Mt. Gox moves $2.4 billion in bitcoin to unknown address during currency’s climb to $100,000 milestone

Reported by The Block: Defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox sent over 27,871 BTC to an unmarked wallet.

The transfer happened as bitcoin crossed the $100,000 mark for the first time.

Bankrupt crypto exchange Mt. Gox transferred nearly 24,000 BTC, worth around $2.4 billion, to an address during late night on Wednesday, Arkham Intelligence data shows.

One unmarked wallet address “1N7jW…1u8Yp” received 24,051.75 BTC from Mt. Gox from the exchange’s other cold wallet storage. This is the exchange's first large transfer since Nov. 12.

While it is unclear whether Monday’s transfer is part of Mt. Gox’s future distributions to creditors, such movements in the past have preceded repayments via centralized exchanges, including Bitstamp and Kraken. Earlier this year, the defunct exchange postponed its repayment deadline from Oct. 31, 2024, to Oct. 31, 2025.

As the remaining Mt. Gox creditors await their BTC repayments, the price of bitcoin surpassed its $100,000 benchmark on Wednesday in an extended market rally boosted by positive U.S. election results for crypto. Bitcoin rose 7% in the past 24 hours to change hands at $102,952, according to The Block’s bitcoin price page.

Mt. Gox, founded in Tokyo in 2010, was once the largest bitcoin exchange in the world until the platform suffered a major security breach in 2014 that lost at least 850,000 BTC. Thousands of creditors have been waiting to have their bitcoin returned, a process that has been unfolding over the past few months.