Mt. Gox’s 34,400 BTC could stay frozen until 2027

Mt. Gox has rescheduled its repayment deadline for October 31, 2027, with a one-year extension from the Tokyo District Court, meaning that some unspecified number of former Mt. Gox customers are still waiting to receive their Bitcoin over a decade after the exchange went bust.

Why the deadline slipped again

Rehabilitation trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi announced the shift in the notice from October 16, 2026, Finbold reported. October 31, 2026 was the deadline in place before the shift, and now it applies to the base, early lump sum and intermediate repayment.

As per reports, Nobuaki Kobayashi said that creditors who completed their paperwork without any issues have mostly been paid, except in some cases when the type of payments differed. The problem lies with the rest of the people. Many creditors have not completed the paperwork yet, while others have encountered issues with the same, and this is the reason why the estate is not able to conclude the plan.

No information regarding the figures has been released in the notice. The notice has neither given the number of remaining unpaid creditors, nor has it mentioned anything about the amount of Bitcoin available for distribution.

The sixth delay since 2023

In fact, it becomes the sixth postponement since 2023 and the fourth annual one. The previous two postponements were made during this period but were shorter than this one. Referring to the notice issued by the trustee, it described it as the fourth year-long postponement since the October 2023 deadline.

In any case, the process remains the same: each year, the estate requests and obtains another year. Kobayashi stated that this additional year would allow administrators to make repayments “to the extent reasonably practicable.”

Reimbursement in Bitcoins (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) did not start until July 2024, i.e., more than ten years after the exchange ceased to operate. In March 2025, Mt. Gox announced that more than 19,500 creditors have received their payments.

Billions still sitting in cold storage

The wallets tied to Mt. Gox have around 34,400 BTC valued at about $2.8 billion, according to Arkham Intelligence data as of October 20, 2026. The estimated value of the estate stood between 34,000 and 34,500 BTC. However, it did point out that the trustee’s announcement does not corroborate any particular value. Bitcoin price hovered around $81,600 at the press time.

In the markets, the new delay is delaying the point at which the coins are actually transferred to parties that might decide to sell them. It is being warned that receiving the Bitcoin doesn’t mean the creditors are going to sell it.

How Mt. Gox got here

What started as being completely unconnected to crypto was a case in which a report stated that the Mt. Gox domain name was registered by programmer Jed McCaleb in 2007 for trading Magic: The Gathering Online Cards. Then it became a Bitcoin exchange in 2010 and was then sold to Mark Karpelès in 2011. The exchange is known to have handled over 70% of all Bitcoin transactions worldwide.

The whole thing fell apart in February 2014, when Mt. Gox stopped withdrawals and declared bankruptcy. Over 850,000 BTC had gone missing, but around 200,000 BTC were recovered. Creditors approved a rehabilitation plan in 2021, and the payments have been going on ever since.

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