The upcoming release of $9 billion worth of Bitcoin by the defunct exchange Mt. Gox is stirring up quite the buzz among crypto investors. Everyone’s worried about the potential impact on Bitcoin prices. But let’s break it down and see if the panic is warranted at all.
After staging a remarkable recovery earlier this week, the price of Bitcoin took a hit. Why? The Japanese trustee of Mt. Gox, Nobuaki Kobayashi, started moving around tokens in wallets. A May 28 note from Kobayashi mentioned plans to distribute Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash to creditors soon.
Most claimants are expected to get their tokens by the end of October. This has investors biting their nails, fearing a hard consolidation. The trustee holds over 140,000 Bitcoin and a similar stash of Bitcoin Cash.
Bloomberg analysts estimate that about 75% of these tokens would be paid out to creditors who chose early reimbursement with a small discount this year. That’s nearly 95,000 Bitcoins set to hit the market this year. The remaining creditors will get their full payout in a few years.
However, big creditors and long-time market players don’t foresee a lasting negative impact on Bitcoin prices. They believe the recent approval of US exchange-traded funds will absorb the influx of tokens. Many of these seasoned investors plan to hold onto their coins or sell them gradually, betting on a continued price increase.
Take Adam Back, CEO of Blockstream Corp., for instance. He’s one of the creditors who plans to keep any distributed Bitcoin. According to Back, selling at the start of a bull market doesn’t make sense. If you’ve waited a decade, what’s another year or so? Some folks might need the liquidity, but that’s likely a small group. Most people moved on or wrote off their losses years ago.
The bitcoin market has matured significantly since Mt. Gox went up in flames. Claim holders need to ask themselves whether they need the money now or if it’s better to hold onto Bitcoin as a long-term value store, given its stellar performance over the past 15 years.
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