Creditors of the defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox now have time until March 2023 to register and select a repayment method for their compensation. The distribution deadline has been pushed to September 23 from July 31 accordingly.
The deadline for the Selection and Registration was January 10, 2023, earlier. Hence, rehabilitation creditors who do not complete the said procedure by the
new deadline “will not be able to receive any of the repayments,” according to the latest announcement from Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi.
For context, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was launched in 2010. By early 2014, the exchange was handling around 70% of all BTC transactions worldwide. However, due to a lack of quality security protocols, hackers were able to breach its network, stealing the crypto assets of over 24,000 customers. Thereon, it filed for bankruptcy and wound up operations.
Hackers reportedly stole 740,000 BTC and 100,000 more from the firm. The total amount was worth $460 million at the time.
Speculating on what could possibly be the reason for the latest extension, a particular user tweeted,
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Hack Funds Moved Recently
In November 2022, around 10,000 Bitcoins related to Mt. Gox were moved amidst market turmoil. Reportedly, the main wallet sent $167 million BTC to two unknown wallets. While one of the wallets amassed 3,500 BTC worth $58,36,8800, it soon sent out 300 BTC to another wallet. This was further carried on and split among several other wallets.
At that time, CryptoQuant CEO pointed out that criminals could be the ones moving these funds. When asked about why these hackers were moving funds with Bitcoin at $16K and not during the bull run, Ki Young Ju said,
“Well, they don’t care. It’s 55x profit for them anyway. They got these Bitcoins when the price was $297 in Jan 2015, and the BTC price is $16,617 now, so approx. PnL is 5,594%.”
Read More: 10,000 Bitcoins related to Mt.Gox moved amidst market turmoil