coinengineer.io
Marking its first big transaction since late July, defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has sent 12,000 Bitcoin (BTC) to a new, unidentified wallet address. Starting with “1PuQB,” the transfer, which took place at 11:39 pm UTC on August 20, involves delivering BTC valued over $709.4 million to an empty address.
Mt. Gox also sent 1,265 BTC, worth $74.8 million, to an address identified as a Mt. Gox cold wallet run-through by Arkham Intelligence. Since the transaction, these monies have not been transferred.
Following the collapse of the exchange in 2014 due to a large hack, the transfer has sparked rumors that Mt. Gox could be getting ready to provide more Bitcoin to its creditors, who have been waiting years to retrieve their money.
But according to Galaxy’s director of research, Alex Thorn, only a tiny fraction of the money—$74.5 million—is probably meant for distribution; most of it is still under estate control and into “fresh cold storage.”
Since July 30, when the exchange sent 47,229 BTC to three unidentified wallets, this transaction represents the first notable movement of Bitcoin from Mount Gox. At that point, Arkham Intelligence conjectured that 33,105 Bitcoin was sent to an address controlled by BitGo, one of the custodians handling creditor reimbursements for the Mt. Gox Trustee.
Mt. Gox still owns a sizable quantity of Bitcoin, around 46,164 BTC valued roughly $2.7 billion as of right now.
Many appear to be hanging onto their Bitcoin, despite anticipation that creditors would fast sell their seized money. Being early adopters, these creditors see Bitcoin not just as an asset but also as a technology they believe in, which influences their choice to keep, said bitpanda deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad. Reflecting this attitude, Maria Carola, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange StealthEX, said that debtors are hoarding their coins in order to maybe postpone capital gains taxes and because of hopes of future price increase.