Mt. Gox Victims Prepare to Vote on Rehabilitation Plan

Key Takeaways

The trustee of the bankrupt Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has initiated the voting process on the latest rehabilitation plan.
At least 50% of the vote holders must agree to pass the vote.
The voting process will end on Oct. 8, 2021, after which Tokyo District Court will ratify the result to begin making payments.

Share this article

The trustee of the long-defunct Japanese exchange Mt. Gox has commenced the voting process to reach a final agreement on the distribution of residual funds. 

Mt. Gox Saga Continues 

The voting process for Mt. Gox’s rehabilitation plan has started.

The creditors of the defunct cryptocurrency exchange have been waiting on claims related to the exchange’s infamous 2014 hack. Mt. Gox handled roughly 70% of all Bitcoin transactions at the time and over 850,000 BTC was lost in the incident, leading to devastating losses for many customers.  

The creditors have until Oct. 8, 2021 to vote for or against the plan and over 50% of all vote holders must agree to the plan to reach a conclusion. An absence will be counted towards the against numbers. Once the deadline has passed, Tokyo District Court will gather the results and initiate payouts. 

The trust currently holds 141,686 BTC, 142,846 BCH, and 68 billion JPY, worth a total of around $5.82 billion. However, the claim amount is much higher than $5.82 billion. The trustee has approximately 23% of the total claims, with nearly 2% in dispute with Coinlabs. 

The rising price of cryptocurrencies since 2014 has been one of the key reasons for the prolonged stalemate between the trustee and creditors. The legal proceedings for the rehabilitation claim began in 2018. Until now, the creditors and trustees have disagreed on the proposed reimbursement amounts and the medium of claims. Creditors had the option to choose between Bitcoin or Japanese yen. 

According to the current proposed rehabilitation plan, the entities who filed a claim for fiat will receive the full value of the claim. Moreover, the trustee also sold a portion of the original recovered amount to protect crypto creditors who filed for bankruptcy. They will be covered at least for the minimum amount of their bankruptcy. 

Others will get a minimum base payment of 200,000 JPY ($1,800), deducted from their total claim. The rest can choose between a total of 21% reimbursement with a fast payment option or close to 23% of the amount, subject to future litigation. 

The trust hasn’t made the plan public and asked creditors to refrain from sharing the details, though at least one website dedicated to the payout has surfaced this year. The creditors will receive the voting documents by post or can choose the online voting option.

As the Mt. Gox case has been running for so long, it’s often been described as a neverending saga that would unlikely result in any payouts for victims. Now, though, it seems like creditors are one step closer to receiving some form of compensation.

Share this article