Blockchain analytical firm Arkham Intelligence reported that crypto custodial service provider BitGo moved $2 billion of Mt. Gox’s Bitcoin to a new wallet, “bc1qpn,” according to an Aug. 13 post on X.
Currently, the wallet holds 33,023 Bitcoin, valued at $1.96 billion, following recent market fluctuations that have pushed BTC’s value to below $60,000 as of press time.
Test transactions
Earlier today, the BitGo wallet had executed a test transaction of $5.88 more than two weeks after receiving $2.19 billion in Bitcoin from the defunct Mt. Gox.
Arkham suspects the initial wallet — identified as bc1q26 — belongs to BitGo, the final exchange tasked with distributing funds to Mt. Gox creditors.
Market observers believe the test transaction could kickstart the firm’s repayment process for Mt. Gox creditors. Notably, other firms selected for the creditor distributions, including Kraken and Bitstamp, had received and distributed the funds to creditors of the failed Japanese exchange.
Meanwhile, several of Mt Gox’s creditors using BitGo have reported receiving their digital assets—BTC and Bitcoin Cash—in their accounts. However, they stated that withdrawal involves a video verification process.
BitGo, however, has yet to acknowledge receipt of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin publicly and has not responded to CryptoSlate’s request for comment as of press time.
According to Arkham data, Mt. Gox addresses currently hold 46,000 BTC, equivalent to $2.75 billion as of press time.
Mt. Gox bankruptcy
Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest crypto exchange, filed for bankruptcy in February 2014 following a hacking event that resulted in the loss of up to 950,000 bitcoins, valued at over $58 billion today.
This began a decade-long process impacted by several legal processes and delays. However, the Mt. Gox Trustee began repaying the firm’s creditors in July and has distributed Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to over 17,000 creditors as of July 31.
Market observers believe that the Mt. Gox repayments are a significant event for the crypto industry as it removes one of the significant barriers holding BTC’s price down. Blockchain analytical firm Glassnode stated:
“From a psychological perspective, this represents the final chapter in a major market overhang over the industry since 2013.”
