Bankrupt Bitcoin bunker blender begins: MtGox admin starts liquefaction

The Tokyo District Court-appointed administrator for MtGox has begun formal proceedings to liquify the collapsed Bitcoin exchange. In a letter published on the bankrupt biz's website, lawyer Nobuaki Kobayashi confirmed he will "administer and dispose of the assets" of MtGox. "[I] will implement the bankruptcy proceedings, in …

[Ketlan]

Missing bitdosh

"But where's the missing 650k-ish BTC?"

I'd check under the Winkelvoss' mattress.

[Captain DaFt]

Re: Missing bitdosh

Isn't progress amazing? These days you can hide a fortune on a micro-SD card!

[Anonymous Custard]

Re: Missing bitdosh

I'm tempted to put a bid in for their sofa, just so I can look down the back of it and see what might turn up there...

[psychonaut]

the usual (banking) suspects

kobayashi is the lawyer? this couldnt get anymore sinister

after all.....The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was to convince the world he didn't exist.....And like that, poof. He's gone.

[Hud Dunlap]

@psychonaut

I think I am the only one who got it.

[Steve K]

Re: @psychonaut

Not really - the reference was already made a few days back...

http://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/1/2014/04/16/mtgox_requests_liquidation/

[psychonaut]

Re: @psychonaut

ahh - and theres me thinking i was all original...damn!!!

[ashdav]

Re: @psychonaut

No, I got it too and upvoted.

(Where's the Keyser Söze icon when you need it)

[sniperpaddy]

Re: @psychonaut

Nope.

"kobayashi is the lawyer?" would have been quite sufficient !!!!

[Primus Secundus Tertius]

Liquidate, please

The usual word for winding up the affairs of a busted corp is liquidate. Not liquefy, meltdown, or fluidise; although that last word characterises the lack of objectivity in Karpeles' words to us.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Liquidate, please

Coming soon, a new webisode of "Will it Blend?"...

[sniperpaddy]

Re: Liquidate, please

I thought "liquify" was quite witty since I wouldn't class this as a normal windup with concrete assets.

[NoneSuch]

"But where's the missing 650k-ish BTC?"

The NSA stole it to finance further surveillance measures.

[asdf]

probably not

Nah they have big daddy tax payer they can get a blank check from by black mailing those holding the purse strings. Best of all they can hide a lot it folded into other things under the whole black ops budget thing.

[Anonymous Coward]

Kind of funny that the bitcoins disappeared about the same time that Snowden was going to be needing money for a security deposit on a new Russian flat...

[deadlockvictim]

I doubt that Russian landlords accept BitCoins. They want proper, hard currency.

[Captain Scarlet]

What like Vodka?

[d3rrial]

Expensive

@Andy Prough

That would be one hell of an expensive russian flat, at several hundred million dollar equivalent...

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Expensive

@d3rrial - he might have needed a little bit of "protection" money also....

[sniperpaddy]

Just another pyramid scheme

Take away the noise and it's just another pyramid scheme...suckers !!!!!

[witsub]

The idea still lives --

Here we are, months past the original closing of the MtGox withdrawal window, and bitcoins are still trading for hundreds of dollars each. Seems to me that the proper procedure for resolving this issue is careful adjudication of all viable claims on the remaining assets of MtGox, including forensic inspection of the MtGox transaction history. I expect that my MtGox holdings will share equally with those of all other identifiable speculators/investors in this process, and I prefer that my cash and bitcoin holdings be returned to me in equivalent proportions to all claimants. Outright dissolution is obviously premature.

[witsub]

The idea still lives --

Bitcoins today - many weeks after the "closure of the MtGox window" [suspension of bitcoin withdrawals from MtGox, for those who refuse to remember history] are still trading for hundreds of dollars each. "Liquifaction" - liquidation - is manifestly premature. Seems to me that a careful, detailed forensic investigation (which should return more than its cost) would benefit all identifiable creditors.