Mark Karpelès, the former CEO of the defunct crypto exchange Mt. Gox, has proposed a hard fork aimed at recovering approximately 79,956 BTC, valued over $5.2 billion, from a dormant address linked to the exchange’s 2011 hack. The theft, which involved nearly 80,000 BTC, left the coins inactive for over 15 years, and Karpelès suggests that the hard fork would allow these funds to be redirected to Mt. Gox’s creditors through the existing court-supervised rehabilitation process. The proposal is framed as a limited, one-time exception specifically for this case, addressing risks that altering ownership rules could undermine Bitcoin’s immutability and potentially create a precedent for future interventions. The assets in question are distinct from those already being distributed to creditors under the ongoing rehabilitation managed by a court-appointed trustee.
Former Mt. Gox CEO proposes Bitcoin hard fork to retrieve $5.2B from 2011 hack
