It has been a while since we heard anything about the Mt. Gox bankruptcy claims. As it turns out, things are not evolving in the right direction by any means. So far, only 1.7% of all claims have been accepted, which is a rather surprisingly small amount. The bankruptcy Trustee Attorney still has a lot of work cut out for him, that much is certain.
A Lot of Mt. Gox Bankruptcy Claims Are Not Accepted
It has to be said, Nobuaki Kobayashi took on a monumental task while dealing with the Mt. Gox fallout. After the Japanese exchange filed for bankruptcy and claimed to have lost millions in customer funds, it became evident rather quickly something had to change. Unfortunately, the current bankruptcy debacle is evolving in the wrong direction, as only 1.7% of filed claims have been accepted so far.
This new update was provided by Nobuaki Kobayashi himself on March 7th. The balance of accounts he has secured adds up to 1,030,895,045 JPY, which is 23,5m JPY less compared to the previous meeting. However, the full scope of Mt Gox. bitcoin holdings are still unknown at this point, and these numbers may change as more time progresses. This balance does not include any of the bitcoin held by the bankrupt exchange itself, which is somewhat positive news.
A lot of people are waiting on the bitcoin funds managed by the estate to be moved to a different bitcoin wallet address. That will not happen until the investigation has been completed, albeit there is no specific timeline available as of right now. It may take months, or even years until this investigation is finished. Until that time, everyone who filed a claim to recover their stolen funds will have to wait for more [positive] news to be made public.
It is worth noting the US courts approved a transfer of over US$2.5m worth of seized funds. This amount has been seized from Mutum Sigillum LLC, which is one of the Mt. Gox affiliates. Due to this transfer, the money will be sent to to the Mt. Gox Estate Trustee. This is a sliver of positive news for all people affected by the Mt. Gox collapse and subsequent bitcoin theft. However, there is still a very long way to go before everything is resolved properly. Additionally, it remains unclear if the final distribution will be made in bitcoin or other currencies.
Considering how the bitcoin price saw some significant rises over the past few months, this entire ordeal becomes even more Important. Claims have been filed to receive a specific amount of bitcoin back from the exchange, based on their value at that time. With the price appreciation in place, the victims stand to gain – or lose – a lot depending on how this investigation plays out.
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