16,000 Bitcoin (BTC) and 16,000 Bitcoin Cash (BCH) have been moved out of cold wallets associated with the infamous, now defunct Japanese Bitcoin (BTC) exchange MT. Gox today, April 26, according to Mt. Gox cold wallet tracking data on Crypto Ground.
The wallets are under the control of Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy trustee, Nobuaki Kobayashi. As displayed on the cold wallet monitor, the exchange has moved 16,000 BTC, worth $144 mln, and 16,000 BCH, worth around $21.7 mln by press time. The sums were moved out in multiple batches of 2,000 BTC and BCH to various addresses. The BTC amounts were then consolidated in two transactions to a single BTC address, and the BCH in four transactions to a single BCH address.
Investor and Bitcoin enthusiast Alistair Milne, wrote on Twitter that the cryptocurrency community “obviously [doesn’t] know if [the moved coins] were sold or just moved for some other reason.”
Looks like 16k BTC from Mt Gox were consolidated to this address
— Alistair Milne (@alistairmilne) April 26, 2018
We obviously don't know if they were sold or just moved for some other reasonhttps://t.co/rr05Vn7Fnv pic.twitter.com/eMS1vMCG3l
Some reports claimed that the previously reported $400 mln Mt. Gox sell-off from December through February led to BTC prices dropping as low as $6,000 in February.
Mt. Gox used to be the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world until hackers stole around 850,000 BTC ($460 mln at the time) from it in February 2014. A criminal investigation and attempts to refund users who lost money are still under the way.
Earlier in April, Mt. Gox ex-CEO Mark Karpeles claimed that he “doesn’t want” the 160,000 BTC ($1.4 bln by press time) that will reportedly be left over after the exchange repays its creditors.
Bitcoin is currently trading at an average of $9,126, up 0.06% on the day to press time. Bitcoin Cash is trading at an average of $1,357, up 1.43 percent.