During the early Asian hours on Tuesday, Mt. Gox’s cold wallets indulged in a series of Bitcoin transfers. The defunct exchange moved assets to an unknown wallet for the first time in over five years.
On-chain wallet tracker Whale Alert posted a series of tweets highlighting the transfers. Their size kept getting heftier with every subsequent transaction.
As of press time, around 107,520 BTC were sent to an unknown wallet via a handful of transactions. With Bitcoin trading 2% down at $67,850, the cumulative value of the transfers tallied to $7.295 billion.
Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was launched in 2010. Within a couple of years, the exchange was handling around 70% of all BTC transactions worldwide. However, due to the lack of security protocols, hackers ended up breaching its network, and stealing the crypto assets of over 24,000 customers.
Hackers reportedly stole 740,000 BTC belonging to customers, and 100,000 more belonging to the firm. The total amount was worth $460 million at that time.
Mt. Gox Creditors Rejoice
Over the past few months, users had registered and selected a repayment method for their compensation. Right after, they were asked to confirm their identities and exchange accounts for repayment. Mt. Gox has until October 31, 2024 to reimburse customers.
Old coins being moved could potentially induce pressure on the price of the asset. In fact, research firm K33 had recently warned about the market getting 'spooked' on the heels of coin movements.
Nevertheless, the latest transfers relieve the burden from creditors’ shoulders. Exclaiming the same, pseudonymous Bitcoin analyst ‘Checkmate’ posted,
“Finally, Mt Gox distributions appear to be underway. Congrats to the creditors, it must be a relief and a half to get these coins back. What a saga.”
