One of Mt. Gox’s cold wallets just transferred more than 47,000 BTC to an unknown wallet address amid a plan to begin repaying its creditors.
The collapsed Japanese crypto exchange Mt. Gox has transferred 47,229 Bitcoin — worth $2.71 billion at current prices — to a new wallet address in its first major transaction since May.
According to blockchain analytics platform Arkham Intelligence, the exchange transferred the Bitcoin at 12:30 am UTC on July 5 from “cold storage.”
The movement comes amid the exchange’s scheduled plan to repay creditors in July. A total of $8.5 billion worth of Bitcoin is slated to be paid back to creditors.
Mt. Gox moved 1,545 BTC to the hot wallet of an exchange called Bitbank, one of the crypto exchanges supporting the repayment process.
Mt. Gox informed creditors that it had completed all the necessary steps to start begin issuing repayments in July, according to a June 24 statement from Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi.
Several market commentators voiced concerns over the sheer volume of Bitcoin that could hit the market following Mt. Gox creditors selling their holdings, which have been inaccessible for more than 10 years.
However, other analysts worked to allay fears of a massive sell-off, saying the total amount of Bitcoin that stands to be “dumped” on the market is probably closer to a value of around $4.5 billion.
Galaxy Digital’s head of research, Alex Thorn, suggested that many Mt. Gox Bitcoin holders might be more “diamond-handed” than anticipated. He highlighted the potential adverse impact of capital gains taxes for those who wished to sell all their BTC at once.
On May 28, Mt. Gox transferred nearly $7.3 billion worth of Bitcoin to another unknown wallet address, and the price of Bitcoin dipped as much as 2% afterward.
The price of Bitcoin fell sharply on July 4 before tumbling lower in the following hours. It is currently changing hands for $57,226, per TradingView data.
The price of Bitcoin is down 6.9% on the week but has posted year-to-date gains of 35.6%.
Source:- COINTELEGRAPH
