- On July 16, Mt. Gox transferred over 140,000 Bitcoin, worth nearly $9 billion, causing significant market concern
- The BTC price dropped from $65,000 to $63,000, affecting altcoins like Uniswap, Polkadot, and Bitcoin Cash
- Mt. Gox announced it would start repaying creditors in BTC and BCH, with repayments expected to be completed soon
After two weeks of inactivity, Mt. Gox transferred more than 140,000 BTC, worth nearly $9 billion, on 16 July, which caused concern in the market.
Mt. Gox moved almost 96,000 BTC to two unknown wallets and 44,527 BTC to a known cold wallet.
Right now, Mt. Gox’s main wallet still has 138,985 BTC, which is about $8.7 billion.
More than $6 Billion Moved in Two Hours
It’s not clear who the recipient was, but they got 42,587 BTC ($2.69 billion).
Another 4,641.24 BTC ($293.94 million) went to Mt. Gox’s known cold wallet.
Then, another 48,641 BTC ($3.07 billion) was sent to another unknown address, which caused concerns in the market and a drop in the value of BTC.
Market Response
On 16 July, BTC reached almost $65,000 but then fell to as low as $63,000 in just a few hours.
The price drop for BTC was more than 3 percent, but it had a knock-on effect on altcoins like Uniswap, Polkadot, and Bitcoin Cash, which fell by more than 5 percent.
The market turned bearish when BTC started falling on July 16, an hour before the first Mt. Gox transaction, and it kept falling when more money was taken out of unknown wallets.
Impact of the Refund
On 5 July, Mt. Gox announced that it would start repaying its BTC and BCH debts to creditors through certain crypto exchanges.
The announcement said that the company in question was Mt. Gox Co. Ltd. and that Nobuaki Kobayashi, a lawyer, was the rehabilitation trustee. The repayment statement said the remaining creditors would get the money “promptly” after everything was done.
Since Mt. Gox’s main wallet showed that more than $9 billion in BTC left the company on July 16, the money could be paid back before August.
