Mt Gox Civil Rehabilitation

The biggest civil rehabilitation in history: Mt Gox is presently to begin tomorrow after the October 22nd deadline for filing civil rehabilitation claims passes.

The process has been somewhat tumultuous. After filing for insolvency claims in 2015, numerous through Kraken, they are currently being asked to file again for civil rehabilitation.

The Issue with the refund process

The problem is these year old events have been forgotten by most. Online logins and passwords are not remembered. Few even know exactly what online logging, the one for Mt Gox, the one for the insolvency claim, or something else.

Plenty of people have been forced to file by post because, for reasons unknown, you can not e-mail the PDF application to the now revived support@mtgox.com. So a surge is on for some and this is transforming into a nightmare for some people.

People are advised to not go in person because imagine if thousands of people suddenly appear at the Mt Gox offices in Tokyo to put their paper application through the letterbox. Yet Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Mt Gox Rehabilitation Trustee, says in an email:

“On the off chance that you file a proof of claim by the Offline Method, please make sure that the proof of rehabilitation claim must be received by the Office of the Rehabilitation Trustee before the end of the period for filing rehabilitation claims (i.e., no later than October 22, 2018 (Japan time).”

What is the Process

A simple reading of that suggests the post needs to arrive at their offices by circa 5 PM Japan time on the 22nd of October. The same number of applications are made from everywhere throughout the world, however, it may be very hard to guarantee a delivery by that day.

Logically you’d figure they will consider all applications dated prior to October 22nd as having been filed inside the deadline, yet sometimes logic and law don’t fit, so bureaucracy may get in transit.

In that case, it might be that all post that was received after the 22nd may have to re-file again through a late claims process. In spite of the fact that who knows, perhaps the presence of mind will prevail.

Once every one of these applications is made and processed, Kobayashi will then have to distribute to tens of thousands of goxers $1.5 billion worth of dollars and crypto, with $500 million of it in fiat and about $1 billion of it in 140,000 BTC and 140,000 BCH.

Kraken comes into the picture

It is probably every one of these funds will be distributed through Kraken, meaning that all goxers may have to join with them on the off chance that they haven’t done so already. Kraken stated:

“We are working with the rehabilitation Trustee to provide payout support for Kraken clients. On October 5, 2018, Kraken executed a memorandum agreement with the rehabilitation Trustee regarding future support from Kraken. However, the details of Kraken’s support have not yet been determined.”

How quick they move currently remains to be seen, yet nearly five years since liquidation was declared, this case may have now reached the stage where just last touches are needed for circulation.

The Scenario

Kobayashi has sold $500 million worth of BTC and BCH. That is the fiat value measure of all cryptos and fiat holdings on MT Gox at the time of liquidation with one BTC fixed at a price of circa $400.

In other words, if Mt Gox had not been bankrupt at that time, it would have needed just $500 million to pay every one of its customers all they were due.

That means $1 billion is in profits. That has been retained in BTC and BCH, with individuals free to choose whether they need it back in crypto or in fiat.

Then there’s another $250 million worth of bitcoin and bitcoin cash which has been converted into fiat and is kind of ring-fenced to cover claims or counterclaims Mt Gox had with other businesses that are disputed and are kind of unrelated to the insolvency.

So everything is at long last in place now for this $1.5 billion to be given back. When remains to be seen. This year looks unlikely as they make last preparations, yet around the beginning of 2019 may seem probable.

How the market would be affected remains to be seen. Most have completely written off these Mt Gox holdings, yet now that it would appear that they may really receive 3x the fiat sum they thought they lost, some may get excited and should seriously think about it as a nice reward.

What they will do with it nobody knows. There are some 10,000 individuals involved, so some may need the fiat, some may keep on holding. Some who receive fiat may transform it into crypto.

Making it perhaps a cheerful ending to a terrible series of events as now after years of forced holdings many are in profit and by quite a bit.

So bringing up that issue again of whether history will consider MT Gox as the devil, or perhaps after all as the angel that bootstrapped the bitcoin economy when few were eager to do as such or to keep doing as such for whatever length of time that they did.

Something which may depend on how this dispersion progresses, with a considerable lot of an entire generation presently experiencing a genuinely unique process that makes this whole crypto scene simply that bit more exciting.