Mt. Gox shifts $729M in BTC as Bitcoin tests support

The cold and hot wallets of Mt. Gox reactivated, performing one of the biggest transactions in history. Another $729M in BTC were moved on June 2, recalling the overhang of coins held in conservatorship. 

Mt. Gox coins are moving, warned Arkham Intelligence. The known hot and cold wallets of Mt. Gox have moved some BTC before, but the latest transaction shows unprecedented scale. 

A large transfer of 10,306 BTC, valued at around $729M, was moved to a new and so far untagged address.

Will the Mt. Gox overhang affect the BTC market? 

Mt. Gox drew attention to itself at a time when BTC was showing weakness and hovering above $71,000 after losing previous support levels. The recent transfers from the Mt. Gox cold and hot wallets started after two months of inactivity. 

There is still no set date for distributing the Mt. Gox coins, but the presence of a significant supply overhang has worried the market before. There is still no clarity whether the conservator is finally prepared to distribute BTC to creditors or to swap BTC for liquidation. 

The market will react as if Mt. Gox is finally ready to sell, added to the current selling pressure from ETF and the recent Strategy decision to sell 32 BTC. The sale from Strategy, although small, caused a rapid unraveling of the BTC price and sparked fears that bigger overhangs may further crash the market. 

Mt. Gox has pushed the creditor repayment deadline to October 31, 2026, and still holds around $4B in BTC. Over the years, the defunct exchange has delayed distribution to creditors multiple times, holding coins through both bull and bear markets. Most probably, the latest transfers are part of an internal wallet restructuring rather than preparation for distribution. 

Mt. Gox has an estimated 80,000 creditors, some of whom acquired BTC at under $1,000 back in 2014. The final decision to sell or to hold would be up to each individual early investor in BTC. 

Mt. Gox also moves funds to its hot wallet

As with previous transfers, the wallets of Mt. Gox are watched for a trend of ongoing transactions. 

For now, the only other move of coins was destined for the Mt. Gox hot wallet. The conservator moved around 116 BTC to the hot wallet as of June 2. Both outgoing transactions from the cold wallet happened within an hour of each other, with no further communication from the conservator.

As Cryptopolitan reported, Mt. Gox has previously moved $956M to a new wallet as part of its routine operations to store BTC.  

As a result, the Mt. Gox hot wallet now holds 34.504K BTC, valued at around $2.4B. The wallet will remain closely monitored for follow-up moves, though Mt. Gox has so far avoided selling. The exchange, which virtually controlled the BTC market in 2011, also turned its users into unwilling long-term holders. 

Following the transfer, BTC continued its slide to $71,249.50, once again trading with a sentiment of extreme fear. 

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