Mt. Gox Trustee Submits Rehabilitation Plan — Creditors May Soon Be Repaid 150,000 Bitcoins

Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi has finally submitted a draft rehabilitation plan to a Japanese court — meaning former users of the long-defunct crypto exchange may now look forward to getting paid someday.

Kobayashi, the Japanese bankruptcy lawyer appointed to oversee the repayment of investors, submitted the plan to the Tokyo District Court on Dec. 15. In a statement posted on the Mt. Gox website, Kobayashi said:

The Tokyo District Court and an examiner will review the draft rehabilitation plan and determine whether to proceed with the rehabilitation proceedings relevant to the draft rehabilitation plan.

The rehabilitation trustee added that he plans to explain the draft plan “to the relevant parties in a timely and appropriate manner.”

Kobayashi is reportedly holding 150,000 bitcoins (BTC) — worth about $2.9 billion at existing market prices — in refund money, but no one has been paid just yet. More than 20,000 victims are believed to have filed claims for a refund.

Mt. Gox collapsed in 2014 after more than 850,000 BTC (worth over $470 million at the time and about $16.5 billion now) were supposedly stolen by hackers, with 200,000 bitcoins recovered two weeks later. At the time of its demise, the exchange was the world’s biggest, handling 70% of global bitcoin trades.

Ever since, the plan has been to repay creditors using the recovered bitcoin. Kobayashi has been leading that charge since 2018 when he was appointed by the court to do so. On several occasions, the trustee has requested more time from the court before submitting his draft rehabilitation plan, arguing that “there are matters that require closer examination.”

Now with the draft plan finally lodged with the court, former users of Mt. Gox can look forward to ending their six-year wait for a refund.

What do you think about the Mt.Gox rehabilitation plan being submitted finally? Let us know in the comments section below.

Image Credits: Shutterstock, Pixabay, Wiki Commons

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