Fortress Investment Group has notified all creditors of the now-defunct Mt. Gox cryptocurrency exchange that it would like to buy their claims for twice their worth. The New York-based investment group plans on paying out the claims in either crypto or fiat.
Mt. Gox creditors have been involved in endless court cases as they seek to recover the money they lost when the exchange went under. With some of the cases still pending in court, Fortress has swooped in to offer the creditors a lifeline.
According to the letter, which was shared with CoinDesk, the firm is purchasing the claims for a SegWitCoin (BTC) investment vehicle which it operates. Fortress’ managing director, Michael Hourigan, who personally wrote the letter to the creditors, informed them that his firm would be comfortable with waiting for the resolution of the matter which is before a Japanese court.
Hourigan further wrote, “We review each claim individually but are now generally able to offer $900 per BTC claim, or roughly 200% of the bankruptcy value (which was $451 per BTC claim). We can pay that in Bitcoin, or any fiat currency of your choice. Our payment would be made within 10 business days of the claim transfer confirmation.”
While the Fortress offer sounds too good to pass on for the creditors, it’s still not what they originally wished for. The creditors have filed cases in court, most recently in Tokyo, Japan, in the hope that they would receive the BTC which they lost, rather than the cash equivalent of their losses. The $900 that Fortress offers them may be twice what the BTC was worth at the time of the exchange’s shutdown, but it’s still way below BTC’s current price which stands at $12,380.
Fortress gave the creditors until July 31 to reach out.
The investment group has long been active in the crypto space, preceding most of the modern crypto funds. Its former chief investment officer, Michael Novogratz went on to become the founder of Galaxy Digital, a crypto merchant bank. Novogratz is also one of the most widely known crypto bulls.
The defunct exchange, which lost 850,000 BTC five years ago in one of the biggest heists in the space, has faced one lawsuit after another over the years. In its latest court case, the founder Jed McCaleb was accused of fraudulent misrepresentation. The plaintiffs, who are two former Mt. Gox traders, accused McCaleb, who is also the founder of Stellar cryptocurrency, of contributing in part to the losses suffered by the exchange.
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