The lawyer appointed to oversee the Mt. Gox refunds, Nobuaki Kobayashi, has reportedly liquidated around $230 million worth of Bitcoin BCH and BTC in the past four months. Kobayashi made the revelation in a statement (in pdf) on Tuesday, adding that he will soon provide additional information to creditors on the next steps needed to recuperate their investments stemming from the 2014 hack.
Kobayashi has made several large sell-offs since he was selected to be the Mt. Gox trustee in 2017. In the latest, and final, round, he indicated that he had sold a total of 25,331 Bitcoin BCH and 24,658 BTC. He added that the sell-offs took place “during the period from the 10th creditors’ meeting in the Bankruptcy Proceedings to the commencement of Civil Rehabilitation Proceedings.” That meeting took place last March 7.
In explaining the sale, Kobayashi said in his announcement, “Due to the Sale, the bankruptcy trustee has already secured a suitable amount of money to secure the interests that are expected to have obtained by BTC creditors under the Bankruptcy Proceedings in connection with BTC claims to be treated as non-monetary claims under the Civil Rehabilitation Proceedings. Accordingly, the bankruptcy trustee has determined that the interests expected to have already been obtained in the Bankruptcy Proceedings can be secured without taking the profit-securing measures under the Trust Agreement and Guarantee Entrustment and Guarantee Agreement for the BTC claims, and the BTC claims are not included in the subject protected claims under the Trust Agreement and the Guarantee Entrustment and Guarantee Agreement.”
Last June, a Japanese court signed off on a petition that would ultimately allow the exchange to begin civil rehabilitation. The approval of that petition paved the way for creditors to be repaid in cryptocurrency, instead of fiat, effectively ending the massive sell-offs. This was seen as good news by the crypto industry, as the sell-offs could have a potentially negative impact on the value of the digital assets.
According to the figures, a single BTC would have been worth around $8111 and Bitcoin BCH, $1195, based on the average price over the four-month period.
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