Mt. Gox just got another chapter, twelve years on.
By early 2014 the Tokyo exchange handled over 70% of the world's bitcoin trades. Withdrawals stopped on Feb 7, 2014. Trading halted and the site went dark on Feb 24. On Feb 28 it filed for bankruptcy, saying about 850,000 BTC were missing (about 750,000 from customers and 100,000 of its own), worth about $473 million then, or around 7% of all bitcoins minted, per Reuters. On March 20 it reported finding about 200,000 BTC in an old wallet, leaving roughly 650,000 still gone.
At today's Binance price near $75,900, those 850,000 coins would be worth around $64 billion now.
Creditor repayments began in July 2024. On October 16, 2026 trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi, with the Tokyo court's permission, pushed the deadline from October 31, 2026 to October 31, 2027, because many creditors still have not completed the steps to get paid. Wallets linked to the estate still hold about 34,400 BTC, per Arkham.
The lesson is the same: not your keys, not your coins. Even the biggest venue of its era can fail, and getting value back can take more than a decade.
$BTC #CryptoHistory #MtGox #CryptoLessons
Not financial advice.
By early 2014 the Tokyo exchange handled over 70% of the world's bitcoin trades. Withdrawals stopped on Feb 7, 2014. Trading halted and the site went dark on Feb 24. On Feb 28 it filed for bankruptcy, saying about 850,000 BTC were missing (about 750,000 from customers and 100,000 of its own), worth about $473 million then, or around 7% of all bitcoins minted, per Reuters. On March 20 it reported finding about 200,000 BTC in an old wallet, leaving roughly 650,000 still gone.
At today's Binance price near $75,900, those 850,000 coins would be worth around $64 billion now.
Creditor repayments began in July 2024. On October 16, 2026 trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi, with the Tokyo court's permission, pushed the deadline from October 31, 2026 to October 31, 2027, because many creditors still have not completed the steps to get paid. Wallets linked to the estate still hold about 34,400 BTC, per Arkham.
The lesson is the same: not your keys, not your coins. Even the biggest venue of its era can fail, and getting value back can take more than a decade.
$BTC #CryptoHistory #MtGox #CryptoLessons
Not financial advice.
