Bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox has sent a recent email to its creditors confirming their ownership of the exchange’s address accounts and stating that it will begin the claims process. According to dForce founder Mindao Yang, Mt. Gox may unlock 200,000 bitcoins over the next two months to pay off its creditors, potentially causing a significant sell-off in the bitcoin market.
Background:
Mt. Gox creditors receive Japanese yen compensation, repayment deadline set for October 2024.
Mt. Gox, a cryptocurrency exchange, filed for bankruptcy in 2014 after losing 850,000 bitcoins in a hacking incident. After years of legal battles, Mt. Gox opened registration for creditors to file claims in October of the previous year. 140,000 bitcoins were waiting to be delivered as compensation. The bankruptcy trustee of Mt. Gox announced in November of last year that it planned to start making cash payments to creditors, with payments expected to continue until 2024.
Mt. Gox initiates claims process:
Mindao Yang, the founder of decentralized stablecoin protocol dForce, tweeted today, sharing the latest email from Mt. Gox’s trustee to its creditors. The email confirms the ownership of the exchange’s address accounts that were previously entered by the creditors and states that payments will begin.
Yang pointed out that this means there may be a significant amount of bitcoin sell-off in the short term. In fact, starting in December of last year, Mt. Gox creditors began receiving yen-denominated compensation through PayPal after waiting for more than 10 years. Yang’s claim of a 200,000 bitcoin sell-off is likely inaccurate. Mt. Gox previously disclosed that its remaining assets include 142,000 bitcoins, 143,000 bitcoin cash, and 6.9 billion yen. According to Arkham Intelligence data, Mt. Gox’s addresses still hold over 137,000 bitcoins, worth approximately $5.51 billion. If these bitcoins are unlocked in the short term, the market is expected to face significant selling pressure.
Continued GBTC sell-off:
It is worth noting that since the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a bitcoin spot ETF, the price of bitcoin has been continuously falling from its high of $48,969 on the 11th. This morning, it fell below the $40,000 mark. The market generally believes that the recent decline in bitcoin is related to continued profit-taking due to the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC) approaching zero premium and high management fees.
GBTC is currently the world’s largest bitcoin ETF, previously holding over $25 billion worth of bitcoin. Ran Neuner, co-founder and CEO of Onchain Capital, warned earlier this month that bitcoin could face a period of sell-off, as $25 billion is a significant position. Even if only 20% is redeemed, it would still mean $5 billion worth of sell-off in the market. According to Arkham Intelligence data, GBTC still holds approximately 573,000 bitcoins, equivalent to about $23 billion. When combined with Mt. Gox’s 140,000 bitcoins, bitcoin may face a potential sell-off of over 700,000 bitcoins in the short term, indicating that the recent trend of bitcoin is expected to continue to be volatile.