After a long eight years, the long-running saga of Mount Gox is nearing a conclusion.
Former CEO of the exchange Mark Karpeles has said that users of the platform may recover some of their lost bitcoins in the coming days.
They told Forkast News It is highly likely that the Japanese trustee in charge of BTC will begin distributing the remaining assets to creditors.
In 2014, Mt Gox suffered a hack that resulted in the loss of more than 800,000 BTC and an effective collapse of the exchange, leaving thousands of creditors out of pocket awaiting compensation.
Nobuki Kobayashi was appointed trustee on the recovered BTC and given the task of determining the proper method for distributing the assets.
In October 2021, a majority of creditors voted in favor of a compensation plan that was sent to the Tokyo District Court for approval.
“Depending on the situation, the confirmation order is expected to be final and binding in about a month from today,” Kobayashi said. However, payments to creditors failed to materialize and many pundits indicated that they would start in the second quarter of this year.
After several legal battles in Japan over his role in the exchange’s demise, Karpeles joined the 1% club – Japanese legal slang for those rare individuals who actually manage to obtain a verdict of innocence.
The disappearance of Mount Gox Arabs has nothing to do with Karpeles
As one of the presiding judges pointed out at trial, Karpeles had nothing to do with the missing bitcoins and never intended to harm the company or embezzle funds. His only crime was to set up a program that tried to recoup the missing BTC since its acquisition in March 2011.
There is a measure of uncertainty over the nature of the payment, with some suggesting that it may take the form of fiat while others have argued that it will be in BTC.
Still, experts warn that large cash payments to creditors could have a significant impact on markets.
If the payment is made in BTC, a large number of creditors can sell their assets to capitalize on the profits accumulated on the assets.
At the time of the Mt Gox crash in 2014, 1 BTC was trading around $320, and with current prices approaching the $40,000 mark, creditors could simply sell. This will have the effect of falling prices.
Following the Mt Gox debacle, Karpeles announced that it was launching UNGOX, a company that aims to be the rating agency for exchanges around the world.
He revealed plans to create a non-fungible token (NFT) that would give former Mt Gox users free lifetime access to the new company’s service.