Is Mt. Gox responsible for the 2018 cryptocurrency crash?

A report from the Mt. Gox Trustee shows that Bitcoin worth more than $ 400 million has been sold since December 2017. This generated speculation that this year's Bitcoin cryptocurrency crash was caused.

The report said that 35,841 BTC and 34,008 BCH were sold. The fiduciary stated that he had tried to sell them for as much money as possible.

The Mt. Gox Hack sent massive shockwaves through the crypto world as investors lost 850,000 BTC and the crypto exchange closed its doors. 200,000 of the stolen BTC have been brought under control again, this 200,000 BTC are therefore in the hands of a trustee for the planned sale.

One researcher looked closely at the information provided and said he found the addresses used for the transactions of the Mt. Gox BTC. Transacted in series of 6,000, 8,000, and 18,000, the transactions actually seem to have been executed concurrently with massive price corrections.

The second tweet shows the entire list of all transactions of the found address. "More than half of all BTC sold was sent to a stock market on February 5. One day before BTC reached a 3-month low of $ 6,000. They panicked and sold their BTC low. The market has been well received. "

If we look at the price of Bitcoin at the relevant time, we can see significant price falls at the exact times of the transactions. While the markers indicate only the time of each transaction and not the time of sale, it is possible to conclude that the BTC was sold at the time of the transaction. This explains the considerable selling pressure the markets have experienced and which has led to Bitcoin dropping 40% from its all-time high during the transaction period.

If the theory holds, then this would be the second market crash caused directly by the Mt. Gox Stock Exchange - after the hack news Bitcoin fell 36%. The man behind the transactions is Nobuaki Kobayashi, who acts as a trustee for those affected. In his report he explains that he considered it important to sell a certain portion of BTC and BCH in order to raise capital for distribution purposes. The cryptocurrencies sold have a value of around $ 405 million US dollars - a huge amount of money, especially considering that only one person has responsibility. Apart from that, Kobayashi still owns 165,000 BTC, which currently has a value of approximately $ 1.2 billion. Questions arise with regard to the security of this situation, especially as the trustee is a major target.

It is still unclear whether even more former Mt. Gox BTC will be sold, but the trustee admitted to agree future sales activities with the court. While Bitcoin has shown strong volatility in recent months, the price seems to be stabilizing somewhat in the meantime. However, further massive sales could crash the price again.