Mt.Gox receivers begin the beginning of the end

In an August 23rd email to account holders for which it holds an email address, the Mt Gox Civil Rehabilitation Trustee (receiver) Nobuaki Kobayashi requested claimants “make online filings of their rehabilitation claims in relation to Mt Gox’s rehabilitation proceedings”.

The move follows a June 22nd order from the Tokyo District Court for the commencement of civil rehabilitation proceedings and a stay on any previous bankruptcy actions.

The Mt Gox Online Rehabilitation Claim Filing System requires users to agree to a number of terms and conditions that curtail their ability to bring any damages claims against the Mt Gox receiver, before they can access the system and file a claim.

Interestingly, the terms detail how claimant’s voting rights will be apportioned, which indicates the process may be more democratic than it has been to date, and that the largest holders or groups of holders may have some ability to influence the receivership policy.

Prior to the June 22nd order, Mt Gox had sold BTC and BCH several times to repay creditors. However, with the stay in place the civil rehabilitation trustee is no longer able to sell or buy BTC due to the change in rehabilitation proceedings.

This has been viewed as a positive step by Mt Gox creditors who had expressed concern that the receiver selling off large holdings of Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash (Mt Gox still holds 166,000 BTC and 168,000 BCH) would negatively impact market prices.

One group of creditors represented by Japanese law firm Nishimura & Asahi petitioned the receivers in an open letter early August to abandon the original bankruptcy plan of repaying creditors by converting BTC into cash at the rate as of the time of the bankruptcy — around US$483.

“The rehabilitation plan should be simple and the implementation thereof should have a high degree of certainty,” the letter said. “In general, we consider it appropriate to make payments in BTC and BCH instead of cash to creditors who had been depositing BTC with Mt.Gox.”

It appears this request has been taken on board, as the Claim Filing System refers to ultimate payouts being made using Bitcoin, to “the cryptocurrency exchange designated by the Rehabilitation Trustee.” A payout for creditors is still a long way off, however, as the deadline for submitting a civil rehabilitation plan has been set as February 14, 2019. The next Mt Gox creditors meeting is scheduled for September 26th in the Tokyo District Court.

Leading Japanese companies continue to support crypto’s evolution

In other Japanese crypto news, SBI Holdings, Inc., a leading listed financial holding company in Japan operating cryptocurrency exchanges, announced additional investments in LastRoots and its cryptocurrency c0ban on August 20. It is believed SBI’s latest investment will bring its holding in LastRoots to around 30%.

LastRoots has an application for registration of a crypto exchange with the Financial Services Agency of Japan with the intention of becoming a registered exchange under the amended Payment Services Act. Enacted last year, the Act aims to regulate cryptocurrencies in Japan. However, LastRoots received a business improvement order from the FSA in April.

LastRoots raised approximately USD5 million via an ICO in July 2016 and operates an advertising platform combining its c0ban currency with video advertising and the c0ban exchange. LastRoots also engages in performance-based marketing, which grants c0ban to viewers who watch video advertisements in full and promotes the introduction of c0ban payments at retailers in order to expand c0ban use.

Meanwhile, Japanese listed online securities brokerage the Monex Group, which acquired the ill-fated exchange Coincheck in April, hopes to finish its makeover of the previously hacked exchange soon and complete FSA registration procedures for Coincheck by the end of August.

An FSA regulated exchange will be an important aspect of Monex Group’s expansion into the U.S., which it announced in July when CEO Oki Matsumoto said the company was in the process of applying for cryptocurrency business licenses in individual U.S. states