More than a third of the Bitcoin owed to creditors of the defunct Mt. Gox exchange has already been distributed, according to a report by crypto analytics firm CryptoQuant, with the data coming at a time in which the price of BTC has been rising.
According to data shared by the cryptocurrency analytics firm on the microblogging platform X (formerly known as Twitter), 36% of the 141,686 BTC held by the Mt. Gox trustee has already been distributed and moved to their former users.
36% of the Mt. Gox Bitcoin has been distributed to creditors“The trustee holds 141,686 $BTC, which will be distributed over time. With yesterday's transaction, 36% of the Bitcoin has been moved to their former users.” – By @JA_Maartun Link 👇https://t.co/SwU1ufNoQr pic.twitter.com/LMUBPrZBPN
— CryptoQuant.com (@cryptoquant_com) July 17, 2024
Despite the distributions, the price of Bitcoin has been testing the $65,000 mark over the past few days, having surged to a $66,000 high before enduring a slight correction, to now trade at $64,800.
Mt Gox, which was at one point the largest Bitcoin trading platform, was hacked in 2011 and ultimately filed for bankruptcy in 2014. Recent transactions reignited anxieties surrounding a potential sell-off by creditors who are in line to receive a portion of the $9 billion Bitcoin hoard Mt. Gox has held since its 2014 bankruptcy and led to price drops.
As the Mt. Gox bankruptcy process nears its conclusion, the court-appointed trustee has indicated that creditors can expect initial lump-sum payouts by the end of October. It’s currently unclear whether these creditors will hold onto their tokens, or sell them on the market.
Despite the fears of a potential sell-off Arthur Hayes, co-founder of popular cryptocurrency derivatives trading platform BitMEX, has recently revealed a theory on the exchange rate between the U.S. dollar and the Japanese yen, and how a weakening yen could see Bitcoin’s price top the $1 million mark.
Hayes suggested a scenario in which the Federal Reserve intervenes by printing U.S. dollars and exchanging them for yen, to provide the Bank of Japan with resources to stabilize the currency market while allowing China to continue its monetary expansion.
Such a strategy, he said, could lead to the devaluation of the US dollar and that, coupled with Bitcoin’s rise, could threaten the dollar’s status as the world’s reserve currency. If the theory holds, then institutional investors will move to spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) as a hedge against the decline of traditional fiat currencies.
Featured image via Unsplash.
