By
Steve Muchoki
April 19th, 2024
The infamous hack of the Mt. Gox crypto exchange in 2014 saw it lose 850,000 Bitcoin (BTC) overnight.
The situation around repaying creditors of the defunct Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange has reached yet another chapter. This follows after the just concluded registration exercise where clients who lost funds to the famous Mt. Gox hack were asked to come forward with their repayment information.
In its most recent statement, the exchange has confirmed that the time for registration has now passed. However, it also clarified how it intends to fulfill the repayments to creditors.
An April 7 statement from rehabilitation trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, suggests that the repayments will be done in three folds. They are “base repayment, intermediate repayment and early lump-sum repayments.” Kobayashi further added that payments will continue until October 31, 2023. However, he also says there’s a possibility that the date gets extended if the Tokyo District Court so approves.
Despite the statement, the exact time that Mt. Gox will commence the repayments remains unclear. However, Kobayashi has hinted that there is a need for some “necessary preparations” such as confirming the selections for repayment before anything. This will help make the entire repayment process as seamless as possible, the note suggests.
Mt. Gox Hack: Unforgettable in Crypto History
The infamous hack of the Mt. Gox crypto exchange in 2014 saw it lose 850,000 Bitcoin (BTC) overnight. From there on, things were never the same for the exchange, forcing it to eventually shut down completely some months after. To date, the hack remains the biggest crypto-based heist whose shockwave seeped deeper than that of the FTX exchange collapse in 2022.
And now, almost a decade later, some first-hand victims of the hack still haven’t seen any compensation. It has been one delay after the other. This is despite that a Japanese court has since 2018, approved a compensation plan for victims.
In total, Mt. Gox has to repay about $16 billion as compensation to creditors. And some, like its largest creditor, Mt. Gox Investment Fund, have opted for an early payout in BTC for a lesser amount of what is owed. This is so that they do not have to wait any longer to redeem their full claims.