Kraken has distributed all funds to the exchange’s Mt. Gox creditors, but the highly anticipated selling pressure on Bitcoin has not materialized.
Crypto exchange Kraken has now completed the distribution of all the Bitcoin (BTC) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) owed to Mt. Gox creditors, according to Dave Ripey, the CEO of Kraken.
Kraken’s CEO announced the end of the distribution in a July 24 X post:
“Krakenfx has successfully distributed #Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash from the Mt. Gox estate back to creditors. It’s been nearly a decade since Kraken was selected by the Trustee to facilitate the investigation and return of client funds.”
The incoming repayments caused widespread concerns among crypto investors, who feared that the majority of the collapsed exchange’s creditors would be looking to sell their Bitcoin and cause a drastic price decrease.
More than $9.4 billion worth of Bitcoin is owed to approximately 127,000 Mt. Gox creditors who have been waiting for over 10 years to recover their funds.
Related: Over 36% of Mt. Gox Bitcoin distributed to creditors, but whales keep accumulating
Mt. Gox creditors are not selling Bitcoin
Bitcoin price has increased in value by over 8,500% in the 10 years since the Japanese crypto exchange collapsed, which is the primary reason why most creditors could be looking to sell.
However, Kraken’s trading volume suggests that creditors aren’t selling, according to Ki Young Ju, the founder and CEO of CryptoQuant.
Ju wrote in a July 24 X post:
“Mt. Gox creditors received #Bitcoin 4 hours ago. There has been no significant spike in hourly spot trading volume dominance or $BTC outflows on Kraken since then.”
The founder called this a “positive sign so far,” but added that we could see some added sell pressure from Asia.
Related: Mt. Gox prepares for repayments on Bitstamp, executes test transactions
Only the “paper hands” will sell Mt. Gox BTC — Analyst
The Mt. Gox payments will only cause selling pressure among “paper hands,” which is crypto slang for the crypto holders with the least conviction.
Therefore, Mt. Gox repayments will only cause short-term Bitcoin volatility, according to popular onchain analyst RunnerXBT, who wrote in a July 16 X post:
“I expect CT (read as the softest of the men, soyest of soy) to react to the first few 5k BTC+ transfers to CEX. Transfers on-chain (shuffle of coins within wallets) do fuck all.”
This view starkly contrasts with other analysts, like finance analyst Jacob King, who expected that up to 99% of Mt. Gox creditors could be selling their Bitcoin, due to the asset’s significant price appreciation.