About four and a half years after the crypto world
About four and a half years after the crypto world was forced to grapple with the huge theft of a million Bitcoins from the then-largest crypto exchange Mt.Gox, the Civil Rehabilitation Proceedings for the crime has started. With the commencement of the process, the creditors might finally have a way to get back all the assets that had been stolen from them.
A press release came on 23rd August 2018 and it was announced by Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi that the claims are being sought over an online submissions system for the civil rehabilitation. The creditors who had been victim to the hacking attack now have time till 22nd October, 2018 to submit their claims to replace the earlier claim filings and their proofs which have now been nullified. For those creditors who are no longer able to access their preexisting accounts, there’s the provision of sending in the proof of claim using snail mail to a given postal address. While corporate creditors can now only avail of the postal claim option, Kobayashi is trying to come up with an online alternative for them as well.
In June, the case of Mt.Gox was shifted from the bankruptcy court to the civil rehabilitation process at the behest of a district court in Tokyo. As a result, the creditors now have a way to recover at least a portion of the crypto assets they had lost. This news comes as a relief to the robbed creditors who would have received payouts equivalent to just the 2014 values of their lost assets had the case remained in the bankruptcy court. However, now with the initiation of Civil Rehabilitation, they stand a chance to earn back a value in keeping with the manifold increase Bitcoin prices have seen since 2014.
Nobuaki Kobayashi has been selling a large chunk of the Mt.Gox Bitcoins after the crypto market turned bullish last year, peaking in the middle of December 2017. The selloffs were meant to get enough funds to pay the creditors back. Many commentators are of the opinion that the Mt.Gox trustee’s decision to dump all these Bitcoins might be one of the factors triggering the depressing slump the market is seeing now. By February next year, most creditors will have started receiving their dues and that is when we will find out whether they choose to hold on to their assets for long-term gains or sell them for short-term hefty earnings.