A decade after the devastating Mt. Gox hack, it appears that victims of the breach can finally start looking forward to some compensation. Cold wallet addresses identified by Arkham as belonging to Mt. Gox have been conducting test transactions with small amounts of Bitcoin, known as “dust,” in the early hours of today.
Before the hack, Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was the leading cryptocurrency exchange for bitcoin, processing up to 70% of all global bitcoin transactions at its peak. However, in February 2014, the platform suspended withdrawals and soon announced a loss of between 650,000 and 850,000 BTC, which would be worth around $49 billion today but was worth around $500 million at the time.
Around 200,000 BTC were subsequently recovered from old wallets that were used by the company. Since then, victims have been waiting for refunds or negotiating their claims, while facing continued delays in legal proceedings. In a recent update, in September 2023, the deadline for refunds was extended by another year.
Mt Gox activating their wallets finally for repayments. Stay safe $BTC pic.twitter.com/SjST18kgoP
— Block_Diversity v.8 ™️ (@i_bot404) July 4, 2024
The Block’s Tim Copeland noted that one of the receiving addresses was marked as belonging to Bitbank, one of the few exchanges selected to distribute these funds.
According to the official schedule, rehabilitation administrator Nobuaki Kobayashi announced that repayments will begin “from early July 2024.”
The timing of these payments, however, has caused concern in the crypto community, mainly due to the recent downward trend in BTC prices, now trading at $57,369.64, which has seen a 17% drop in the last month. This decline has negatively influenced the entire cryptocurrency market. In the last 24 hours, more than $250 million in long positions have been liquidated, as reported by Coinglass.
In addition to the impending Mt. Gox refunds, other large amounts of BTC are being moved, including by the governments of Germany and the United States, which recently transferred significant amounts of confiscated funds.
This combination of low market sentiment and questionable timing has led some to speculate that authorities could be anticipating a future price crash linked to the Mt Gox events.
Even cryptocurrency wallets that had been dormant for years are being reactivated, as Coindesk reported on a “whale” wallet that, after six years of inactivity, transferred 1,000 BTC to Coinbase, realizing significant appreciation since its acquisition.
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Source: https://portalcripto.com.br/mt-gox-pagamentos-carteiras-de-bitcoin-sugerem-reembolsos-enquanto-mercado-esta-em-queda/
