Bitcoin Mt. Gox Victims Could Soon See 88% of Losses Returned
Ricardo Martinez | Feb 19, 2020 | 13:41
Fortress Investment Group, a Mt. Gox creditor, has increased its offer to victims of the infamous Bitcoin exchange hack. In its newest offer to victims, Fortress offered $1300 per bitcoin or an estimated 88% of account value at the time of the hack. But will the offer be accepted this time?
Are Mt. Gox investors willing to accept the offer?
Mt. Gox is perhaps the most infamous hack in crypto history, despite it not being the largest. What sets the hack of the Japan-based exchange apart, is that it was the only Bitcoin exchange with significant volume at the time, and was responsible for 70% of Bitcoin trades at the time the hack.
Investors on the platform collectively lost around 850,000 Bitcoin, or roughly 7% of the total existing supply at the time of the attack. In 2014, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy and victims of the hack have been in limbo ever since. Many have given up all hope of ever being made whole again.
After Mt. Gox owner Mark Karpeles was sent to prison, the BTC ended up in the hands of a trustee appointed by Japanese courts. The trustee was responsible for making payouts to creditors like Fortress and Mt. Gox investors with the remaining 141,000 BTC, but the process has seen significant delays and legal complications.
Fortress, has made several prior offers to Mt. Gox victims. Their initial offer was $755 per BTC, then they dropped the offer to $600 as spot price for Bitcoin fell last March. This latest offer is the best one yet, at $1300 per BTC or 88% of the estimated value of Mt. Gox accounts at the time of the attack.
Why has it taken so long for investors to be reimbursed?
Mt. Gox creditors initially claimed losses of 2.4 trillion from the hack, the Japanese courts were only able to recover $91 million in funds to distribute to Mt. Gox’s 127,000 creditors. Japanese court proceedings have also been slow.
To add to the complications of redistributing the recovered funds to investors, some creditors have tried to hijack the payout process. Another aspect slowing down payouts and adding to the confusion was Karpeles himself misleading investigators on the financial situation of Mt. Gox, making efforts to recover funds more difficult.
Since the time of the attack, Bitcoin has risen in price significantly leaving creditors even more bitter about the losses sustained in the exchange hack. The rapidly increasing value of Bitcoin has not made dispute resolution any easier.
It remains to be seen if investors will accept Fortress’ latest offer, seeing it as something is better than nothing at all, or if they will fight for a valuation more in line with current prices for the cryptocurrency they lost.
What do you think of Fortess’ latest offer to Mt. Gox victims? Let us know in the comments!
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