Kraken receives funds from Mt. Gox and plans to distribute them to creditors next week
Crypto exchange Kraken has confirmed it received funds from the Mt. Gox Rehabilitation Trustee for the creditors of the now-defunct exchange. Kraken announced through an email that the distribution process to creditors will commence in the next 7 to 14 days.
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Kraken acknowledged the receipt of the funds in Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin (BCH) in an email to the creditors on Tuesday. The exchange notified creditors that the funds would be available in their accounts in 7 to 14 days. The exchange also noted that the distribution process would follow the instructions given by the trustee. Earlier, the trustee had outlined several conditions that creditors needed to meet to receive the funds.
Arkham Intelligence reveals Mt. Gox transactions to Kraken
UPDATE ON MT GOX MOVEMENTS
We believe that 3JQieEzccKjFS34oW8KZSGBDndiH1YyFrE is most likely associated with Kraken, one of the exchanges involved in repaying Mt. Gox creditors.
This address received 48,641 BTC ($3.10B) from Mt. Gox this morning, which remains unspent.
The… https://t.co/FfFQcI9Xvr pic.twitter.com/4T3tuC3CSM
— Arkham (@ArkhamIntel) July 16, 2024
On-chain data from Arkham Intelligence suggests that Mt. Gox transferred 48,641 bitcoins (around $3.1 billion) to an unknown address that the blockchain analytics firm believes belongs to Kraken Exchange.
After Kraken confirmed receiving creditors’ funds, Arkham associated the address “3JQie” with the exchange. The related transactions triggered a sell-off in the market, as Bitcoin shed 3% to $63,000 from $65,000.
Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in early 2014 after losing 850,000 Bitcoins to a vulnerability in Bitcoin’s code. The hack is currently valued at more than $50 billion, more than three times the total value of the top ten bank heists of all time.
In 2023, authorities recovered 140,000 bitcoins worth $9 billion and kicked off the reimbursement process for the exchange’s creditors. On July 5th, the defunct exchange announced it had started the process of repaying creditors through pre-selected crypto exchanges following a rehabilitation plan. The allocation process will vary in timing from one exchange to another.
Mt. Gox reimburses creditors with Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash
Following the transfers to Kraken, Mt. Gox Trustee issued an official statement, noting that they have now repaid over 13,000 creditors of Mt. Gox.
“Following repayments on July 5, 2024, and July 16, 2024, the Rehabilitation Trustee made repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to some of the rehabilitation creditors… the Rehabilitation Trustee has now made repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to over 13,000 rehabilitation creditors to date.”
–Nobuaki Kobayashi
On July 16th, the Rehabilitation Trustee’s attorney-at-law, Nobuaki Kobayashi, announced that the trustee had disbursed part of the settlement with investors in bitcoin (BYT) and bitcoin cash (BCH). According to the attorney, the refund benefited more than 13,000 rehabilitation creditors as of July 16th.
Mt. Gox was once the largest crypto exchange globally and facilitated more than 70% of Bitcoin’s global transactions at the time. When the Tokyo-based exchange collapsed in 2014, Bitcoin’s price almost went to zero. The recent refund transfers have raised concerns in the crypto community due to the potential mass selling by creditors who have been waiting for years. These liquidations come after the government of Germany sold millions of dollars, causing a temporary drop in the BTC price.
