligation to repay its creditors by Oct. 31, 2023.