Mt. Gox Begins Repayments in Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash
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Parikshit Mishra, Sam Reynolds
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The long-term impact of the repayments may be less severe the some anticipatee, said WOO X COO Willy Chuang.
Mt. Gox was one the leading crypto exchange, handling over 70% of bitcoin transactions in the early years.
Mt. Gox said on Friday that it started making repayments to customers, ending a near 10-year wait for some users to get their crypto back after a 2014 hack sent the crypto exchange into bankruptcy.
The company was once the world’s top crypto exchange, handling over 70% of all bitcoin (BTC) transactions in its early years. The hack resulted in the loss of an estimated 740,000 bitcoin.
The announcement added selling pressure on bitcoin and the broader crypto market after Mt. Gox announced last month its intention to start repayments in July.
Bitcoin plunged to as low as $53,600, its lowest level in five months. The freefall led to over $580 million in bullish bets being liquidated. The world’s largest digital asset remained under $55,000 mid-morning in Europe, according to CoinDesk Indices data. It started the week close to $63,000.
“Mt. Gox moved 47,228 BTC, signaling the start of their repayment process, which has caused some market fear due to the large potential sell-off … However, it’s worth noting that despite these concerns, the long-term impact may be less severe as the market gradually absorbs the selling pressure,” said Willy Chuang, COO of crypto exchange WOO X.
Some customers may have to wait as long as 60-90 days to receive their payouts, but Mark Karpeles, the exchange’s former CEO, confirmed in a direct message to CoinDesk on X that these are worst-case figures.
“Those are deadlines linked to the number of transfers to process, each exchange might have a slightly different internal policy and decide to credit everyone later than sooner or sooner than later,” he said.
Exchanges approved by the trustee to process repayments include Bitbank, BitGo, Bistamp, Kraken and SBI VC trade, a Japanese exchange.
UPDATE (July 5, 06:40 UTC): Adds additional information and market background.
UPDATE (July 5, 07:00 UTC): Adds analyst comment and bullet points.
UPDATE (July 5, 10:10 UTC): Adds quotes from Mark Karpeles in fifth paragraph, updates BTC price in fourth.
