Mt. Gox Moves 11,833 BTC (Worth $932M) Ahead of October 31st Repayment Deadline

The crypto market continued its decline this week, with its market cap dropping to $2.44 trillion on Tuesday, the lowest since early November.

The crypto market continued to decline this week, with its market cap dropping to $2.44 trillion on Tuesday, the lowest since early November. This price drop triggered over $937 million in liquidations within 24 hours. Meanwhile, concerns grew as the defunct Mt. Gox exchange moved 11,833 BTC, worth $932 million.

Earlier this week, Arkham Intelligence reported that the defunct Mt. Gox exchange had moved a significant amount of Bitcoin, totaling 11,834 BTC (worth approximately $910 million). This transfer includes 11,502 BTC (around $885 million) to a new wallet and 332 BTC (worth $25.5 million) to a “warm” wallet, which is typically used for transactions or active management of funds.

The exchange, which is best known for a catastrophic hack in 2014 and subsequent bankruptcy in 2015, is currently in the process of returning funds to creditors who lost money when the exchange went bankrupt. A large portion of the lost funds were due to a hack, which led to the theft of around 850,000 Bitcoin. At the time of the hack, the stolen Bitcoin was worth around $472 million.

After the hack, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in November 2014. In July 2024, the exchange began returning funds to creditors using its holdings of 142,000 BTC ($11 billion), 143,000 Bitcoin Cash ($47 million), and 69 billion yen ($469 million). Some creditors were paid through Kraken and Bitstamp, while others were paid in Japanese yen.

The repayment deadline was originally set for December 31, 2024, but it has since been extended to October 31, 25. Despite returning a significant amount of funds to creditors, the bankrupt exchange still holds $2.8 billion worth of Bitcoin in its wallets.

Monday’s $900 million Bitcoin transfer came from the Mt. Gox wallet “1Mo1n,” which had received $1.07 billion in Bitcoin from another exchange last week. However, when the funds were moved last week, Arkham Intelligence didn’t recognize the “1Mo1n” address as a Mt. Gox wallet.

“We weren’t able to identify the sender as Mt. Gox at the time because the final top-up arrived in a new wallet that hadn’t been used in any prior activity linked to Mt. Gox,” said Arkham.

Following the recent Bitcoin transfers, interest in the defunct exchange has increased. A new wallet address used by Mt. Gox to receive 3,000 BTC (worth $234 million) from another exchange was also discovered this week.

The movement of Mt. Gox’s Bitcoin is closely watched because it is part of the ongoing process of repaying creditors who lost funds in the exchange’s infamous hack and bankruptcy. Just five days ago, Mt. Gox sent 166.5 BTC to BitGo, a digital asset custodian, likely as part of a creditor repayment process. The recent 332 BTC transfer is also expected to be moved soon, possibly as part of further repayments.

The movement of Mt. Gox’s Bitcoin is significant for the broader crypto market because it could potentially flood the market with large amounts of Bitcoin if creditors decide to sell. This has raised concerns about potential market volatility. The creditors of Mt. Gox have been waiting years to receive their funds, and the repaid Bitcoin may be sold or held, depending on their decisions.