Bitcoin BTCUSD prices dropped early Tuesday as defunct crypto exchange Mt.Gox processed its largest transfer in months in preparation for a sale sometime in the future.
BTC slid under $68,000, losing 2% in the past 24 hours to influence a broader market slide ahead of the U.S. elections scheduled later in the day in U.S. morning hours. Traders expect a surge in market volatility this week with price swings of as much as $8,000.
Mt. Gox transferred over 32,000 BTC, worth $2.2 billion at current prices, to unmarked wallet addresses data from Arkham shows. A majority of that stash, or nearly 30,400 BTC, was sent to “1FG2C…Rveoy” and 2,000 BTC was moved to “15gNR…a8Aok” after first being sent to a Mt. Gox cold wallet.
Such wallet transfers are usually a consolidation of holdings to new addresses before they are sent to crypto exchanges, where the bitcoin is sold on the open market.
Mt. Gox’s repayments are largely considered to add selling pressure to bitcoin BTCUSD markets as early investors will receive assets at a much higher value than their entries before 2013, making them inclined to sell at least a part of holding, traders said.
Mt. Gox was once the world’s top crypto exchange, handling over 70% of all bitcoin transactions in its early years. In early 2014, hackers attacked the exchange, resulting in the loss of an estimated 740,000 bitcoin (more than $15 billion at current prices). The hack was the biggest of the many attacks on the exchange in the years 2010-13.
Trustees have put together a repayment plan that has been in the works for several years, and received a deadline of October 2024 from a Tokyo court last year. However, in October, the repayment deadline was extended by another year to October 31, 2025.