Hedge Fund Increases Mt. Gox Creditor Offer to USD 1,300 per Bitcoin

The New York-based hedge fund Fortress Investment Group has upped its offer as it looks to buy up creditor claims from Mt. Gox, the cryptocurrency exchange that monumentally collapsed in 2014, leaving thousands of bitcoin (BTC)-holding customers out of pocket.

Per Bloomberg, the hedge fund has made its decision “in the wake of this year’s bitcoin rally,” which has seen prices rise above the key USD 10,000 mark.

The news agency states that Fortress has been in touch with creditors this week, offering them “USD 1,300 per bitcoin, or 88% of its estimated account value.”

Bloomberg says it has seen a “one-page proposal” from “a person who said they weren’t authorized to speak on the matter.”

In the letter, Fortress managing director Michael Hourigan allegedly claims that his company has made the “discount offer” due to “the likely timeline (three to five years) and the financial risk of the ongoing litigations,” as the legal proceedings involving the current Mt. Gox trustee continue.

The offer is a significant increase on the previous Fortress offer, made in December 2019, when the company offered creditors USD 755 per bitcoin. (Then, the price was reduced from USD 900.)

An even earlier offer, made in March 2019, saw Fortress offer less than half of its current per-bitcoin bid – just USD 600.

However, it’s unknown how many claims Fortress has bought already.

The Japan-based Mt. Gox exchange was once the world’s biggest, and its collapse sent shockwaves across the entire industry – leading Tokyo to introduce a rigid system of regulatory measures for trading platforms operating in the country.

Set up in 1998, Fortress says it had some USD 41.5 billion of assets under management as of 30 September 2019, operating on behalf of more than 1,750 institutional clients and private investors from a range of credit and real estate, private equity and permanent capital investment strategies.

At pixel time (09:40 UTC), BTC trades at c. USD 9,591 and is down 5.5% in the past 24 hours and 6% in a week, trimming its monthly gains to less than 11%. The price is up 142% in a year.