Payments for $9 billion bitcoin settlement from Mt. Gox collapse could start in months, report says

• Mt. Gox creditors are set to receive $9 billion in payments related to the crypto exchange's 2014 collapse.
• One asset manager expects payments to begin in the first or second quarter of 2022.

The plan to compensate creditors of the collapsed crypto exchange Mt. Gox has been approved, and payments of about $9 billion are set to go out soon.

While it's still unclear if payouts will be in cryptocurrency or fiat currency, some industry watchers see creditors getting bitcoin in a matter of months.

"Those affected will receive a large sum of bitcoin, likely happening in Q1 or Q2 of 2022," Matthew Dibbs, chief operating officer of crypto firm Stack Funds, told Reuters.

The settlement plan, which had been filed in Tokyo District Court in February, is now "final and binding," according to an announcement earlier this week from Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi.

With the plan's finalization, the process to compensate those involved in the now-defunct exchange — whose losses are estimated to be worth billions of dollars — is expected to begin promptly. Creditors have been asked to register their bank account information on a specified website to receive payment.

Mt. Gox at one time was the largest bitcoin exchange in the world. But then about 850,000 bitcoin were lost in a hack, and the firm collapsed in 2014.

Since then, the impacted investors have been fighting legal battles to recover their funds. A 2018 petition sought compensation for creditors, and last month roughly 99% of the creditors approved a draft rehabilitation plan.