The Tokyo lawyer and trustee for defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has disclosed the sale over $400 million in Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash since September 2017.
In an announcement [PDF] today, Tokyo District Court-assigned Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi who is overseeing the Mt. Gox creditors’ claims investigation said he sold approximately $406.6 million (JPY 42,988,044,343) in bitcoin cash. Kobayashi said the decision to sell the cryptocurrencies followed a consultation with the court as he sets out to reimburse Mt. Gox’s creditors. Nearly 90% of the cash raised came from the sale of bitcoin (BTC), with the rest in bitcoin cash (BCC), the Trustee revealed today during the tenth creditors’ meeting in Tokyo.
Kobayashi claimed it was “necessary and reasonable” to sell a portion of bitcoin and bitcoin cash since the 9th creditors’ meeting on September 27th, in order to “secure a certain amount of money for distribution resources.”
He added:
“I made efforts to sell BTC and BCC at as high a price as possible in light of the market price of BTC and BCC at the timing of the sale.”
Details from today’s disclosure reveal that the sale of approximately 35,000 BTC fetched a market average near $10,100.
Once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, the now-defunct Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in 2014 following the loss of an estimated 750,000 bitcoins. Former chief executive Mark Karpeles saw multiple charges including embezzlement. A sting at a Tokyo detention cell followed before an ongoing trial where Karpeles plead ‘not guilty’ to the charges.
The bankruptcy estate’s bitcoin reserves currently stand at 166,344.35 BTC, approximately $1.7 billion. Kobayashi insists that he will look to raise additional cash from future sales of BTC and BCC in order to ultimately reimburse nearly 25,000 accepted claims from creditors.
Kobayashi stated:
“I plan to consult with the court and determine further sale of BTC and BCC.”