Mt. Gox moves at least $2.9 billion in bitcoin for first time in five years

Quick Take

  • Mt. Gox appears to have transferred at least 42,830 BTC to an unknown address on Tuesday morning in Asia, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.
  • This was the first time in five years that Mt. Gox moved assets out of its wallets.

Update (2:30 a.m. ET): Mt. Gox has made additional transactions and transferred at least $9.6 billion worth of bitcoin to the unknown address.

Mt. Gox appears to have transferred out at least 42,830 BTC, worth about $2.9 billion, from its cold wallets, according to data from Arkham Intelligence.

The defunct bitcoin exchange, which collapsed in 2014, transferred the assets in multiple transactions to an unknown address as of 11:00 am Hong Kong time on Tuesday, the data showed. 

The move marked the first time in five years that Mt. Gox transferred assets out of its wallets. Mt. Gox still holds about $9.42 billion worth of bitcoin in its identified wallets tracked by Arkham.

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In September 2023, the trustee of Mt. Gox announced that the repayment deadline was pushed back by 12 months to October 31, 2024.

The Mt. Gox trustee did not immediately respond to The Block’s request for comment.

Launched in 2010, the Tokyo-based platform gained popularity and became the largest bitcoin exchange by 2013, servicing 70% of all bitcoin trades worldwide. However, it stopped all withdrawals in early 2014 when the business suspended trading. The site soon went offline, and the company filed for bankruptcy protection after losing over 800,000 bitcoins.


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About Author

Timmy Shen is an Asia editor for The Block. Previously, he wrote about crypto and Web3 for Forkast.News from Taiwan after spending more than three years in Beijing covering finance, entertainment business and current affairs at Caixin Global and Chinese tech at TechNode. His China-related reporting has also appeared in The Guardian. When he's not chasing headlines, you'll find him savoring hot pot and shabu shabu in a Taipei local haunt. Timmy holds an MS degree from Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. Send tips to [email protected] or get in touch on X/Telegram @timmyhmshen.

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