Former Owner and CEO of Mt. Gox Exchange Offers To Revive The Exchange

Three years back in 2014, Mt. Gox - then world’s largest bitcoin trading exchange collapsed and filed for bankruptcy wherein nearly a 24000 customers were a victim to this and lost any access to cryptocurrencies or cash worth millions of dollars.

Three years later when Bitcoin has now skyrocketed to huge valuations from its $483 price then, there is still no clarity on the fact that whether these customers can get any access to their investments or not as Mt. Gox is still embroiled in multiple lawsuits filed against it.

The Mt. Gox is said to have recovered digital currencies worth $1.6 billion but as per the Japanese laws, the customers of this failed exchange are said to recover only a fraction of it. One of the major issues with the thousands of creditors of Mt. Gox is that as per the Japanese bankruptcy law, the creditor’s claims were settled at the Bitcoin price back in April 2014 which was just $483. Now the creditors have been arguing that having kept them waited to get access to their digital currency investments they should be given the benefits of capital gains for their Bitcoin investments.

While all these issues are on tenterhooks at this moment, Mt. Gox former chief executive - Mark Karpeles - is offering some revival solutions for the exchange to start its operations again so that its multiple customers can again get access to their investments.

In a word with Reuters, Mark Karpeles said that Mt. Got exchange can restore its operations under new ownership and management for a total cost of $245 million. He further clarified that he would be having absolutely no role and require this money only for some expenses that are mostly legal.

Karpeles is currently facing a trial in Japan and is accused of several charges of breach of trust, money embezzlement and data manipulation. However, as of now, he has not pleaded guilty to any of the charges.

Out of the proposed $245 million funds, Karpeles said that majority of it would be required for the security of “uncooperative creditors” as well for other operating expenses and any sort of future cash flow. Additionally, some amount of funds from the $245 million will also be required for settling of compliance issues in Europe, USA and Japan and to convince creditors for supporting this plan.

In order to raise the required amount, Karpeles has proposed the idea of conducting an online fundraiser or else finding a buyer for Mt. Gox.

The changes of Mt. Gox is to resume any sort of business which seems very unlikely at the current stage, Karpeles said he would have “no role nor benefit at all, except for the fact people may hate me a little less.”