Crypto Wallet Holding $2B Mt. Gox Bitcoin Sends Test Transaction as Distribution Continues: Arkham

A crypto wallet that recently received $2 billion of bitcoin (BTC) from defunct exchange Mt. Gox’s trustee initiated a test transaction on Tuesday, perhaps to prepare distributing funds to creditors, blockchain analytics firm Arkham Intelligence noted.
Arkham analysts said the wallet that initiated the transfer likely belongs to crypto custody platform BitGo, one of the five service providers that distribute tokens to creditors. BitGo is the last remaining distribution partners, they added.
The test transaction followed a 33,100 BTC transfer two weeks ago, worth $2.2 billion at the time, from a Mt. Gox cold wallet holding creditors’ funds.
Arkham explained the process of tagging the wallet as likely BitGo in a Telegram message to CoinDesk. “The address was clustered with a large input cluster which we were able to identify as BitGo due to custody structure and wallet types used,” an Arkham analyst said. “We’ve also been able to identify the other fur exchange partners used for Mt. Gox distributions, so there’s also a process of elimination.”
Meanwhile, some users in a reddit channel dedicated to Mt. Gox creditors reported that they received funds to their BitGo accounts. CoinDesk hasn’t verified the claims.
BitGo didn’t return a request by CoinDesk to confirm the transaction as of press time.
Japan-based Mt. Gox was at one point the largest bitcoin exchange before imploding in 2014 due to a hack. The distribution of over 140,000 BTC and similar amount of bitcoin cash (BCH) has been a major source of concern for investors, worried about creditors selling assets to realize profits after ten years of waiting.
The trustee managing Mt. Gox assets started distributing tokens in early July, sending BTC prices plunging below $54,000 on the news. The exchanges approved by the trustee for creditor repayments include Bitbank, BitGo, Bistamp, Kraken and SBI VC Trade.
Mt. Gox addresses currently hold 46,000 BTC, down from 141,000 on July 1, Arkham data shows.
Edited by Oliver Knight.
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Krisztian Sandor is a reporter on the U.S. markets team focusing on stablecoins and institutional investment. He holds BTC and ETH.