Former CEO Suggests Sale or ICO to Mt. gox. bring back to life
The former CEO of Mt. Gox, Mark Karpeles, proposes to bring the bitcoin exchange back again. This would require an amount of 245 million dollars. This money should come from a sale of Mt. Gox or from an initial coin offering.
When issuing shares of Mt. Gox said Karpeles would sell the exchange “in exchange for the revival”. The ‘most money’ would go to Mt. Gox, but, Karpeles says, ‘I’m bringing the exchange back to life’. According to him, with an ICO there is the risk that not enough is brought in. He will no longer play a role at Mt. gox.
Of the 245 million dollars, 175 million would have to be set aside to meet claims from creditors ‘who do not cooperate’. To be able to offer services in the US, 10 million dollars would be needed, for the EU and Japan this amount would amount to 1 million dollars. Operating expenses for the first year would be $20 million and cash flow of $35 million would be needed for “good bargaining power with financial institutions” and as a reserve for the second year. Karpeles explains his proposal in a blog post on his site MagicalTux.
According to the former director, the settlement of the bankruptcy of Mt. Gox for a very long time because of the high number of creditors, including 24,750 former users, and because the CoinLab company is demanding $75 million from Mt. gox. That case has its origins in a planned partnership between CoinLab and Mt. Gox, where CoinLab would take over the exchange’s US customers. The deal fell through after the company Mt. Gox accused of breach of contract. After that, the alleged theft of 850,000 bitcoins took place that left Mt. Gox went bankrupt.
Afterwards, more than 200,000 bitcoins were recovered, which are under the management of the bankruptcy trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi during the bankruptcy proceedings. Those bitcoins are now worth a multiple of the value when Mt. Gox went bankrupt, in 2014. In principle, this could pay off the creditors, leaving a huge amount, but most of them want the capital gains to be factored in. Karpeles points out that monetizing the bitcoins is not without risk and that the value of the 202,000 bitcoins in total could be ten times higher or lower tomorrow. Moreover, the dumping on the market itself could already have an impact on the market. In any case, the former CEO seems to potentially be able to make the most of the proceeds of the bitcoins, Bitcoin News writes: as the largest shareholders of Mt. Gox the remainder, once the remaining creditors have been paid. Karpeles was arrested after the bankruptcy of the exchange in Japan for embezzlement. He pleaded his innocence last summer and must remain in Japan pending the case.