Bitcoin is bleeding as defunct crypto exchange Mt.Gox has started repaying its customers — and it’s likely that some of those customers have begun selling that Bitcoin. The leading cryptocurrency traded around $55,000 Friday morning, after falling more than 4% in a day and losing more than 10% in a week, according to CoinMarketCap.
Mt. Gox, which went bankrupt a decade ago due to a hack, is supposed to refund $9 billion worth of Bitcoin this month. A recent report by Arkham Intelligence revealed that the defunct crypto exchange transferred 47,229 Bitcoin, valued at more than $2.7 billion, to a new wallet on Thursday. Experts anticipated earlier this week that once Mt.Gox initiates the repayment process, creditors receiving Bitcoin may promptly sell it.
Other cryptocurrencies have also declined. Ether, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, has fallen by more than 5.5% and is currently hovering around $2,900. Cardano and Dogecoin have dropped by 8.5% and 6.5%, respectively, over the past 24 hours. Overall, the global crypto market cap is at $2.02 trillion, with a 4.5% drop on Friday morning.
Mt. Gox was once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange.
Tokyo-based Mt. Gox, formerly the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, is supposed to return more than 140,000 Bitcoin to victims of the 2014 hack. It was one of the first major cryptocurrency hacks. The exchange handled nearly 70% of all Bitcoin transactions at that time.
The exchange declared bankruptcy in 2014, owing creditors 45 billion yen ($414 million). Creditors have been waiting for the repayment of their holdings ever since. Earlier this year, in May, Mt. Gox made its first transaction in over five years. This was part of the plan to distribute the assets back to creditors before Oct. 31, 2024.