The Mt. Gox Investment Fund intends to keep the Bitcoin scheduled to be returned in September.
According to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg, the fund has opted not to sell the funds it will receive in September, 70% of which will be paid out in Bitcoin and 30% in cash.
The private information was disclosed by a person familiar with the matter, who declined to specify the total amount collectible.
The Mt. Gox Investment Fund (MGIF), which bought up claims against the bankrupt Japanese crypto exchange, chose to receive the majority of its reimbursement in Bitcoin, CoinDesk reported last month. Bitcoinica, a defunct New Zealand-based crypto exchange who is Mt.Gox’s second-largest creditor, also opted for a similar payout.
Together, MGIF and Bitcoinica make up 20% of the value of all Mt. Gox creditor claims which amounted to around $3 billion at the time of writing. Both entities also opted for an early payout in September, where they will receive 90% of collectible funds, as opposed to waiting for legal proceedings around Mt. Gox’s bankruptcy to conclude.
All of the exchange’s creditors have until Friday to decide on a repayment option and to register their information with respect to their claims, according to a notice from Mt. Gox’s Rehabilitation Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi.
MGIF’s intent to hold on to its Bitcoin could help ease fears of a market-wide selloff in the months to come. A sell order of this magnitude would put considerable downward pressure on Bitcoin’s price, even if that comes only a few months down the line.
A more pressing development for market participants is the possibility of a $1 billion Bitcoin sale by the U.S. government. On Wednesday, blockchain analysts found that wallets associated with funds seized by the government transferred a total of 49,000 BTC to Coinbase.
