Mt. Gox Creditors Have Until Friday to File Repayment Claims

Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Rehabilitation Trustee for collapsed Japanese Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, told former customers that they have until Friday to register their claims for repayment under the rehabilitation plan, which he first announced last September. 

The original deadline of January 10 was extended by two months back in January. 

Creditors have the option to receive repayment as a lump sum, as a cryptocurrency repayment, bank remittance, or remittance through a money transfer service.  

Back in October 2021, creditors approved the rehabilitation proposal, which promised to remunerate about 90% of the assets owed to affected customers. 

The Mt. Gox avalanche 

At its height, Mt. Gox was the biggest Bitcoin exchange in the world, handling 70% of global Bitcoin trading volume back in 2013. This peak was short-lived, however.

In early 2014, the exchange filed for bankruptcy after suffering a loss of 850,000 Bitcoin—750,000 BTC belonging to customers and 100,000 BTC belonging to the exchange—that altogether amounted to $480 million at the time. Today, it’s worth nearly $19 billion.

A statement after the loss said there was a “high possibility” the money was stolen by hackers. CEO Mark Karpeles attributed the loss to “weaknesses” in the company’s IT security. 

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. 

The total number of approved claims by creditors had already hit 799,722.6 BTC at that point, or about $17.6 billion at today’s price. 

Kobayashi sold about 35,800 BTC and 34,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) between December 2017 and February 2018. 

At the exchange’s height, it held up to 900,000 BTC in its accounts.