A group of investors has put forth an offer to buy the defunct cryptocurrency exchange, Mt. Gox, for a symbolic price of 1 bitcoin or about US$425 at the time of this writing.
The investor-entrepreneurs have justified this type of valuation citing “an information vacuum” over the missing Bitcoins as well as the unknown whereabouts of its founder, Mark Karpeles.
Lest we forget, Mt. Gox, the first-of-its-kind and once the largest crypto currency trading platform, declared bankruptcy back in February and began the necessary bankruptcy procedures. The reason cited was hacker attacks who exploited a vulnerability in their software resulting in a loss of over 750,000 bitcoins belonging to users and approximately 100,000 of the exchange’s own bitcoins.
The loss to is now estimated to be around a staggering half a billion US dollars, which has led many users to take legal action and file class action lawsuits against the Tokyo-based exchange.
The group of investors aiming to purchase Mt. Gox included the former child actor turned entrepreneur, Brock Pierce, along with venture-capitalist investors William Quigley and Matthew Roszak. The group is hoping to restore the exchange with plans to set aside 50% from every transaction in a special restitution fund to reimburse clients and other creditors.
Earlier in March, it was reported that Mt. Gox managed to discover around 200,000 bitcoins in their own “hidden” wallets, which boosted hopes that the rest of the money could still turn up. Investors are optimistic that they could find the lost digital coins in the future and return them to their rightful owners.
According to Japanese law, the acquisition must be first be approved by a Japanese Bankruptcy Court. Whether this offer will be accepted remains to be seen, however, the near-zero price offered for the trading platform could prove to be a hurdle.