Customers of the First Bitcoin Giant MtGox Will Soon Share $9B
What will the refunded customers do with their Bitcoin?
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It is February 26, 2014. Ulcerated customers come to stand on the sidewalk at the foot of MtGox's headquarters in the Shibuya district of Tokyo. In front of photographers and the freezing rain, they then wave signs marked with the inscription: “MtGox, Where is our money?”.
With this collective action, these cheated customers wanted to challenge the boss of the company MtGox, the French Mark Karpelès.
Two days earlier, the MtGox platform, which had established itself as the first giant of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, had suspended all its transactions, creating panic among its 24,000 users. On February 28, 2014, MtGox finally declared bankruptcy and revealed that its 850,000 BTC stockpile, the equivalent of $500 million at the time, had been stolen.
In the aftermath, MtGox's customers began proceedings for compensation. More than seven years later, these defrauded customers will soon share a small fortune.
Scammed customers will be big winners given the explosion in the price of Bitcoin since 2014
After a long judicial and administrative process, Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee who managed the bankruptcy of the MtGox platform, has just announced that his mission has come to an end and that he will finally be able to distribute the assets of MtGox, and especially the tens of thousands of BTC that Mark Karpelès had discovered, in the course of the investigation, in unconnected cold storages of his company, proportionally to the victims.
In total, the agent, who now has a treasure trove of 141,686 Bitcoin (out of the 200,000 found), cash, and Bitcoin Cash (BCH), should share the equivalent of $9 billion among the victims of MtGox.
With the price of Bitcoin having risen from $580 in early 2014 to $60K today, each defrauded customer will recover, despite the disappearance of the bulk of the Bitcoin held in 2014 by MtGox, more than 20 times their initial stake. Pretty interesting, when there is no guarantee that these customers would have HODL Bitcoin no matter what until today.
Mark Karpelès declares himself relieved:
“For me, this is a huge relief. The customers will be able to get their money back.”
MtGox founder won't get a cent from this BTC distribution
Eighteen months after the bankruptcy of MtGox, the young French entrepreneur had been arrested by police and remanded for nearly a year at the Kosuge detention center, made famous in 2018 during the arrest of Carlos Ghosn. Prosecutors, who had initially suspected him of being the author of the great hold-up of his own platform, had finally indicted him for three other financial crimes.
At the end of his trial, Mark Karpelès was acquitted of the two most important charges but received a suspended prison sentence for computer data manipulation. This verdict was confirmed on appeal for the computer engineer, who has since started a new career in Tokyo.
The former boss of MtGox says he is happy that the outcome of this story is close. He will not receive a cent from the distribution of the assets of his former company, which was the first giant in the history of Bitcoin.
Further investigations have since proven that the quiet siphoning of the MtGox platform was initiated by a team of hackers even before he took control in March 2011. Former customers, who reported to the trustee and voted for his rehabilitation plan, will now have to take a final administrative step and explain how they want to be reimbursed in the coming weeks.
The question now is: what will the refunded customers do with their Bitcoin?
Some may wish to receive fiat currency, while others may opt for BTC. Analysts are watching for the arrival of tens of thousands of Bitcoin on the market. This could have a downward impact on the price of Bitcoin if a large number of MtGox customers decide to sell their newly recovered assets quickly.
Those who fully believe in the Bitcoin revolution could opt for a longer-term strategy by deciding to HODL Bitcoin no matter what in the belief that the king of digital currency can succeed in its flippening mission with gold over the next decade.
Some reading
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