Mt. Gox has transferred $9 billion worth of Bitcoin to a single wallet as part of its plans to repay creditors.
Wallets associated with the now-defunct Mt. Gox exchange have transferred nearly 107,000 bitcoin since the early hours of Tuesday. This movement has resulted in a bearish market response, with the price of bitcoin dropping by 1.2% due to anticipated selling pressure.
Over 140,000 BTC, valued at approximately $9 billion, were shifted from Mt. Gox wallets to an unknown address through thirteen transactions. This activity is speculated to be part of a strategy to repay the exchange's creditors by October 31, 2024.
Following the transfers, Bitcoin's value dipped by 1.4%, falling to a low of $67,680 after having reached a high of over $70,000 on the preceding Monday.
Mt. Gox, which was once the most prominent bitcoin exchange globally, ceased operations in 2014 after a significant hack led to the loss of hundreds of thousands of bitcoin. Since then, creditors have been awaiting the return of their investments, a situation that has been presumed to potentially increase selling pressure on the bitcoin market.
The rehabilitation trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, released a statement ensuring that no sale of bitcoin or bitcoin cash had occurred and that the assets were being managed securely.
Transaction records indicate that the bitcoin was moved in thirteen separate transfers, including a likely test transaction of $3 on May 20 and a subsequent smaller transaction of $160 early Tuesday. The rest of the transactions ranged in value from $1.2 million to $2.2 billion worth of bitcoin.
According to data from Bitinfocharts, all of Mt. Gox's bitcoins have now been consolidated into a single wallet, identified by the address “1JbezDVd9VsK9o1Ga9UqLydeuEvhKLAPs6.” This marks the first time in over five years that assets have been mobilized from Mt. Gox's cold wallets and is presumably part of an asset distribution plan to the creditors before the specified 2024 deadline.
Despite this expectation, the market has reacted cautiously to the transfers, with bearish sentiment leading to a decrease in bitcoin's price since the transfers began.
