Bitcoin fell as traders monitored transfers from wallets belonging to the collapsed Mt. Gox exchange, whose managers stepped up efforts to return $9 billion worth of the largest digital asset to creditors.
The popular cryptocurrency fell as much as 3.1% to trade at around $67,850. The weakness extended to smaller coins, including Ethereum, the second-largest cryptocurrency by market cap. Nearly 42,829 bitcoins worth about $2.9 billion were moved out of Mt. Gox wallets during early Asian trading on Tuesday, according to data from CryptoQuant and Arkham Intelligence. The wallets still hold 95,061 bitcoins after the outflow.
Mt. Gox, once the world’s largest bitcoin exchange, was hacked in 2011 and went bankrupt in 2014. Last year, U.S. prosecutors charged two Russian nationals with conspiring with others to break into the exchange’s servers.
Meanwhile, the director of MT Gox said that creditors should get paid by October 31 as the liquidation process progresses. One major issue is that those who receive the tokens may sell them, putting pressure on the price of Bitcoin.
Mt. Gox began returning bitcoin to creditors on Tuesday, for the first time since May 2018. The collapsed platform had previously held about 137,892 of the cryptocurrency, CryptoQuant data shows.
Previous documents indicated that Mt. Gox also had Bitcoin Cash and fiat money. Some of the fiat money has already been returned. Bitcoin Cash fell 5% on Tuesday.
The moves are not alarming and will only have a short-term impact, said Caroline Bowler, CEO of BTC Markets. “MTGox will certainly not have a lasting impact on the price of Bitcoin, as the market is now focused on the upcoming bipartisan support from US lawmakers on crypto-friendly regulations,” she added.
Bitcoin has recovered from a steep slump in 2022, quadrupling its price since the start of last year, helped by the launch of exchange-traded funds that invest in bitcoin during spot trading in January. The digital currency hit a record high of $73,798 in mid-March.
