Mt Gox Bankruptcy Trustee Issues New Details on Creditor Reimbursement

UPDATE (17th February 23:23 BST):This report has been updated with additional information.

The bankruptcy trustee for the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox has released a new update, offering fresh details on the claims submitted so far.

The report, published today by trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi, states that a total of 24,733 people have filed claims against the bankrupt exchange, 9,863 of which relate to bitcoin holdings lost when Mt Gox went bust in 2014.

The firm filed for bankruptcy just days after details of its insolvency first emerged, with the claims process beginning last spring. Kobayashi would later extend that deadline.

According to the report, creditors claimed ¥40,130,744,194 (roughly $350m) in lost BTC deposits, for which ¥12,583,717,791 (roughly $110m) has been either approved or denied on behalf of 7,952 claimants, according to the report. An additional ¥27,547,026,403 (about $241m) in claims submitted by 1,911 creditors awaits approval by the trustee.

The exchange rate used for the claims is pegged at $483, or¥50,058.12 per BTC. This number is tied to the price of the CoinDesk USD Bitcoin Price Index at 23:59 UTC, 23rd April 2014 – just before Mt Gox declared bankruptcy.

Combined bitcoin and fiat deposit claims totaled ¥2,695,239,249,594 (about $2.3bn), and of that amount, ¥25,702,801,244 (about $225m) has been accepted or denied thus far.

In a statement, Kobayashi said that the report’s results reflect an investigation that remains in progress, noting:

"Although the investigation into Mt Gox claims is still ongoing, we have made significant progress for creditors."

Kobayashi also disclosed that Mt Gox CEO Mark Karpeles, who was detained last fall on allegations of market manipulation and embezzlement, remains under arrest by Japanese law enforcement. The trustee added that he continues to cooperate with the police regarding their ongoing investigation of the Mt Gox collapse.

"As matters now stand, investigations are underway, including investigations as to whether there are discrepancies between the activities of BTC on the database, which we are aware of at this time, and the records on the blockchain," he said.

Wait-and-see

In the meantime, San Francisco-based bitcoin exchange Kraken has been assisting with the claims and relief distribution efforts.

CEO Jesse Powell told CoinDesk that this week's report is good news for creditors but that many factors, including the outcome of the police investigation and civil lawsuits involving Mt Gox, will impact when creditors may actually receive funds.

Kraken told CoinDesk:

"Unfortunately it's more wait-and-see. The trustee clearly has a lot more claims to work through and it’s not clear if they will be making a distribution ahead of settling the investigation or some of the pending lawsuits over some of the money."

The bankruptcy of Mt Gox sent waves through the digital currency world, impacting its investment ecosystem and price, with the full implications of the exchange’s collapse arguably still being felt.

For example, the Japanese government, including officials from the country’s top financial regulator, the Financial Services Agency, have been weighing new rules for domestic bitcoin exchange services amid the investigation into Mt Gox and Karpeles.

The full report can be found below:

17:2:2016 Report