MtGox heading to a positive conclusion?
Recently the story of Mt. Gox has taken a twist that could bring a relatively happy resolution to one of the most dramatic episodes in the short history of cryptocurrency. Last week the gates opened for the exchange’s creditors to file rehabilitation claims, most of the roughly 24,000 users of Mtgox will eventually get some of their funds back and even see some returns on their involuntary, four-year-long investment.
MtGox
The development came along thanks to a group of Mt. Gox creditors who successfully mounted an effort to pull the exchange out of bankruptcy proceedings and thrust it into an alternative legal process, known as civil rehabilitation.
This is a huge deal, had proceedings continued with the bankruptcy case it would’ve meant patrons would be reimbursed at the dollar value of Bitcoin in 2014, which is substantially less than what it is now.
It also excluded people from being refunded in Bitcoin.
THE HISTORY
By mid-2013, Mt. Gox was stripped of almost all of its Bitcoin reserves. Karpeles the ex-owner of Mt Gox had likely realized that there was a hole in the bottom at some point in 2013, but it wasn’t until late February 2014 that the company admitted to having lost 850,000 Bitcoin — worth around $460 million at the time and making up around seven percent of all Bitcoin in circulation.
In March 2014, Mt. Gox reported that 200,000 of the lost Bitcoin have been “discovered” in the old-format digital storage used before the June 2011 hack. Effectively frozen in the bankruptcy estate for the time of litigation, the assets were steadily climbing in value — on top of the manifold increase in Bitcoin valuation since 2014, the future owners of these coins will be entitled to an equal amount of the fork offshoot Bitcoin Cash (BCH) — which has now far exceeded the value of the possible victims’ claims.
So, if you, like me, were unfortunate enough to be involved with MtGox, there is some light on the horizon.
Fingers crossed.
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