- Victims of MtGox have finally started receiving their coins back after ten years
- Bitbank and SBI users have reported receiving bitcoins and Bitcoin Cash tokens on social media
- Creditors will receive about 20% of their lost coins, now worth 113% more in US dollars
Ten years, four months, and seven days after MtGox fell into bankruptcy, having admitted to a $475 million shortfall in user funds, the victims have finally started getting their coins back. Users of the exchanges Bitbank and SBI reported on social media over the weekend that they have begun to receive their bitcoins and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) tokens following a torturous decade-long wait. While creditors are only receiving about 20% of the coins they lost when MtGox imploded, their holdings are still around 113% up in US dollar terms.
Bitbank Customers Get Their Funds
Following more than ten years of agonized waiting, the first trickle of creditors receiving their long-promised coins came on Friday:
Coins credited into my account
byu/mikeplus20 inmtgoxinsolvency
This was augmented by creditors in the MtGox creditor Telegram group saying that they, too, had received the funds they had been promised since the repayment plan was made final and binding in November 2021.
Only those on Bitbank and SBI have received their crypto payouts, although a letter has been sent to Kraken users (some in February and some recently) confirming that “We have received notification from the Trustee that you have selected Kraken as your preferred exchange for receiving funds related to the Mt. Gox distribution” and that “your account is in good standing at this time, and there is no further action to take at this time with Kraken.”
A source told Fullycrypto why there has been a delay in sending out confirmations to Kraken customers:
A lot of clients used their Kraken address as their trustee address for the MtGox claims who had since moved to an unsupported geographical location, so it took a lot of work and time to fix that issue and get their addresses updated with the trustees.
Selloff Fear Has Caused Selloff
Much of the reporting around the MtGox payouts has focused on a potential mass selloff, leading to a Bitcoin price crash. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the fear of a dump has led to a price drop of $20,000 in little more than a month, even though the funds hadn’t even reached creditors by that point.
FullyCrypto has already advised that the entire repayment process may well take months, especially with Kraken, as our source confirmed:
A lot is just down to a case of people move, people lose access to stuff etc, so it’ll take some time for all this stuff to filter to the end holders.
Regardless of how long it takes, the fact that the first payments have been made means that Bitcoin is close to finally closing the door on a story that has been rumbling on for far too long.
