Mt. Gox repayments postponed another year — at least for some
Certain creditors could be repaid sooner, with one hedge fund exec telling Blockworks it expects a payout by the end of the year
Primakov/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks
The deadline for repayments related to funds lost in the Mt. Gox exchange hack has been pushed back yet again.
Initially set for the end of this October, a letter released on Thursday announced a one-year extension to the repayment schedule.
The once-popular Japanese exchange suffered multiple hacks between September 2011 and May 2014, leading to the loss of roughly 850,000 bitcoins belonging to customers and the company. Following the hack, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy and began liquidation proceedings in 2014.
The deadline extension to Oct. 31, 2024 is due in part to “the time required for rehabilitation creditors to provide the necessary information,” the notice states.
The rehabilitation trustee — named as attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi in the letter — must then “confirm such information and engage in discussions and share information with banks, fund transfer service providers, and designated cryptocurrency exchanges…involved in the repayments,” it adds.
The Tokyo District Court permitted the Mt. Gox trustee to push the deadline by a year for the base, early lump-sum and intermediate repayment, according to the letter.
Some waiting on repayments could still receive them in the near term, however.
According to the letter, those who have submitted the required information to the rehabilitation trustee could potentially receive their repayments by the end of this year. However, this timeline is “subject to change depending on the circumstances.”
Hedge fund firm Off The Chain Capital began acquiring Mt. Gox bankruptcy claims in 2019, CEO Brian Estes told Blockworks in July. Such claims accounted for about 25% of the company’s Off The Chain LP fund portfolio at the time, he noted.
“We expect distribution by the end of the year since we have been in the queue for several months,” Estes told Blockworks in an email Thursday.
The deadline extension comes after the US Department of Justice in June brought charges against Alexey Bilyuchenko and Aleksandr Verner in relation to the Mt. Gox hack. The two, along with unnamed co-conspirators, allegedly conspired to launder roughly 647,000 bitcoins, according to the DOJ.
Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:
- Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
- Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
- Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
- 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
- Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
- The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
- Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
