Clients of the bankrupt exchange waited 10 years for the start of compensation payments. Market participants fear they could start selling billions of dollars worth of cryptocurrency on the open market

On the night of July 5, the rates of Bitcoin and other major cryptocurrencies fell after information appeared about the start of payments to clients of the bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox for a total value of about $9 billion. It is assumed that a significant part of the coins can be sold by recipients on the open market.

The price of Bitcoin (BTC) immediately fell below $54 thousand, this is the lowest rate since February 2024.

BTC/USD
55 728 -1 772 (-3,08%)
OKH Jul 05 16:54:45
1d 3d 1m 3m 1d 5l
April 15
April 29
May 13
May 27
June 10
June 24
55 000.00
57 500.00
60 000.00
62 500.00
65 000.00
67 500.00
70 000.00
72 500.00
The rate of the second largest cryptocurrency by capitalization, Ethereum (ETH), dropped by more than 10% per day, to $2,800. Most of the top 100 altcoins by capitalization, including Binance's BNB, Ripple's XRP, Toncoin (TON) and Dogecoin (DOGE), showed a decline of 10-20% per day.



The volume of liquidations of long positions on crypto exchanges per day reached $600 million, according to Coinglass. More than 200 thousand traders who did not have enough funds to secure open positions had their positions forcibly closed. Most of them were long Bitcoin on the Binance exchange.

How are the markets affected by Mt. Gox

Mt. Gox, which operated from 2010 to 2014, was the largest crypto exchange in the world, accounting for more than 70% of all Bitcoin trading volume. However, a series of hacker attacks on the exchange led to the loss of 850 thousand BTC, which at today’s exchange rate is more than $50 billion.

In 2014, Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy and it was not until 2021, after nearly eight years of litigation, that a recovery plan was developed for affected customers. In 2024, managers of Mt. Gox announced their intention to distribute the remaining funds in the amount of 142 thousand bitcoins (about $9 billion at the end of June exchange rate), 143 thousand Bitcoin Cash coins (about $53 million) and 69 billion Japanese yen.

According to the Arkham analytical platform, on the night of July 5, the managers of Mt. Gox moved a total of 48,545 BTC ($2.6 billion) to the wallet to pay compensation, which likely triggered panic selling. At approximately 9:30 Moscow time, exchange managers officially confirmed the start of payments.

According to the analytical service Santiment, there is an “extreme” level of fear in the crypto market; in one day, “whales” (wallets with a balance of 1,000 to 10,000 bitcoins) sold $1.8 billion worth of coins.