Mt. Gox moves 37,477 BTC to an unknown wallet, $147 M transferred to Bitstamp

Mt. Gox has moved 37,477 Bitcoin to an unknown wallet address. The defunct crypto exchange has now distributed over 40% of the cryptocurrencies it owes to its creditors.

According to data from blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, the $2.5 billion worth of funds were transferred from a Mt. Gox-linked wallet on July 24 at 4:53 am UTC.

The recipient wallet is identified as “12G…u9u,” most likely belonging to a centralised crypto exchange.

Mt. Gox moving funds to Bitstamp

The transfer was followed by another 5106 BTC being moved to two wallets. One wallet was linked to the crypto exchange Bitstamp, which received 2,237 BTC worth $147 million. The remaining 2,869 BTC was sent to an unknown wallet identified by 1MzhW.

Arkham Intelligence also recorded two test transactions for $0.36 and $1.33k worth of BTC directed towards wallets linked to Bitstamp.

This pattern has been observed every time right before the defunct crypto exchange initiates a large transfer. As such, Bitstamp is expected to receive more funds.

Bitstamp is a trustee selected by Mt Gox for the payout process. Just a day before, the exchange transferred over $2.8 billion to multiple addresses. $340 million from the transfer was directed towards a wallet tied to Bitstamp.

Specifically, the exchange received transfers of 1598 BTC ($106.3 million), 382.4 BTC ($25.4 million), 2239 BTC ($149.1 million), and 890.9 BTC ($59.3 million).

Other exchanges working with Mt. Gox include Kraken, BitStamp, and SBI VC Trade.

Several Kraken users confirmed receiving payments on July 23 on the social media platform Reddit. However, the exchange received those funds on July 16 and promised to distribute the funds within two weeks.

In the case of Bitbank, it is not known when the exchange plans to start distributing funds.

Currently, the exchange still holds $5.93 billion worth of Bitcoin, which accounts for approximately 60% of the $9 billion worth of bitcoin it plans to reimburse its creditors.

The history of Mt. Gox

Mt Gox initially announced plans to repay its creditors 142,000 BTC, 143,000 BCH, and ¥69 billion (approximately $432 million at the time) in June 2024. The plans were disclosed nearly a decade after the exchange collapsed.

The exchange was founded in 2010 and quickly became one of the largest Bitcoin exchanges in the world. However, a hack resulted in the platform’s bankruptcy, with 850,000 BTC worth about $450 million at the time stolen.

Against this backdrop, the repayments have sparked concerns of added selling pressure on the price of BTC. In early July, the flagship cryptocurrency saw a drop in price right after an initial 47k BTC was moved.

At the time of publication there hasn’t been any major movements with BTC trading at $65,988.

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