Mt. Gox creditors to start receiving bitcoin and bitcoin cash from Bitstamp on Thursday

Bitstamp made the highly-anticipated announcement that it has started the process of returning digital assets to Mt. Gox creditors.

The cryptocurrency exchange said in a statement Wednesday it has received bitcoin, bitcoin cash and Ethereum from the Mt. Gox trustees and will begin distributing the digital assets to Bitstamp customers starting Thursday, July 25.

"In total, approximately 20,000 former users of Mt. Gox, which collapsed in 2014 after being hacked, are set to receive over $9 billion worth of bitcoin, bitcoin cash, and Ethereum as part of the restitution process," Bitstamp said in its statement.

While Bitstamp said it will start distributing funds from Thursday, it alerted some creditors that the transfers could take up to "one week," according to messages viewed by The Block. The exchange also said that customers in the UK "will not be included in the first tranche of distributions," but should expect to receive their funds UK customers "within the next few months." 

A cryptocurrency wallet associated with Mt. Gox has also transferred 32,371 bitcoin ($2.13 billion) to an unknown address. The transfer follows Kraken paying out creditors on Tuesday.

In another transfer, Mt. Gox sent about $2.8 billion in bitcoin to another address, The Block also reported.