Billions in Bitcoin from Collapsed Mt. Gox Move to Unknown Wallet

Bitcoin worth billions, reportedly linked to the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox, has been transferred to an unknown wallet. On May 28, Bitcoin dropped 2% following the movement of 107,547 BTC, valued at nearly $7.3 billion, from wallets associated with Mt. Gox to an unknown destination. More transactions are occurring by the hour.

This activity precedes Mt. Gox's plan to return Bitcoin holdings to creditors before October.

Whale Alert, a blockchain tracking account on X, reported the transactions in posts on May 28, highlighting six on-chain transactions ranging from 3,999 BTC to 32,499 BTC within hours. Blockchain explorer Arkham Intelligence indicates these transactions, occurring between 1:41 am and 4:46 am UTC, involve multiple Mt. Gox cold wallets, each moving around 2,000 BTC at a time.

All the transactions converged on a single unlabeled address that now holds 107,547 BTC, worth approximately $7.29 billion at the time of reporting.

The trustee firm for Mt. Gox, Nagashima Ohno and Tsunematsu, has not responded to inquiries about the destination and purpose of the Bitcoin transfer. Following the news, Bitcoin's price fell about 2%, now trading at $67,875, down from $69,374 at the time of the first transfer. Last month, K33 Research analysts predicted that the movement of Mt. Gox-era Bitcoin could "spook the market" and apply downward pressure on the cryptocurrency's price.

Mt. Gox owes over $9.4 billion worth of Bitcoin to approximately 127,000 creditors, who have been waiting for more than ten years since the exchange's collapse in 2014 following multiple unnoticed hacks.

The final repayment deadline for Mt. Gox is October 31. The trustee began contacting creditors in January to confirm their identities and exchange accounts for repayment.