Trustee Gives Final Invitation To Claimants For Settling Claims With Mt Gox

Mt Gox’s Trustees Announce Final Date for Settlement of Claims

More than a decade ago in 2020, a Bitcoin exchange and trading platform called ‘Mt Gox’ emerged on the scene from Japan. However, the story of Mt Gox was short-lived after an incident that forced the exchange into filing for bankruptcy.

During the bankruptcy proceedings in Japan, Bankruptcy Court appointed Nobuaki Kobayashi as one of the trustees of Mt Gox.

Being the trustee, Kobayashi was expected to receive claims from creditors and then determine their settlements after the liquidation of Mt Gox’s assets.

It was in 2014 when Mt Gox went to the Bankruptcy Court and sought protection. Creditors of Mt Gox were thereafter invited to lodge and register their claims prior to a deadline set up by the Trustee.

The deadline has been extended many times in the past and claims are being filed. This is to give an opportunity to as many claimants as possible to file their claims so all of that is recorded.

Now the final deadline has been announced by Trustee Kobayashi which is 10th March 2023. Upon the expiry of this deadline, none of the claims shall be registered nor entertained by the Trustee.

From the looks of it, there will not be any extension to the claim filing period. Therefore, the claimants have to be quick and vigilant in submitting their claims so they can be locked and dealt with.

Incident That Forced Mt Gox to Seeking Bankruptcy Protection

When Mt Gox launched its operations, it immediately became one of the world’s overpopulated crypto trading platforms. There was a lot of influx of investors who joined the platform due to its charms and claims

Since the crypto industry was starting its journey as it came into being in 2009, hence Mt Gox attracted huge attention.

Also because there were no other cryptocurrencies at that time except for Bitcoin, Mt Gox was entirely dedicated to Bitcoin trading.

At that time, Mt Gox was single-handedly dealing with and in possession of 70% of the global volume of Bitcoin.

However, an unfortunate event took place in 2011 in which the exchange was exploited by hackers. As a consequence, approximately 8,000,000 Bitcoins were found missing/stolen from the possession of Mt Gox.

The incident was a complete disaster that ultimately destroyed the strong foundation of Mt Gox and the exchange collapsed.

Upon coming to know of Mt Gox’s bankruptcy filing, the claimants reached the Court and demanded settlement of their funds.

Moderate Recovery of Stolen Bitcoins

Because of the tireless efforts of law enforcement agencies, the agencies were able to recover a moderate portion of stolen Bitcoins.

After the incident, the agencies were able to recover at least 200,000 Bitcoins that were stolen from the accounts of Mt Gox’s customers.

Bankruptcy Court has directed that the recovered Bitcoins should be used to settle the claims of the creditors proportionately.

In this connection, Kobayashi was given the task of assessing the claims and determining the settlement account of each creditor.

In his letter of 7th March 2023, the Court appointed Trustee has given the final opportunity to Mt Gox’s creditors to register their claims.

Any claims after 10th March 2023 would not be registered and hence no refund will be provided to such creditors.

Prior to the recent announcement, the trustee ensured the disposal of Bitcoins in chunks for onward payment to creditors.

For instance, the first sale of recovered Bitcoins of at least 35,841 units was carried out by Kobayashi in 2017.

In the same year another chunk of Bitcoins, comprising over 34,008 units, was also sold. The third and last sale was conducted in 2018.

The final last opportunity has however been provided to Mt Gox’s creditors. If they fail to avail the opportunity, then they would certainly lose the chance of availing refunds of their lost funds.