ambcrypto.com
Bitcoin [BTC] has seen a fair share of controversies since its inception, both with regards to its technology and adoption. Before Bitcoin shocked the financial market by hitting the $20,000-mark almost two years ago, Mt. Gox played a crucial role in involuntarily orchestrating a major turn of events, leading to the eventual downfall of the king coin in 2018.
The erstwhile exchange’s civil rehabilitation proceedings started on March 20, 2019, when the Tokyo District Court informed the public about the status of approval or disapproval of exchange-related and non-exchange-related rehabilitation claims. Now, in a new update, its seems that Mt. Gox is planning to return at least a portion of the Bitcoins held by all users.
In an email dated April 22, 2019, sent to all Mt. Gox users, the exchange revealed that the “self-approved rehabilitation claim” became active following the withdrawal of objections by creditors to the said claims. The statement read,
“As a result, the approval of your self-approved rehabilitation claim has become effective, and you no longer need to file an application for claim assessment. Even if you have received a PDF form of the application from the Rehabilitation Trustee, you do not have to submit the application.”
The email also lists Mt. Gox as the debtor and Nobuaki Kobayashi, Attorney-at-law, as the rehabilitation trustee.
Screenshot of the mail from Mt Gox to all users
This clarification effectively means that any user who held Bitcoin on the exchange when it went offline would get a portion of their funds back, even if they did not file any claim in their name. Though the exact amount is unknown, this comes as good news to many investors who kept their distance from the legal proceedings as they will also get a part of their funds back now.
A Reddit user, DerEwige, commented,
“Just to clarify. That does not mean it will happen soon. Nor do I know how much of the money is left. All it means is: If you had money on MtGox you have made legal claims on that money even if you did not do so yourself and are now a creditor in the bankruptcy case of MtGox. Once the case is closed you will (probably) receive your share.”
Another Reddit user said,
“You’re basically just selling your claim to the whole btc to another company for a fraction of the total.”
After losing 850,000 Bitcoins worth $450 million (at that time) in one of the biggest hacks in the history of the cryptoverse, Mt Gox was declared bankrupt in 2014. Though it lost roughly 7% of all Bitcoins in circulation at that time, the exchange has been making an effort to pay back creditors following multiple lawsuits.
However, there hadn’t been any update on the same over the past few weeks. Andy Pag, a former administrator of Mt. Gox Legal, attributed the delay in the processing of the claims to CoinLab and its mammoth claim of $16 billion.