The former CEO of the now-defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has once again apologised for the way he handled things during the exchange’s collapse and claims it’s difficult to say if he still believes in bitcoin.
In a Reddit post, Mark Karpelès published a letter to the exchange’s users discussing issues that had recently come to light. One of which focused on reports from March that a Japanese trustee handling the Mt. Gox bankruptcy had already sold $400 million of the company’s remaining bitcoin to reimburse creditors. At the time, it was speculated that this was what was driving the price of the currency down.
Another issue that Karpelès dealt upon saw him explaining that due to Japanese bankruptcy law once creditors – a figure he puts at 24,750 – claims have been paid back in full there will still be more than 160,000 bitcoin and bitcoin cash assets in the Gox estate. This means, Karpelès adds, that those assets will then be distributed to shareholders as part of the liquidation process. In his opinion, this produces an ‘egregiously distasteful outcome,’ adding:
I don’t want this. I don’t want this billion dollars. From day one I never expected to receive anything from this bankruptcy.
He believes that it’s his responsibility to make sure that this doesn’t happen, with one approach leaning toward civil rehabilitation. This also happens to be a measure that most creditors seem to agree on, he states, which is something he claims he is trying to make happen.
During the Reddit post Q&A, Karpelès said that he and other creditors are pushing for the trustee not to sell anymore coins until a decision has been reached for civil rehabilitation.
Interestingly, when asked whether he still believed in bitcoin, he said it was ‘difficult to say,’ adding that:
The technology is definitely here to stay, but Bitcoin may have trouble evolving and keeping up. That said I could be wrong about this. I’ve been wrong about a lot of things.
Launched in 2010, at the top of its game by 2013 and in 2014, Mt. Gox was handling around 70 percent of all bitcoin transactions worldwide. On the 28th February, the exchange filed for civil rehabilitation, after discovering the loss of $850,000 worth of bitcoin. It eventually filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors two months later. From that figure, $250,000 worth of bitcoin was later rediscovered.
For the former CEO of the Tokyo-based exchange, he said: “I just want to see this end as soon as possible with everyone receiving their share of what they had on Mt. Gox so everyone, myself included, can get some closure.”
Featured image from Flickr via Bit Gid.