The Bitcoin price<\/a> plunged this week, sinking below $55,000 for the first time since February as the now-defunct Mt Gox exchange began distributing billions in owed funds.<\/p>\n

Mt Gox announced<\/a> it has started repaying creditors, ending years of waiting stemming from its 2014 collapse. The Japan-based exchange will distribute approximately $9 billion worth of Bitcoin, Bitcoin cash, and fiat currency.<\/p>\n

The news added heavy selling pressure on Bitcoin, which fell over 6% on Friday to trade near $54,000. The broader Bitcoin and crypto market shed over $170 billion in 24 hours amid the declines.<\/p>\n

On Thursday evening, Mt Gox<\/a> moved around 47,000 Bitcoin worth nearly $2.7 billion from cold storage wallets to a separate address<\/a>. While intentions remain uncertain, the transfer fueled concerns creditors may sell portions of recovered coins.<\/p>\n

The payouts come after protracted bankruptcy proceedings for Mt Gox, which suffered a massive hack in 2014 that resulted in 850,000 Bitcoin being lost. It was the largest crypto exchange at the time, handling 70% of all Bitcoin transactions.<\/p>\n

The repayment of creditors marks a major step toward resolving Mt Gox’s decade-long insolvency case. However, the influx of previously lost coins threatens to shift supply and demand dynamics.<\/p>\n

Some analysts estimate selling pressure from payouts could push Bitcoin’s price as low as $50,000 in the near term. Ongoing transfers from the German government<\/a> have also weighed on the market.<\/p>\n

However, others argue the amounts equate to a small fraction of daily Bitcoin trading volumes. They say most creditors are long-term investors unlikely to dump holdings en masse, limiting impacts.<\/p>\n

Nonetheless, analysts widely expect significant volatility ahead between Mt Gox distributions and the start of German government sales in July.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Bitcoin price plunged this week, sinking below $55,000 for the first time since February as the now-defunct Mt Gox exchange began distributing billions in owed funds. Mt Gox announced it has started repaying creditors, ending years of waiting stemming from its 2014 collapse. The Japan-based exchange will distribute approximately $9 billion worth of Bitcoin, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-crypto-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26426"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26426\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bitcoins-101.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}