After suffering from a massive hack, Mt. Gox collapsed almost a decade ago. Now the Tokyo-based crypto exchange is set to return Bitcoin worth billions of dollars to its users.
In a few days, thousands of users of the now bankrupt Bitcoin exchange will receive Bitcoins that are valued at almost $9 billion and investors are concerned due to this move.
The payout
A series of heists happened on the exchange back in 2014 that saw Bitcoins between 650,000 and 950,000 compromised. At current prices, the tokens would be worth $58 billion.
The payout comes after a lengthy bankruptcy process that involved various legal challenges and multiple delays.
The court-appointed trustee responsible for the bankruptcy proceedings of the exchange said on Monday that token distributions would start in early July to almost 20,000 creditors.
The distributions will be made in the form of Bitcoin as well as Bitcoin cash, which is an offshoot of the pioneer crypto token.
Victims of the hack have been waiting for years to get their funds back, so this comes as good news for them. However, the price of Bitcoin declined to $59,000 in the previous week.
This is the second-worst weekly decline the crypto market has recorded this year. This week will see almost 141,000 Bitcoins returned to Mt. Gox users.
It is about 0.7% of the total 19.7 million bitcoins that the exchange owes.
Bitcoin impact
Magic: The Gathering Online Exchange, or Mt. Gox, as it is known, had once been the largest bitcoin exchange in the world.
Almost 80% of the global dollar bitcoin transactions had taken place on the exchange. Bitcoin was changing hands at a value of $600 at the time of the exchange’s collapse in February 2014.
Today, the price of Bitcoin has surpassed the $60,000 mark.
This means that users who will be reimbursed in Bitcoin, rather than cash, have seen their investment surge by almost 10,000% within the last decade.
Experts’ opinions
According to experts, the distribution of the tokens to Mt. Gox would likely push up sales of Bitcoin. This is due to the fact that most investors would be eager to cash in on their gains.
After all, the fact that their tokens were stuck on the bankrupt crypto exchange has now become the best investment, considering the returns.
Therefore, most of the users are expected to cash out. They would consider it smart to take the money and not take any more risks.
CoinShares head of research, James Butterfill, said that people with a bullish stance towards Bitcoin would certainly be apprehensive with the release of $9 billion worth of Bitcoin.
Therefore, Butterfill asserted that the market had become very sensitive to any such news. It is understandable that investors are worried, as a disbursement is expected to happen in early July.