Who would have thought, nearly four years ago, that such commotion would surround Mt Gox? The Japanese cryptocurrency exchange and once largest trading and storing bitcoin platform is heard of again, having in its possession a wallet filled with bitcoins eventually worth billions. 

In February 2014, under the management of CEO Mark Karpelès, the platform was declared bankrupt after the disappearance of more than 800,000 bitcoins from its vaults. The platform’s liquidation was agreed with the creditors for a then reasonable price of about USD 440 per bitcoin. Amid an easily conceivable bewilderment, a remaining wallet was found later on, containing 202,185 bitcoins. A sum worth, at the time I am writing this article, USD 2,970,906,390. Thus, now that the cryptocurrency’s price rocketed, this liquidation would result in handing over the remaining amount of bitcoins to Mr Karpelès, making him multibillionaire.

Naturally, creditors are not going to stay still and watch such a fortune slip through their fingers. In a petition, four of the largest stakeholders are calling for the court to consider changing the status of the firm from bankruptcy into civil rehabilitation. This move would allow spreading the remaining funds on a pro-rata basis.

Read more on the Financial Times.

By Jean Leguy, Research Coordinator at Holland FinTech