Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox decided in favor of an early bitcoin payment, as Bloomberg reports while quoting an unnamed source. The Mt. Gox Investment Fund made the decision to forgo waiting for the resolution of the platform-related litigation, which may take up to nine years. By the end of September 2023, the structure will reimburse most of the money it owes to its clients.
Long-term payments could result in a larger proportion of reimbursement. The decision to accept cryptocurrencies as payment, as highlighted by many experts, stirred concerns that it would be sold in mass into the market, which would put pressure on Bitcoin prices.
How Much Loss did Mt. Gox Suffer?
One of the largest exchanges during the early days of Bitcoin acceptance was Mt. Gox. The exchange suffered a significant loss in 2014. Early in February 2014, the exchange allegedly identified suspicious activity in its digital wallets and immediately suspended withdrawals. The exchange lost hundreds of thousands of Bitcoins, as 650,000 to 850,000 coins were reported gone in total. The firm stopped trading and prohibited withdrawals before the end of the month, which caused a 36% drop in the price of Bitcoin by the end of February, when one Bitcoin was selling for around $540.
When will the Reimbursement by Bitcoins Begin?
Now, Mt. Gox will give its creditors 142,000 Bitcoins (BTC). These creditors’ assets were frozen after the exchange filed for bankruptcy in 2014 as a result of a cyberattack that resulted in the theft of around 850,000 Bitcoins. The trustee of Mt. Gox‘s remaining money stated in a letter published in July that they would begin paying creditors by the end of August.
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