Kraken returns Bitcoin to Mt. Gox customers 10 years after hack
July 24, 2024 08:20 •
Kraken said Tuesday it had “successfully distributed” bitcoin and bitcoin cash to customers entangled in the hack that shut down former Japanese exchange Mt. Gox a decade ago.
“It has been nearly a decade since Kraken was selected by the Trustee to facilitate the investigation and return of customer funds. This is our privilege, and our duty,” Kraken CEO Dave Ripley said in a statement to X.
It is unclear how much Kraken has returned to Mt. Gox clients as part of its role. Kraken did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
It marks one of the last chapters to close in the Mt. Gox saga, which took years to resolve.
Kraken, as part of an overall effort to rehabilitate Mt. Gox users, is one of five missions to return customer funds to some of the 127,000 creditors affected by the 2014 collapse.
Creditors are said to be awaiting cash distributions worth more than $7 billion in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, and other entities trusted to mediate the process.
The crypto exchanges designated by the Mt. Gox estate to return stolen funds to former customers include Bitstamp, SBI VC Trade, Bitbank, and Coincheck.
The exact time when creditors can expect to receive funds from the other four exchanges remains unclear. The exchanges mentioned did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence said Tuesday that Mt. Gox has begun moving a total of $2.85 billion worth of bitcoin to new wallets, of which $340 million will be held in four separate addresses owned by Bitstamp.
Arkham wrote on Twitter that the Mt. Gox estate still holds approximately 85,234 BTC, valued at $5.7 billion.
While some customers were lucky enough to receive Bitcoin, local law enforcement in Japan managed to recover only 140,000 of the 850,000 stolen digital assets to repay creditors.
A rehabilitation proposal was approved in 2021, committing to repaying about 90% of assets owed to affected customers.
Mt. Gox, once the world's largest crypto exchange, processing more than 70% of the world's bitcoin transactions, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 after hackers stole 850,000 bitcoins (worth $56 billion at current market rates).
