Mt. Gox wallets, which have been closely watched by the crypto market for years, have moved again. According to Arkham Intelligence data, the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox transferred a total of 10,306 BTC to two different addresses early Tuesday morning. At current market prices, the total value of these transactions is approximately $739 million.
The move drew attention because it marked the first major Bitcoin transfer from Mt. Gox-linked wallets since March. Similar large transfers in the past have sometimes taken place before creditor repayments. For that reason, investors have started watching whether the latest transactions could also be linked to a possible distribution process.
Did the transfers cause selling pressure?
According to Arkham data, Mt. Gox sent 10,306 BTC from its cold wallets to an unmarked address beginning with “14FE…c9eq” at around 7:47 a.m. Turkish time on Tuesday. The transfer was valued at approximately $730.8 million at the time of the transaction. In the same time frame, 116.3 BTC was also moved to the exchange’s hot wallet.
About two hours later, another transaction took place at around 9:46 a.m. Mt. Gox-linked wallets transferred 116.3 BTC to another address beginning with “1A4x…QNj4.” The same transaction also included a very small amount of Bitcoin, worth around $1.19, sent to a Bitstamp cold wallet.
Arkham currently marks the transferred Bitcoin as “unspent.” This shows that the funds have not yet been moved to any exchange and that there is no clear sign they are being prepared for direct sale. The fact that the receiving address is not associated with a centralized or decentralized exchange was also one of the details that limited the initial panic in the market.
Still, the Mt. Gox name continues to carry strong psychological weight in the Bitcoin market. Repayments to the exchange’s creditors have long been tracked as a potential source of selling pressure in the crypto market. In the past, large wallet movements have sometimes been interpreted as a signal that creditor repayments were approaching. However, it is still unclear whether the latest transfers were made within that context.
Mt. Gox still holds 34,504 BTC across its wallets. These holdings are currently valued at approximately $2.43 billion. Therefore, while the latest transfer is large, it does not represent the exchange’s entire Bitcoin reserve. From a market perspective, the key question is how much of these assets could be sold on the spot market if they are distributed to creditors.
On the other hand, the situation is not being interpreted only through the possibility of direct selling. Mt. Gox claims have recently started attracting interest from institutional investors as well. Strive Asset Management was previously reported to be planning to build a 75,000 BTC treasury by purchasing approved but undistributed Mt. Gox claims. That plan is said to point to a size of around $8 billion.
This development suggests that some creditors may prefer to cash out their claims before distribution. In such a scenario, not all Bitcoin would necessarily enter the spot market directly. Institutional buyers taking over these claims could change how potential selling pressure is reflected in the market.
Mt. Gox is remembered as one of the most well-known collapses in Bitcoin history. The Tokyo-based exchange handled around 70% of global Bitcoin transactions in 2013. However, after a major security breach in 2014, approximately 850,000 BTC was lost. The company then filed for bankruptcy protection, and the creditor repayment process turned into a complex legal case that has continued for years.
The exchange began repaying creditors in July 2024 through partner platforms such as Kraken and Bitstamp. However, the rehabilitation trustee extended the repayment deadline to October 2026 last year. This marked the third postponement since the original deadline of October 31, 2023.
