Deadline for Mt. Gox rehabilitation claims filing approaches

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The deadline for rehabilitation claims against the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox is rapidly approaching, with just days remaining for investors to recover trapped funds.

The claims process first opened back in August for clients of the now defunct exchange, inviting applications from Mt. Gox customers still waiting for the money back, some years after the exchange collapsed.

With the deadline set at October 22, the race is now on for affected clients to file their rehabilitation claims, to avoid missing out on the funds they’ve been waiting for.

The process was initiated back in June, following a ruling in the Japanese bankruptcy court which meant claimants could file civil actions for their crypto assets, rather than the equivalent fiat value.

At the time of the Mt. Gox collapse, BTC was worth less than $600. Yet the ruling means claimants can file for the return of their crypto assets at today’s prices. Following the deadline, the exchange’s trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi has an additional three-month window in which to accept or reject the claims.

For the time being, however, it is not yet possible for creditors to claim the proceeds from hard forks since 2014, which would provide a significant boost to the value of individual claims.

The position was set out in a statement on the civil rehabilitation process: “At this moment, we plan not to accept specific filing of cryptocurrencies other than bitcoins. Instead, we plan to deem bitcoin creditors who have filed a proof of claim for bitcoins have also filed a proof of claims for other cryptocurrencies proportionate to the number of bitcoins filed. We will post the further detailed information on this website.”

The Mt. Gox collapse in 2014 saw some 850,000 BTC claimed were lost or stolen, in one of the most high profile hacks to undermine the legacy token over previous years. Amid allegations of fraud and money laundering, the collapse is still tied up in the courts.

The claims process extends to both individuals and corporate investors in the failed exchange, many of whom still hold out hope of recovering their assets—almost five years after Mt. Gox suspended trading.