Mt. Gox creditors offered fresh hope with new ‘commencement of repayment’ email

The Mt. Gox trustee announced the redemption of $47 million in trust assets amid social media reports suggesting repayment to creditors could start in 2023.

Creditors of Mt. Gox, a now-defunct Bitcoin (BTC) exchange that lost 850,000 BTC to a hack in 2014, have received a new email hinting at soon-to-come repayments.

On Nov. 21, Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee overseeing the Mt. Gox Bitcoin exchange’s estate, started sending out emails to rehabilitation creditors regarding the commencement of repayments, according to multiple social media reports. One Mt. Gox creditor confirmed receiving the email from the trustee to Cointelegraph, noting that the email was in Japanese and English. 

The Kobayashi email on social media states that the trustee plans to start the first repayments to creditors in cash in 2023. Kobayashi expects to continue the repayments in 2024 but did not provide the specific timing of repayments to individual rehabilitation creditors. According to the email:

“Due to the large number of rehabilitation creditors who will receive repayment, the varying types of repayments, the different preparation and processing times required to make the repayment, repayments will continue into 2024.”

The social media reports came as the Mt. Gox trustee announced the redemption of trust assets on Nov. 22. According to the official document, the rehabilitation trustee received the redemption of 7 billion Japanese yen ($47 million) to fund the repayment of the claims. The statement noted that the trust assets after such redemption amounted to 8.8 billion yen, or roughly $59 million.

“The rehabilitation trustee will continue preparations to make the base repayment, early lump-sum repayment, and the intermediate repayment,” the announcement notes.

The latest Mt. Gox events have triggered many reactions in the community, with many commentators noting that the new email from the Mt. Gox trustee sounds “cautiously promising” and interpret it as “finally happening.”

Mt Gox is beginning sales pic.twitter.com/WJbj1nrEO9

— Napgone (@napgener) November 22, 2023

Some Mt. Gox rehabilitation watchers also noted that the new email only referred to cash payments, while many Mt. Gox hack victims expect large amounts of Bitcoin to be returned. According to data from the Mt. Gox balance bot on X (formerly Twitter), the Mt. Gox trustee holds 135,890 BTC on all known addresses, worth nearly $5 billion at the time of writing, according to CoinGecko. An additional 3,795 BTC ($130 million) are held on unknown addresses, according to the Mt. Gox balance bot.

“I think most creditors understand that one follows the other, and a cash payment after ten years is progress,” one Reddit user responded.

Related: Poloniex says hacker’s identity is confirmed, offers last bounty at $10M

Some Mt. Gox community members also brought attention to the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suing of Kraken on Nov. 21. This major crypto exchange has been largely involved in the repayment of Mt. Gox hack victims.

“Imagine Kraken collapses just before receiving Mt. Gox coins. Another ten years,” one Redditor wrote.

Despite a significant part of the community getting excited about the recent Mt. Gox events, some observers still have expressed skepticism about the repayment due to the long history of failing to make repayments.

The Mt. Gox trustee was previously expected to repay the exchange’s creditors by the end of October 2023. In September 2023, the trustee officially moved the repayment deadline to October 2024.

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