A decade after the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox, its creditors finally will receive compensation Thanks to the significant increase in the value of Bitcoin over the past 10 years, many of them can count on astronomical profits.
In 2014, Mt. Gox, then the largest crypto exchange, declared bankruptcy after a series of hacking attacks that resulted in the theft of around 850,000 bitcoins. At the time of the closing of the exchange, one bitcoin was worth about $600, and the total loss was estimated at about $480 million. Today, the price of bitcoin exceeds $60,000, which increases the value of the frozen assets of users tens, and sometimes hundreds of times.
One of the plaintiffs, Gregory Green of Illinois, said in 2014 that he had $25,000 worth of bitcoins in his account. Today, those assets are valued at $2.5 million, a 10,000% increase.
According to the court administrator, payments to customers will begin already in July, and about 20,000 people will receive compensation, and the total amount of payments will be approximately 140,000 bitcoins (about $9 billion at the current exchange rate).
It is expected that most users will choose to pay out in cryptocurrency rather than fiat money to avoid high capital gains taxes. This will allow them to save significant amounts by keeping the received bitcoins in their wallets.
Analysts at JPMorgan Chase warn that the massive sale of bitcoins by lenders Mt. Gox may lead to a short-term decrease in the price of this cryptocurrency in July, but the market is expected to recover in August.
