Bitcoin Slides Under $67K As Mt. Gox’s $3.2 Billion BTC Transfer Spooks Investors

In a significant development, a wallet linked to the rehabilitation Trustee of the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox shuffled $3.2 billion worth of Bitcoin between wallets on Tuesday morning, some of which was sent to digital asset exchange Bitstamp.

Bitcoin slid below the $67,000 mark as investors weighed the renewed movement of coins by Mt. Gox.

Mt. Gox Continues Bitcoin Distribution Plan

It’s been 10 long years, but it won’t be much longer as billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin is now on its way to Mt. Gox’s former customers.

Movements by the now-defunct exchange’s trustee today spooked investors when it moved 42,587.49 BTC valued at $2.85 billion to a new address, data compiled by Arkham Intelligence shows. Mt. Gox then sent 2,238.87 BTC, worth around $150 million at current market prices, to Bitstamp, suggesting that Bitstamp’s distribution of Bitcoin repayments is nigh.

Bitstamp, one of the five exchanges selected to distribute coins as part of Mt. Gox’s reimbursement process to more than 20,000 creditors, indicated earlier this month that it intends to distribute the tokens to creditors as soon as it receives them. Mt. Gox’s transfers on Tuesday follow a series of small test transactions yesterday, including one to Bitstamp.

Other exchanges, including Kraken, have also received their shares of virtual coins. Bitbank and SBI VC Trade reportedly distributed the funds to Mt. Gox’s former customers immediately after receipt.

Rise And Fall Of Mt. Gox

Mt. Gox was a Japanese Bitcoin exchange that went bust in 2014 after a massive hack. Once the largest exchange in the world, criminals successfully found a vulnerability and stole 850,000 Bitcoin BTC from users. However, despite the large amount of Bitcoin lost, law enforcement managed to recover just 140,000 BTC to repay creditors.

The exchange began repaying its debt in early July, sparking fears of mass selling by creditors who have waited for refunds for a decade.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin slipped to as low as $66,267 on the heels of the Mt. Gox transactions today, according to CoinGecko. The leading cryptocurrency by market value is currently valued at $66,583. That’s 8.2% lower than the ever newer all-time high of $73,747 it set in March and slightly lower than its previous $69,044 record from 2021.