The world’s largest cryptocurrency has recently been under pressure by news of the collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which is preparing to distribute about $9 billion worth of coins to users.
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Cryptocurrencies fell Friday as investors focused on the nearly $9 billion payout to users of failed bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox.
As of 10:50 a.m. London time, the price of bitcoin has fallen nearly 6% in 24 hours to $54,500.53, marking the first time it has traded below the $55,000 level since February 27, according to data from CoinGecko.
Rival token ether fell about 9% to $2,872.10.
In total, the entire cryptocurrency market has lost more than $170 billion in combined market capitalization in the past 24 hours, according to data from CoinGecko.
On Friday, Mt. Gox bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi said in a statement that the company has begun making repayments in bitcoin and bitcoin cash to certain creditors through a number of designated crypto exchanges.
The Mt. Gox trustee did not say how much money was transferred to those exchanges.
He noted that the remaining funds would be returned to creditors once a series of conditions were met, including confirmation of the validity of the registered accounts and the completion of discussions between the trustee and the designated crypto exchanges.
The trustee is still working to ensure that repayments “can be made safely,” Kobayashi wrote, urging “creditors eligible for rehabilitation to wait a bit.”
This comes after a small amount of bitcoin was moved out of wallets associated with Mt. Gox, according to blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence, with the largest movement being a $24 transfer to Japanese crypto exchange Bitbank.
Bitbank is among the beneficiaries listed to support the refunds.
Recently, the world’s largest cryptocurrency has been under pressure from news of the collapse of bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox, which is preparing to distribute about $9 billion worth of coins to users. This release of coins into the market is expected to lead to significant selling.
Also putting pressure on cryptocurrency markets, the German government on Thursday sold about 3,000 bitcoins — worth about $175 million at today’s prices — from a stash of 50,000 bitcoins seized as part of the Movie2k movie piracy operation, according to Arkham Intelligence.
Arkham, which monitors Germany’s Bitcoin wallet, noted that the government still holds more than 40,000 bitcoins worth more than $2 billion.
News Source : www.cnbc.com
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