Mt. Gox, a once-dominant Bitcoin exchange hub, has recently made substantial movements of its Bitcoin holdings, arousing significant interest in the cryptocurrency market. In just three hours, the company has transferred more than 140,000 Bitcoins, now valued at roughly $9 billion, from its primary wallet to a known cold wallet and two undisclosed locations.
This shift in activity occurred after a dormant period of two weeks, causing speculation and anxiety among market observers. Nearly 96,000 Bitcoins, equal to over $6 billion, were divided between the two unknown wallets, while the remaining initial transfer consisted of about 44,527 Bitcoins to the Mt. Gox cold wallet.
This mass transaction resulted in a total of around 190,000 Bitcoins being mobilized, which represents over $12 billion in value. The fears stirred by the sudden movement of these large amounts of Bitcoin have already impacted the market negatively, causing the value of Bitcoin to decline profoundly.
The Bitcoin price had reached an impressive $65,000 on July 16, but this dropped to around $63,000 shortly after the transactions. This trend spilled over to other cryptocurrencies, causing a drop in price. Altcoins such as Uniswap, Polkadot, and Bitcoin Cash experienced more than 5% decrease in their value.
Besides, the announcement made by Mt. Gox on July 5 about repaying their BTC and BCH debts raises questions about how this move could affect the market in the long term. The mechanism of repayment was said to be through designated crypto exchanges, and this mass exodus of Bitcoins may function as a prompt payback to its creditors.