One of the things that make cryptocurrencies risky is the fact that you will have to deal with things the possibility of hacking incidences. Mt. Gox and Coincheck are among the biggest hacking incidents in history.
In Japan, after the Coincheck hacking incident, Japanese regulators are looking to take the necessary steps in order to stop these kinds of scenarios from happening again. Rules and regulations that cover crypto exchanges operating in Japan have become stricter. This was applied both on those existing crypto exchanges in the country and those that are looking to operate in the future. And for this reason, even Kraken decided to operate elsewhere.
Concerns Over Sell-Off
Many are quite concerned regarding the sell-off that Mt. Gox is going to make which could easily affect the price of Bitcoin. And for those who are monitoring the movement of crypto wallets associated with Mt. Gox, their paranoia is justified as Nobuaki Kobayashi, the exchange operator’s trustee, confirmed that Mt. Gox sold around 24,657 Bitcoin and 25,331 Bitcoin Cash between March 7 and June 22. This has allowed the estate to exit bankruptcy and enter civil rehabilitation.
The estate garnered a total of around $230 million. The cryptocurrencies were obtained about $8,100 per BTC and around $1,190 per BCH in contrast to their current value of under $6,500 and under $450 respectively.
The purpose of the sale was to secure the interests of the bankruptcy creditors. This is required before the estate could enter civil rehabilitation.
According to Kobayashi, “Due to the Sale, the bankruptcy trustee has already secured suitable amount of money to secure the interests that are expected to have obtained by BTC creditors under the Bankruptcy Proceedings in connection with BTC claims to be treated as non-monetary claims under the Civil Rehabilitation Proceedings. Accordingly, the bankruptcy trustee has determined that the interests expected to have already been obtained in the Bankruptcy Proceedings can be secured without taking the profit-securing measures under the Trust Agreement and Guarantee Entrustment and Guarantee Agreement for the BTC claims, and the BTC claims are not included in the subject protected claims under the Trust Agreement and the Guarantee Entrustment and Guarantee Agreement”.
Past Sell-Off
It isn’t the first time that Mt. Gox sold its cryptocurrencies. In a matter of six months, Mt. Gox sold more than $400 million worth of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Kobayashi received criticism for the manner in which the cryptocurrencies were sold. Instead of making use of an over-the-counter broker, the funds were transferred using order-books exchanges. This has magnified the effect on spot Bitcoin price.
There is approximately around 137,891 BTC and BCH worth around $945 million in today’s current exchange rate. These funds were recovered after the exchange was dissolved in 2014 after a $470 million theft.
For the traders to have their compensation, they should submit claims by October 22. Most of its creditors are hopeful that the payments are going to be made in cryptocurrency rather than fiat coming from the proceeds of the massive sell-off. Unfortunately, nothing is final yet. The compensation is dependent on the rehabilitation plan that will be approved by the court.
