Nobuaki Kobayashi, the Japanese MT Gox trustee of some 165,000 bitcoins and an equal amount of bitcoin cash, has moved around $150 million worth of both.
Just a few hours ago, Kobayashi moved 16,000 BTC, currently worth $144 million, and 16,000 BCH, currently worth around $20 million.
They appear to have ended up at this address, which seems to have previously received coins unrelated to MT Gox. This does not therefore appear to be a consolidation. This might instead be a sale.
MT Gox creditors have been trying to rehabilitate the exchange so that everyone is paid back in crypto, but it appears the court has a different view if these funds are indeed being sold out.
That is not confirmed to be the case at this point, but Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of MT Gox, recently stated:
“Payments to shareholders in Bitcoin are unheard of, and are probably not an option since taxes on payments to shareholders have to be calculated, which means whatever is being paid need to have a stable value in JPY.”
Bitcoin is so new, it is obviously unheard of, and taxes aren’t for courts or trustees to pay, but this whole bankruptcy process has been so remote, that no one really knows what exactly is going on.
No one knows for example what is happening with the Bitcoin Gold coins. Have they been claimed? That should be some millions. Plus all the other forks.
And no one knows because to access court documents, that is to know what was said in court, is apparently so difficult it is practically impossible. What the trustee is saying to the judge/s therefore, and whether anyone is speaking there for creditors, is a bit of a mystery.
Which means this generation might get their biggest slap in the face by the Japanese court process. That is, they may decide to give creditors and the rightful owners of these assets only $500 million, then the remaining $1.5 billion might go to the one responsible for all this mess, Karpeles.
He has stated he does not want it, but if the trustee is indeed selling the coins and then gives those billions to Karpeles, Karpeles in turn might have to buy them back and then give them to everyone.
A shambolic mess, and a disgrace on the Japanese law/judiciary who we suspect has failed to properly take into account creditors best interest beyond whatever the trustee (who is conflicted due to receiving fees) tells them.
A trustee who has yet not given one public interview, who holds creditor meetings in some remote room despite creditors being global in nature. Who appears to be allergic to technology, sending creditors letters through the post, rather than emails or indeed rather than holding live streamings of creditors meetings.
But all this will eventually end, the goxing will end. For now, however, we might have to enjoy the clown show whereby they sell our assets without our permission for no clear reason but to cause chaos and anger at the court system itself.
We, of course, expect nothing less out of anything that has anything to do with gox. Bitcoin’s nemesis from the beginning, that’s how history should remember that trash exchange.
