mtGox Announces the start of BTC refunds | Will this impact BTC price?
Hello SPIers, today we look at mtGox, the exchange that got hacked over 10 years ago and is only getting around to issuing refunds now. Im surprised to not see anybody write about this on HIVE because it's a pretty big crypto event that has been talked about for many years as people speculate a huge dumping of BTC when people are issued refunds.
What is mtGox?
From Wikipedia...
Mt. Gox was a bitcoin exchange based in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan. Launched in 2010, it was handling over 70% of all bitcoin (BTC) buys/sells worldwide by early 2014, when it abruptly ceased operations amid revelations of its involvement in the loss/theft of hundreds of thousands of bitcoins (800,000), then worth hundreds of millions in US dollars, today worth tens of billions of dollars.
In February 2014, Mt. Gox suspended trading, closed its website and exchange service, and filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors. In April 2014, the company began liquidation proceedings. Although 200,000 bitcoins have since been "found", the reasons for the disappearance—theft, fraud, mismanagement, or a combination of these—were initially unclear. New evidence presented in April 2015 by Tokyo security company WizSec led them to conclude that "most or all of the missing bitcoins were stolen straight out of the Mt. Gox hot cryptocurrency wallet over time, beginning in late 2011.
People traveled the world and camped outside the head offices for weeks demanding answers when they declared the hack
.
People who held BTC on mtGox back then were given 2 options in 2018 to receive a refund. The first is a small cash payment and then around 15% of the BTC they lost and the second which will come after is a cash-only payout, this cash payout amount will depend on the price of BTC when they sell them.
I held BTC with mtGox and I chose option 1. I received a small cash payout in March 2024 and now Im waiting for my BTC refund that will be refunded to my Kraken account. I'll also receive the same amount as Bitcoin cash cause it came after the hack. I do have a real fear of Kraken randomly closing my account because this happens alot within cefi exchanges. I am waiting for a Celsius refund that I cant receive because coinbase decided to close my account as soon as I KYCd. Now I get an email from Celsius every 3-5 weeks telling me they can process my refund which is very annoying and leaves my powerless to do anything. Nexo which I loved using also randomly closed my account after 3 years but they gave me 10 days to withdraw my cryptos at least.
Lots of people have chosen the cash payout because alot of people who got hacked back then are no longer involved with crypto after being put off. They dont want a refund from a hacked cefi exchange going into another cefi exchange that requires them to KYC and could close their account at any time. They would just prefer the cash to buy a house are dump it into a retirement fund.
Why are people worried?
Alot of people have speculated that when these BTC refunds start to get issued, there will be a huge selloff of BTC tokens dumping the price. I do not think we'll see any impact at all because I'd assume the ones that choose to receive BTC understand that were in the middle of the bullrun and the biggest gains come at the end. People might sell a small slice to enjoy the windfall and continue to HODL most of what they are refunded to sell at a much later date. On top of that, daily volume trading for BTC is $20-30 billion so a billion here and there makes not much difference.
People are worried about the wrong BTC coin
People who hold Bitcoin Cash should be alot more worried because this is the token (not coin) everyone will dump. Some might HODL it but from what I see on a mtGox subreddit with over 10k members, nobody is planning to hold Bitcoin Cash. If you're HODLing Bitcoin cash, you're gonna have some bad times I feel int eh short term anyway.
What do you think?
- Do you think there will be a huge dump of BTC when these refunds are issued?
- Are you set to receive a refund?
- If so, what are your plans? Lambo?
Me, personally. What I get back will not change my life as I have no plans to sell any. I might treat the wife to some jewellery and a new watch for me with the Bitcoin cash but no plans to sell any of the BTC. It was reported on July 4th that mtGox victims will ROI 9900%, nothing wrong with a 10-year wait for a 99x return 😁
Getting Rich Slowly from June 2019
| Token Name | Main Account | Link to hive-engine |
|---|---|---|
| SPI token | @spinvest | SPI |
| LBI token | @lbi-token | LBI |
| Top XV token | @spinvest | XV |
| Eddie Earners | @eddie-earner | EDS |
| EDS miners | @eddie-earner | EDSM |
| EDS mini miners | @eddie-earner | EDSMM |
| DAB | @dailydab | DAB |
| DBOND | @dailydab | DBOND |
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Not exactly the HODL strategy one may be looking for. Although good to see finally being resolved.
Holy Christ, you can write normally!
I'll be happy to see it end. Im waiting on an email from Kraken to confirm they with received the funds and then i'll need to wait 60-90 days before its credited to my account. Just my luck, my account will get locked! baa-haha
Wish you the best! Yeah so many challenges and horror stories.
It is insane it took them 10 years to attempt to resolve that whole situation.
Celsius which went bust 2 years ago has already started to pay out. Im due a refund but coinbase locked my account so now i need to wait for months for a cash payout instead.
But yeah, 10 years is crazy. They recovered 25% and we're getting back 15% so 10% has gone toward paying a liquidations team salary for 10 years. 80k BTC worth $4.8B at today's prices paid to the liquidation team. They were the real winners!
It's unbelievable the legal fees for sure. And if you think about the original Mt GOX situation they were able to recover the Forked assets as well but I think they only recovered Bitcoin Cash. The way they really could have rode the waves they could have practically gotten everyone back double what they put in. I haven't looked into it recently but the CEO of Mt Gox Mark Karpelis was originally going to potentially end up with a huge winfall from the whole thing as well the way it was structured but I don't know what the status is now.