MT Gox Trustee Sold $500 Million Worth of Bitcoin on Exchanges Says New Court Evidence

MT Gox’s sale of half a billion worth of bitcoin and bitcoin cash grabbed everyones attention as blockchain data showed they crashed the market last year.eval(ez_write_tag([[336,280],'trustnodes_com-box-3','ezslot_1']));

However, MT Gox’s trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi, denied price was affected, stating back in March that he did not sell on exchanges. Kobayashi said:

“Following consultation with cryptocurrency experts, I sold BTC and BCC, not by an ordinary sale through the BTC/BCC exchange, but in a manner that would avoid affecting the market price, while ensuring the security of the transaction to the extent possible.”

Now court documents show the expert in question was BitPoint, which appears to be a Japanese crypto exchange.

According to a team that has been following this matter closely since 2014: “The new data from the trustee’s bank book coupled with BTC’s price declines in May/June 2018 indicate that the method BitPoint used to conduct the sale affected price discovery.  In other words, BitPoint sold on an exchange and not OTC.”eval(ez_write_tag([[580,400],'trustnodes_com-medrectangle-3','ezslot_7']));

They’ve apparently managed to get their hands on the bank statements showing when the fiat funds from the crypto sale were sent to the trustee.

They show frequent wires from BitPoint to the trustee, with the dates coinciding with a price fall in bitcoin. They say:

“May started off with BTC continuing to rally, surpassing $9,900 on May 6. But the price fell steeply and consistently from there. By June 5 the price had fallen to $7,500 USD. Thereafter the price continued to fall to $6,200 as bearish market sentiment dominated after a month of heavy selling by BitPoint.”

MT Gox sold about $750 million worth of bitcoin and BCH in 2018. They secured half a billion to pay off in full all exchange creditors at 2014 crypto prices. Then they sold another $250 million to potentially cover other creditors, including Coinlab.eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'trustnodes_com-medrectangle-4','ezslot_3']));

Coinlab has now made what looks like a frivolous claim of $16 billion, holding up the distribution of the remaining circa 140,000 BTC and an equal amount of BCH in addition to the $500 million in fiat.

It remains unclear how the Coinlab situation will be resolved, but with $750 million secured in fiat, it appears unlikely that the trustee would need to liquidate any more cryptos.

The understanding instead was that the remaining 140,000 would be sent in BTC or BCH to exchange customers probably through Kraken.

Such distribution appeared imminent, until Coinlab’s intervention which attracted a very angry response from MT Gox creditors.

So five years on, this matter is still not being closed, giving rise to the meme that the goxing might never end.

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