Crypto Companies That Collapse, Mt Gox, Start Compensating User Funds Starting This Year

Mt. Gox compensation for user funds from this year until 2024. (Photo; Doc. BitcoinDynamic)

JAKARTA - Mt. Gox, a Japanese crypto company that is no longer active due to a massive hack that occurred about a decade ago. The crypto company had to lose 850,000 Bitcoins after being drained by hackers in 2014.

Recently, Mt. Gox reportedly started paying creditors this year after the crypto exchange company's 2014 collapse. Creditors began receiving notification via email from Mt. Gox. The email states that creditors will start accepting payments in cash as a form of compensation.

The email states that payments will start around this year and continue into 2024. But, unfortunately, Mt. Gox did not specify when payments would begin or when creditors would receive the cash payments.

For this reason and other reasons, the specific payment time for individual rehabilitation creditors has not been determined..." wrote the statement in the email.

Although this is a good move from Mt. Gox, observers actually question the payment in the form of Bitcoin to creditors who expect it. The email did not mention compensation in BTC.

According to MtGoxBalanceBot, the X account that tracks the balance at all addresses known to be held by MtGox's guardian, Nobuaki Kobayashi has 137,890,9811 BTC. The account also notes that the Trustee (Trustee) has an additional 3,795 BTC at an unknown address.

In addition to emails sent to creditors, the Trustee also published announcements. The publication stated that Nobuaki Kobayashi received more than 7 billion Japanese yen (approximately $47 million) to finance creditors' payments.

History Of Mt. Gox Hacking

For your information, Mt. Gox is a crypto exchange company based in Shibuya, Japan, first founded in 2010. Mt. Gox became the world's largest Bitcoin exchange company to make around 70% of Bitcoin trading globally in 2013.

According to a CoinSpeller report, four years after launch, Mt. Gox suddenly stopped withdrawing (withdrawal) customer funds after a massive hack that eliminated 850,000 Bitcoins. Mt. Gox then suspended its operations and filed bankruptcy protection to the local government.

On June 9, 2023, the US Department of Justice (DOJ) released an announcement on its official website, stating that DOJ charged two Russian nationals suspected of being involved in hacking Mt. Gox. Both, Alexey Bilyuchenko (43) and Aleksandr Verner (29) were charged with stealing 647,000 Bitcoins.

According to court documents, the two conspired to launder about 647,000 bitcoins from Mt. Gox's hack. Alexey Bilyuchenko was also charged with conspiring with Alexander Vinnik to operate the illegal crypto trading company BTC-e from 2011 to 2017.

"This announcement marks an important milestone in two major cryptocurrency investigations. As alleged in the indictment, starting in 2011, Bilyuchenko and Verner stole a large amount of cryptocurrency from Mt. Gox, which led to the bankruptcy of the exchange. Armed with profits illegally obtained from Mt. Gox, Bilyuchenko later allegedly helped set up a notorious violent BTC-e virtual currency exchange, which launders funds for cybercriminals around the world," said Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. from the Department of Justice's Criminal Division.

"This indictment highlights the department's unshakable commitment to adjudicate criminals in the cryptocurrency ecosystem and prevent the misuse of the financial system," he added.