Mt. Gox has delayed repaying roughly $13 billion in Bitcoin by another year, and that’s good for crypto traders, according to industry insiders.
The defunct crypto exchange’s decision to delay repayments until October 31, 2026, will remove uncertainty in the near term, analysts say.
“This delay gives the market more time to absorb eventual inflows and signals continued maturity in how crypto assets are managed and priced in,” Charles d’Haussy, CEO at decentralised derivatives exchange dYdX, told DL News.
The one-year delay comes after US President Donald Trump rocked crypto markets earlier in October by threatening to impose a 100% tariff on Chinese goods.
The overall crypto market recovered slightly this weekend after reports that Washington and Beijing were making progress on their high-stakes trading negotiations.
Decade-old wait
The Mt. Gox trustees’ delay comes over a decade after hackers stole 850,000 Bitcoin from the exchange, which triggered its collapse in 2014.
Since then, the trustee has recovered a portion of the lost assets and begun to repay some of its creditors in 2024.
When those repayments started, market analysts and investors anticipated that the influx of Bitcoin from the payouts could lead to significant market pressure as creditors were able to sell their assets.
Yet, trustees delayed repayments for one year in 2024 and again this year.
Many “editors still have not received their repayments because they have not completed the necessary procedures for receiving repayments,” the trustee said in a letter announcing the delay.
“Additionally, a considerable number of rehabilitation creditors have not received their repayments due to various reasons, such as issues arising during the repayments process.”
To be sure, the 114,000 coins waiting to hit the market make up roughly 0.5% of all Bitcoin in circulation, which suggests that the actual sell-side pressure of these coins on the market would be minimal.
Even so, it can help calm traders’ nerves, Robert Freeman, CTO at decentralised finance platform Byrrgis, told DL News.
“From a psychological perspective, the knowledge that 142,000 BTC and around the same in [Bitcoin cash] are staying under lock and key for another 12 months will be well received by all crypto traders — with the exception of Gox’s beleaguered creditors,” Freeman said.
