Fortress offers to pay Mt Gox creditors $900 per bitcoin claim

Creditors of defunct bitcoin exchange Mt Gox can get back some of the money they lost.

Fortress Investment is offering to buy their claims for $900 per bitcoin, according to a letter to the creditors shared by Coindesk. The managing director of Fortress Michael Hourigan has explained in a letter the company is buying claims for a bitcoin investment.

“We review each claim individually but are now generally able to offer $900 per BTC claim, or roughly 200% of the bankruptcy value (which was $451 per BTC claim),” the letter reads.

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Although $900 does constitute 200 per cent of what bitcoin was worth when Mt Gox collapsed in 2014, it is just a fraction of what it is currently worth, just a bit over 7 per cent of its current value. However, rather than the equivalent of what the tokens were worth when the exchange collapsed, creditors were looking to get their tokens back. Nevertheless, Hourigan said he believes the offer price is “fair to creditors and fair to our investors.”

The creditors can either obtain their claims in bitcoin or the fiat currency of their choice, Hourigan writes. “Our payment would be made within 10 business days of the claim transfer confirmation.”

Earlier this year, Mark Karpeles, former CEO at Mt Gox, was cleared of embezzlement and breach of trust charges by Tokyo District Court. He was found guilty of tampering with records and given a suspended sentence and is seeking appeal over the ruling.