Reports have emerged on social media suggesting that creditors of the now-defunct Bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, have begun receiving fiat repayments for their long-trapped Bitcoin holdings.
These funds had been inaccessible since February 2014.
Reddit posts on the r/mtgoxinsolvency page indicate that Mt. Gox has been sending repayments denominated in Japanese Yen to users via PayPal, marking a remarkable development nearly a decade after the funds became locked on the exchange on February 24, 2014.
It should be noted that these reports are yet to be officially confirmed.
Reddit user Free-end254 excitedly claimed, “I just got paid,” sharing a screenshot of the email containing a PayPal payment receipt.
Another user expressed similar surprise, having initially suspected a phishing scam before finding a genuine payment in their PayPal account.
However, one user disclosed that only a portion of their 0.125 Bitcoin claim had been repaid, receiving 30,283 yen, equivalent to $200 at the current exchange rate, and still awaiting an approximate payment of $748.
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Repayments to creditors are expected to be made in multiple installments, including the base repayment, early lump-sum repayment, and intermediate repayment.
The first instances of these repayments became public on December 21, when a pseudonymous Japanese user announced that they had received their Mt. Gox claims via a bank transfer, credited in Japanese Yen.
This development follows an email from Nobuaki Kobayashi, the trustee overseeing Mt. Gox’s estate, sent to rehabilitation creditors on November 21, notifying them of the commencement of repayments.
The email mentioned that the trustee intends to initiate cash repayments in 2023 and anticipates continuing the process into 2024.
However, no specific timeline for repayments to individual rehabilitation creditors was provided.
Notably, on September 21, the Mt. Gox Trustee extended the repayment deadline from October 31, 2023, to the same date in 2024.
Nevertheless, the trustee indicated that some repayments could be made “as early as the end of this year” for rehabilitation creditors who had already furnished the necessary information.
Cointelegraph reached out to Mt. Gox for comment but had not received an immediate response at the time of reporting.
The unfolding situation is being closely watched by creditors who have been awaiting the return of their long-frozen assets for years.
