The ghost of Mt. Gox will stop haunting Bitcoin this Halloween

From Tokyo Whale to the Halloween deadline, Mt. Gox’s long journey through Bitcoin history is nearing its end.

Mt. Gox, the defunct Tokyo-based cryptocurrency exchange, still holds around 34,689 Bitcoin (BTC) ahead of its Oct. 31 repayment deadline.

The exchange lost around 650,000 BTC in thefts that went undetected from 2011 until its 2014 collapse, while about 200,000 BTC was later found in an old-format wallet. Those coins became the foundation for creditor repayments overseen by court-appointed trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi.

In 2017 and 2018, Kobayashi earned the nickname “Tokyo Whale” for selling Mt. Gox Bitcoin to fund fiat repayments. In mid-2024, wallet activity surged again as roughly 100,000 BTC was moved between Mt. Gox addresses for distribution, though not all represented actual sales.

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