Creditors of the defunct Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox have started receiving fiat repayments for their trapped Bitcoin nearly a decade after the exchange’s shutdown. Reports emerging from the Reddit community suggest that Mt. Gox has initiated the repayment process, with users claiming to have received Japanese Yen-denominated payments via PayPal.
Mt. Gox creditors receive repayments after a decade
After years of uncertainty and legal battles, creditors of Mt. Gox are finally seeing signs of their long-awaited repayments. The exchange, once a major player in the cryptocurrency space, shut down in February 2014 following the disappearance of a substantial amount of Bitcoin. This event left many users without access to their funds.
Reports on the subreddit r/mtgoxinsolvency indicate that some users have received repayments from Mt. Gox, with screenshots of PayPal receipts as evidence. These repayments come almost ten years after the funds were initially locked on the exchange, rekindling hope for those who had given up on recovering their assets.
Reddit users took to the platform to share their experiences with the unexpected repayments. One user, Free-end254, excitedly announced, “I just got paid,” along with a screenshot of the PayPal payment confirmation.
Another user recounted initially mistaking the email as a phishing scam but later confirmed the legitimacy of the payment, stating that money had been deposited into their PayPal account. However, not all users received their full claims, as one individual reported receiving 30,283 yen (approximately $200) for their 0.125 Bitcoin claim, leaving them with a substantial amount still pending.
Phased repayments
The repayment process for Mt. Gox creditors is expected to occur in multiple phases. These phases include the base repayment, an early lump-sum repayment, and an intermediate repayment.
The recent reports suggest that the base repayment phase may have commenced, offering a glimmer of hope to the affected users.
The first signs of Mt. Gox repayments appeared in December when a pseudonymous Japanese Twitter user shared that they had received their Mt. Gox claims via a bank transfer, converted into Japanese Yen. This development marked a significant step in the restitution process, offering further assurance to creditors.
Trustee’s email and revised timeline
Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee responsible for overseeing the distribution of assets from the Mt. Gox estate, sent out emails to rehabilitation creditors on November 21, indicating the commencement of repayments.
In these emails, Kobayashi mentioned plans to initiate the first cash repayments in 2023, expecting to continue the process into 2024. However, he did not provide specific details regarding the timing of repayments for individual rehabilitation creditors.
Notably, in September, the Mt. Gox Trustee extended the repayment deadline from October 31, 2023, to the same date in 2024. Despite this extension, it was mentioned that some rehabilitation creditors who had already provided the necessary information could receive repayments “as early as the end of this year.”
