Users of the now-defunct exchange Mt. Gox are preparing to recover their stolen Bitcoin, which offers a new selling threat to bitcoin in the near future.
The threat of a rumored 140,000 BTC flooding the market seems imminent as creditors of Mt. Gox chooses how much money they want to receive in cash, Bitcoin, and Bitcoin Cash.
The trustee designated in the Mt. Gox rehabilitation process in a recent letter dated July 6, attorney Nobuaki Kobayashi, confirmed that he was “preparing to make payments” to account holders.
The Recovery Trustee will set the registration and choice deadlines with the Court’s agreement, the appointed trustee further indicated in the official correspondence.
In the official email, Kobayashi didn’t give a specific start date for the repayments, but the end of August this year was noted. Those who are owed money now have the option of receiving it as a “Early Lump-Sum Repayment or not,” as well as receiving all or part of it in Bitcoin or Bitcoin Cash.
It has been a long time coming, as have concerns about the market impact, for those who lost money eight years after the collapse of My. Gox and are now scheduled to receive BTC. Analysts noted that Bitcoin’s worth at the time was a tiny fraction of its current value of $20,600, which sparked worries that recipients may quickly sell substantial amounts of BTC on the market, pushing prices lower.
Bitcoin was worth $463 at the time of the exchange’s demise, increasing the value of the owed users by 50 times. There have also been worries that the release of these tokens could have disastrous effects on the value of Bitcoin and the cryptocurrency market, akin to the collapse of Terra LUNA and the liquidation of 3AC.
But as one Twitter user noted, the worry over the upcoming publication is exaggerated and causing more dread than necessary.
The rehabilitation strategy was initially approved in 2018 and formally validated in October of the same year. Out of the initial 850,000 BTC lost due to Mt. Gox’s collapse, only a reported 140,000 BTC have been recovered.