Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Rehabilitation Trustee for the defunct Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, announced that former customers must register their claims for repayment by Friday to be eligible for the rehabilitation plan he first revealed last September. Previously, the deadline was set on January 10, but it was extended by two months back in January.
In October 2021, creditors voted in favor of a rehabilitation proposal that promised to repay up to 90% of the assets owed to affected customers. In addition, they can receive their repayment as a lump sum, in cryptocurrency, by bank remittance, or through a money transfer service. This allows creditors to choose whichever form of payment better suits their needs.
The rise and fall of Mt. Gox: From Bitcoin giant to $19 billion loss
At its peak in 2013, Mt. Gox was the biggest Bitcoin exchange worldwide, accounting for 70% of global Bitcoin trading volume. Sadly, this success was not to last: a catastrophic loss of 850,000 BTC—750,000 Bitcoin belonging to customers and 100,000 BTC belonging to the exchange—was discovered in early 2014. This amounted to an immense $480 million at the time; with current prices, it is worth nearly $19 billion.
A statement from Mt. Gox pointed to a “high possibility” that hackers were behind the theft. However, CEO Mark Karpeles later attributed it to “weaknesses” in their IT security system. According to Mt. Gox Legal, a cooperative created for former customers, trustee Kobayashi held the remaining 165,000 BTC ($3.6 billion today) in a cold wallet as of December 27, 2017. By then, the number of approved claims from creditors had already totaled 799,722.6 BTC (around $17.6 billion today). Kobayashi sold approximately 35,800 BTC and 34,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) to monetize the holdings between December 2017 and February 2018.
At its peak, the exchange had 900,000 BTC in its accounts.
