The past week has been pretty devastating for the Cryptocurrency markets, with drops across the board and a drop in total market capitalisation of around $100 Billion.
Why exactly the markets are dropping is not exactly known and in all honesty it’s unlikely due to one specific factor, however it does seem that we can attribute some of this downtrend to a gentleman who goes by the name of Nobuaki Kobayashi.
Who is Kobayashi?
Nobuaki Kobayashi is the Tokyo attorney and bankruptcy trustee for the infamous Mt. Gox exchange which collapsed following an alleged hack back in 2014, 850,000 Bitcoins were claimed to of been stolen from customers wallets resulting in one of Bitcoins largest market drops.
Kobayshi has been given the task of liquidating the remains of the bitcoins which were confiscated from Mt Gox when they filed bankruptcy. This amount totals around 166,000 Bitcoins.
This all seems well and good, however it would seem Kobayashi requires a lesson or two in how to liquidate large amounts of an asset without damaging the assets market, in this case Bitcoin.
Malicious or Incompetent?
Lets just take a quick look at the details we know about this Bitcoin liquidation, so according to an article in Bloomberg on Monday $400 Million in Bitcoins were dumped onto exchanges between September 2017 to March 2018:
It was also noted that over half of these Bitcoins were dumped just one day before Bitcoin hit it’s recent low of $6000 at the beginning of February:
So is Mr Kobayashi intentionally and thus maliciously crashing the market or is this just the result of incompetence?
Well, honestly i’d have to say probably the latter, but I’d also have to say it’s unlikely he is to concerned about the affects his actions have on the cryptocurrency markets either. Though he may be fearing for his welfare a little now as Twitter and Reddit Crypto-enthusiasts conjure up an angry storm towards him.
Screwed Once, Unlucky – Screwed Twice, Tragic!
The collapse of MtGox back in 2014 hurt a lot of people and unlike many pains this pain has only increased as time has continued onwards and Bitcoins value is continued upwards. Those who are involved in the class action lawsuit against MtGox four years later have still not received any of their stolen funds. Instead the Government has sat on the Bitcoin while investigations commenced and the victims had to continue their lives. Most likely many of those affected by the collapse owned Bitcoin off the exchange also and possibly continued to purchase Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies.
So here we are now, four years later and as the remaining Bitcoins from MtGox gets dumped on the market the value of Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency across the board collapses leaving the MtGox victims still without their now potentially millions of dollars worth of Bitcoin, but now also with a vastly depreciated blockfolio. Ironic really don’t you think, it would seem the Bitcoins from MtGox are cursed.
Surely the best way to of handled this would of been to distribute all the remaining Bitcoins fairly to those that had their Bitcoins stolen from the exchange. Not only would this allow victims to decide whether they want to sell or HODL, it would also eliminate such large amounts of Bitcoin getting dumped on the market in one go.
Alternatively Kobayashi could of sold the Bitcoin to an OTC provider rather than an exchange, common sense, right?
Its our best guess that this is exactly what Kobayashi will be doing with the remainder of the Bitcoin required for Liquidation. After this event it’s likely he’s had quite a few OTC offers placed on the table (as well as a few insults).
Bitcoin Isn’t Dead (Again)
I’m sure the headlines are already popping up throughout the World that ‘Bitcoin is Dead’ and ‘Goodbye Bitcoin’ due to the last few days rapid decline, however rest assured it’s not.
We are still up 10x from just a year ago, the technology is only just getting started and adoption hasn’t really even begun. With so much invested interests surrounding Bitcoin and the entire cryptospace now you can all stop worrying that it’s just another ‘Beanie Baby’ fad. It clearly isn’t.
What most people also fail to see is the real reason Bitcoin is so remarkable, it has nothing whatsoever to do with it’s ability to make some early adopters very rich. Bitcoin allows two people from anywhere in the World to transfer value to each other without permission. No Government or Banking institution can stop any two people transacting with each other. Decentralized, permissionless and without borders – ‘A New Era Is Upon Us’
This article first appeared on our website
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Have you heard if there has been any payout to the Mt. Gox customers?
As far as we are aware.... not yet.