People Might Start Getting Some of Their Money Back from Mt. Gox

​More than a year after now-defunct exchange Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in Japan, customers who lost Bitcoin in its collapse can file claims to get some of their money back.

Nobuaki Kobayashi, the bankruptcy trustee assigned to the company, posted a notice on the Mt. Gox homepage Wednesday instructing users how they can now make claims against the former exchange.

Mt. Gox was the world's largest bitcoin exchange before it filed for bankruptcy in early 2014 after the disappearance of 850,000 bitcoins, worth about $350 million at the time. The claims process is being aided by Kraken, a Bitcoin exchange based in San Francisco that was selected as a consultant by Kobayashi in November to help distribute Mt. Gox's remaining assets.

"I think people are going to get something back," said Jerry Brito, executive director of the Bitcoin advocacy non-profit Coin Center. "If you had an account at Mt. Gox and you go to Kraken, you're going to get a portion of what you had on deposit with Mt. Gox when it collapsed back. How big is that portion? I don't know. It could be a very small portion like 10 to 20 percent."

Customers can reclaim funds through an online form on the Mt. Gox website itself or by opening an account with Kraken and providing their full name, phone number, date of birth, country of residence, and address verification.

Those who file through Kraken will have benefits like technical support and a bonus of 100,000 Kraken fee credits (KFEE), which can be used on the Kraken website to pay for trading fees. The trustee has not yet determined whether payouts can be distributed in Bitcoin, but those who file with Kraken have that option if their payout is approved. Some users can also print out a form from the website and mail it to the trustee in Japan.

Former account holders are required to have email and password information from their former Mt. Gox accounts to file claims, and must do so by May 29, 2015 Tokyo time in order to get money back.

In a meeting Wednesday, the trustee confirmed JPY 1,375,885,620 (USD $11,507,618) of the Mt. Gox funds had been recovered. Brito said if the remaining funds are ever found, customers would have a right to those as well.

"There is an ongoing investigation, if these coins were to be found you'd have a claim on those coins," he said. "I wouldn't hold my breath though, all signs point to them having been stolen from the exchange."

A formal timeline for claims has not been determined, but Kraken CEO Jesse Powell said in a Reddit post he expects to see payouts by the end of 2015.