Author: Felix Ng, CoinTelegraph; Translated by: Deng Tong, Golden Finance
Defunct cryptocurrency exchange Mt. Gox has moved about 12,000 bitcoins to a new, unknown wallet address, the first major transaction since late July.
Mt. Gox took action at around 11:39 PM UTC on August 20, sending 12,000 bitcoins, valued at $709.4 million, to an empty address beginning with “1PuQB.”
It also sent 1,265 bitcoins, valued at $74.8 million, to an address beginning with "1Jbez," which is marked on Arkham Intelligence as a Mt. Gox cold wallet. The funds have not been moved since.
Source: HODL15Capital
The dramatic move could mean Mt. Gox is preparing to distribute more bitcoin to its creditors, who have been waiting to get their cryptocurrency back after the exchange was hacked and collapsed in 2014.
But Alex Thorn, head of research at Galaxy, doesn't think so.
Thorn believes only a small portion of the transferred funds, $74.5 million, is intended to be distributed.
Regardless, this is the first large-scale transfer of Bitcoin from Mt. Gox since July 30, when Mt. Gox moved 47,229 BTC to three unknown wallets within three hours.
At the time, Arkham Intelligence suspected 33,105 bitcoins flowed to an address owned by cryptocurrency exchange BitGo, one of the custodians working with the Mt. Gox trustee to return funds to creditors.
Two weeks later, this wallet sent a test transaction and then sent the entire amount to another unknown wallet address, where the money has remained since then.
According to CryptoQuant, about 68% of Mt. Gox’s funds have been distributed to creditors.
Source: Hansolar
As of the time of writing, Mt. Gox still holds a large amount of Bitcoin — 46,164 BTC, worth approximately $2.7 billion.
Interestingly, Mt. Gox creditors appear to have exceeded expectations, with creditors seemingly holding onto the Bitcoin they have recovered.
Bitpanda deputy CEO Lukas Enzersdorfer-Konrad noted earlier this month that it’s worth remembering that Mt. Gox was one of the first exchanges, so those who used it “were early adopters.”
“For them, Bitcoin is more than just an asset, it’s a technology and an idea they truly believe in. It doesn’t mean they will never sell, but it will affect when they sell and how much they sell.”
Maria Carola, CEO of cryptocurrency exchange StealthEX, noted that these creditors choose to hold their tokens “primarily in anticipation of future price increases, in the hope of receiving higher returns.”
She added that liquidating the funds immediately "could mean high capital gains taxes," while holding the funds allows investors to "defer paying those taxes or wait for more favorable market conditions."
