Mark Karpeles Reveals Ownership of New Bitcoin Address

MT Gox’s former CEO, Mark Karpeles, has revealed the ownership of a new bitcoin address that contains some 80,000 bitcoins, worth $750 million.

“The 1Feex address contains ~80k BTC stolen from MtGox in March 2011. Craig Wright is claiming to have been in control of this address until recently, admitting legal liability for damages and interest?”

That’s what Karpeles said after the crypto clown claimed the address is owned by him, but someone stole his keys so ‘bitcoin core’ needs to now give the clown some 80,000 bitcoins.

Yes, hilarious, but the revelation this address belongs to MT Gox is quite a serious matter as it affects about 10,000 bitcoiners across the globe who deposited these bitcoins to MT Gox.

The claimed hack happened on the 1st of March 2011, with this not revealed previously. There was a publicized hack in June 2011, but they said no coins were stolen.

Until now no one knew whose address this is, with it for long one of the top holders, thus attracting much attention.

It has previously been speculated it belongs to MT Gox as blockchain analysis show connections, but there were other suggestions including that it could have been simply someone or some entity that used MT Gox.

As Karpeles has clarified it is actually gox’s, that means all the circa one million bitcoin addresses that belong to MT Gox are known to a fair degree.

That’s because this 1fee address connects to a lot more addresses that were previously suspected to be gox’s and now one can say most likely are MT Gox’s.

Who has possession of this address, however, is a different question with the funds remaining unmoved for now nine years.

Raising the question why did they even bother as there is probably no way these funds can move without huge scrutiny which may well lead to the thief.

But in 2011 it was quite different with bitcoin being a very new thing and believed to be anonymous, instead of pseudo-anonymous like a nickname.

In addition back then these coins were worth just $80,000 and at most just $1 million. Small potatoes in the scheme of things, but now they’re worth close to a billion.

Just what the haxor wants to do at this stage is not too clear. If they wanted a way out, they can just send them to the bitcoin address of the MT Gox bankruptcy trustee.

To move them with the intention of using them would be far too risky, but obviously we know nothing about this guy or entity.

If he wanted a way out while still getting something for the risk of being caught, he could send them all to the trustee while keeping 1,000, worth $10 million, which he can then mix.

Whether law enforcement would bother to pursue that mixer when holistically considering the matter and the public interest requirement, is a question for them.

In the absence of the carrot to the trustee however, which obviously translates to 10,000 bitcoiners that are the rightful owners, you’d expect eagle eyes from the boys who are already under some pressure for failing to catch any crypto hackers save for the dum sim swapping ones.

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