A change in the legal status of the MtGox bankruptcy case may lead to creditors being reimbursed the bitcoin they lost, rather than the fiat equivalent.
The Tokyo District Court has approved creditors' petition to commence civil rehabilitation proceedings for MtGox. Consequently, the bankruptcy case[1] that resulted from the 2014 hack has been suspended.
An announcement[2] from the designated civil rehabilitation trustee ( formerly[3] the bankruptcy trustee), Nobuaki Kobayashi, stated that non-monetary claims are converted into monetary claims in bankruptcy proceedings. In civil rehabilitation, these conversions are not performed. It's possible that creditors will receive payments in bitcoin, though no such statement was made.
According to the announcement:
"Matters such as the method and timing of payment in the civil rehabilitation proceedings will be determined in the rehabilitation plan established in the civil rehabilitation proceedings."
To complicate matters further, the document goes on to say that the rehabilitation trustee does not plan "to accept specific filing of cryptocurrencies other than Bitcoins. Instead, we plan to deem Bitcoin creditors who have filed a proof of claim for other cryptocurrencies proportionate to the number of Bitcoins filed."
During the time the case was in bankruptcy proceedings, there was an attempt to convert cryptocurrency into cash, much to creditors' chagrin. At a March creditors' meeting[4], Kobayashi was asked why he sold BTC and BCC during a period of declining value for the two cryptocurrencies.
It's unclear how the change in designation to civil rehabilitation will affect these creditors.
"Claims seeking a refund of Bitcoins ("Bitcoin Claims") will also not be converted into monetary claims," the announcement says, seeming to indicate that creditors are likely to be reimbursed with bitcoin rather than have their claims "converted."
Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of
