Defunct Crypto Exchange Mt. Gox Appears to Have Sent Over $2 Billion to a New Address

At 7:28 p.m. ET, Mt. Gox transferred 33,105 BTC ($2.19 billion) to an address starting with “bc1q26.” It is not immediately clear who owns the address.

Bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox appears to have made another large on-chain transfer, moving over $2 billion in bitcoin to a new address on Tuesday, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

At 7:28 p.m. ET, Mt. Gox transferred 33,105 BTC -1.22% BTC -1.22% See Details ($2.19 billion) to an address starting with “bc1q26.” It is not immediately clear who owns the address.

The latest transaction comes after Mt. Gox transferred billions of dollars worth of bitcoin to designated crypto exchanges, including Bitbank, Kraken, Bitstamp and SBI VC Trade, over the past few weeks. Bitstamp, for example, said last week that it would begin distributing the assets to Mt. Gox creditors starting July 25.

Mt. Gox trustee said in a July 24 statement that it has made repayments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash to certain creditors through designated crypto exchanges on July 5, 16 and 24. The trustee added that it has made repayments to over 17,000 creditors as of July 24.

The wallets that appear to be associated with Mt. Gox still hold about $5.29 billion worth of bitcoin, according to Arkham data.

The immediate impact of these distributions remains unclear. Given the substantial price increase over the decade, some sell-side pressure from the recipients is expected. However, a recent report from Glassnode noted that usage patterns on the on-chain profile of the creditors indicate they are holders or long-term investors, which may mitigate the sell-side pressure in the coming weeks.

Bitcoin edged down 0.54% over the past 24 hours to change hands at around $66,223 at the time of writing, according to The Block’s bitcoin price page.

Mt. Gox, established in 2010, operated the largest bitcoin exchange in the world until the platform suffered a major security breach in 2014, rendering the exchange insolvent and ultimately leading to its closure. The breach resulted in the loss of at least 850,000 BTC, out of which around 200,000 BTC were later recovered through a civil rehabilitation process.