Mt.Gox moves huge Bitcoin positions for first time

Creditors of the exchange that collapsed in 2014 will soon get their lost BTC. The first reaction is a drop in the Bitcoin price.

The closed exchange Mt.Gox apparently initiated billions in Bitcoin transfers for the first time in the early hours of this morning. This is evidenced by, among other things on-chain data from Arkham Intelligence.

At the time of writing, at least 100,000 BTC has flowed from a wallet of the exchange to various unknown addresses. The equivalent value exceeds five billion US dollars.

Mt.Gox lost a total of 850,000 Bitcoin in the 2014 hack. About 142,000 BTC could now be paid out to investors who had already bought Bitcoin before the exchange collapsed.

Because these Bitcoin investors are theoretically sitting on huge, unrealized gains, some in the crypto space fear a crash.

As an initial reaction to the reports, the Bitcoin price fell about 2 percent today. BTC is currently trading at about $67,700.

Officially, the recovered coins must be distributed by Oct. 31, 2024. Meanwhile, experts expect creditors to actually sell only a portion of the coins.

How much Bitcoin will actually hit the market remains to be seen. So far, there are no reports of sales by creditors.