Mt Gox creditors have filed a petition in Tokyo to begin a civil rehabilitation process to collect payments in bitcoin.
Creditors of Mt Gox have filed a petition with the Tokyo District Court seeking to halt bankruptcy proceedings and switch over to a civil rehabilitation process instead, a report by the Nikkei today has revealed.
Current bankruptcy filings at Mt Gox, once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange by trading volume before it went under in 2014, determines payments owed to creditors at the market value of the company’s assets at the time of bankruptcy. The market value of bitcoin at the time of Mt Gox’s demise was just under $450, compared to present day prices of nearly $17,000.
Creditors’ claims are limited to a maximum value of $480, one Mt Gox creditor told CCN last month when it was revealed that Mt Gox’s former chief Mark Karpeles is expected to take the majority of the profit from the bankruptcy’s proceedings – in the billions today. Under current proceedings, Mt Gox is expected to have a surplus of over 200 billion yen ($1.764 billion) after payments to its creditors – in fiat yen. An investigation into the bankruptcy recovered 200,000 bitcoins, approximately $3.4 billion in today’s prices.
As a result, creditors are asking the court to pause Mt Gox’s bankruptcy proceedings and pivot to a civil rehabilitation process that will enable them to receive recovery payments in bitcoin – which is far more valuable today.
The Tokyo District Court will consider the creditors’ petition and is expected to make a decision in early 2018.