Mt. Gox Trustee Sells $400 Million in Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash in 6 Months

The Tokyo lawyer and trustee for defunct bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox has disclosed the sale over $400 million in Bitcoin and Bitcoin cash since September 2017.

In an announcement today, Tokyo District Court-assigned Trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi who is overseeing the Mt. Gox creditors’ claims investigation said he sold approximately $406.6 million (JPY 42,988,044,343) in bitcoin cash. Kobayashi said the decision to sell the cryptocurrencies followed a consultation with the court as he sets out to reimburse Mt. Gox’s creditors. Nearly 90% of the cash raised came from the sale of bitcoin (BTC), with the rest in bitcoin cash (BCC), the Trustee revealed today during the tenth creditors’ meeting in Tokyo.

Kobayashi claimed it was “necessary and reasonable” to sell a portion of bitcoin and bitcoin cash since the 9th creditors’ meeting on September 27th, in order to “secure a certain amount of money for distribution resources.”

He added:

“I made efforts to sell BTC and BCC at as high a price as possible in light of the market price of BTC and BCC at the timing of the sale.”

Details from today’s disclosure reveal that the sale of approximately 35,000 BTC fetched a market average near $10,100.

Once the world’s biggest bitcoin exchange, the now-defunct Mt. Gox filed for bankruptcy in 2014 following the loss of an estimated 750,000 bitcoins. Former chief executive Mark Karpeles saw multiple charges including embezzlement. A sting at a Tokyo detention cell followed before an ongoing trial where Karpeles plead ‘not guilty’ to the charges.

The bankruptcy estate’s bitcoin reserves currently stand at 166,344.35 BTC, approximately $1.7 billion. Kobayashi insists that he will look to raise additional cash from future sales of BTC and BCC in order to ultimately reimburse nearly 25,000 accepted claims from creditors.

Kobayashi stated:

“I plan to consult with the court and determine further sale of BTC and BCC.”

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61 Japanese Banks Tap Ripple Blockchain Consumer Payments App

A consortium of 61 Japanese banks, comprising over 80% of the country’s banking assets, are gearing toward the launch of a retail consumer payments app using Ripple blockchain technology.

Titled “MoneyTap”, the new smartphone application will enable customers of 61 banks to settle instant domestic transactions in Japan using San Francisco-based FinTech startup Ripple’s blockchain technology. An announcement by the company confirms customers will be able to trigger domestic money transfers for instant transactions 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Led by SBI Ripple Asia, the Japan Bank consortium was first launched in November 2016 with 42 members in a concentrated effort to develop blockchain solutions in payments and settlements. The consortium has since swelled to 61-member banks that account for over 80% of all banking assets in Japan. Customers from the consortium’s banks will be able to make instant domestic payments using a QR code, phone number or a bank account number, Ripple adds, resulting in a far easier and convenient process compared to traditional bank transfers.

Japan’s current national payments clearing platform, ‘Zengin’, only allows domestic money transfers between 8:30 AM and 3:30 PM in the country, with the added burden of existing banking and/or ATM fees. Ripple contends that its blockchain-based payments app will make for faster and cheaper domestic money transfers.

SBI Ripple Asia CEO Takashi Okita added:

“Together with the trust, reliability and reach of the bank consortium, we can remove friction from payments and create a faster, safer, and more efficient domestic payments experience for our customers.”

At launch, three members of the consortium in SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona Bank will go live with the app in autumn 2018 followed by a ‘staggered rollout’ for the remaining 59 banks, Ripple said.

The effort represents the first notable application in consumer-ended retail payments over a blockchain by SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture by Japanese financial services giant SBI Group and Ripple. The soon-to-launch blockchain payments app follows a notably successful money transfer pilot between the consortium’s banks over a year ago.

Since then, SBI Ripple Asia has also forayed beyond Japan’s borders in piloting international blockchain remittance transfers between Japanese and South Korean banks. A separate pilot between Japan and Thailand over Ripple’s blockchain resulted in a bank transfer within “two to five seconds”.

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South Korean Officials Prohibited From Holding or Trading Cryptocurrency

MBN, a mainstream media outlet in South Korea, has reported that the South Korean government officially prohibited government officials from holding or trading cryptocurrency.

According to the report of MBN, even government officials who are not related to the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Finance and Financial Services Commission are banned from holding or trading cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and Ethereum, to ensure that there exists no conflict of interest in regulating the local market.

Insider Trading
The decision of the South Korean government to prohibit officials from investing in the cryptocurrency market was made after it was discovered that several officials within the local Financial Services Commission engaged in insider trading, by selling before the initial announcement of South Korean Justice Minister Park Sang-ki, who falsely claimed that the government would impose an outright ban on cryptocurrency trading in late 2017.

Justice Minister Park has since softened his stance on strict cryptocurrency regulation, as the South Korean government clarified that it has decided to take the approach of properly regulating the cryptocurrency market by protecting investors and businesses, rather than banning the industry and falling behind other leading economies like the US and Japan.

“All government ministries agree on the need for a government response to an overheating in cryptocurrency speculation and for a degree of regulation,” said Park in January, stepping back from his comments on the imposition of a nationwide ban on cryptocurrency trading.

South Korea’s opposition party representative Kim Seong-tae stated earlier this year that several government officials engaged in insider trading, and were notified about the rash statement made by Minister Park prior to his official press conference in December.

Representative Kim said in a statement translated by CCN:

“There were many reports suggesting that officials of the government of President Moon Jae-in engaged in cryptocurrency trading. Given that local government officials have taken profits from trading cryptocurrencies based on prior knowledge of the reports of the government regarding cryptocurrency regulation, it can be said with evidence that the government engaged in insider trading.”

Consequently, as a response to the allegations and the admission of insider trading by the Financial Services Commission, the South Korean government imposed a ban on trading targeted at government officials.

On March 1, the South Korean Personnel Innovation Department asked the Blue House, the executive office of President Moon Jae-in, and every other department within the South Korean government to refrain from trading cryptocurrencies, noting that penalty will be imposed to departments that engage in cryptocurrency investment.

South Korea’s Free Trade Commission, Financial Services Commission, and the Ministry of Strategy and Finance unanimously agreed on the decision of the South Korean Personnel Innovation Department to restrict cryptocurrency trading within the government, to ensure that government officials do not engage insider trading again in the future.

Cryptocurrency Market
As for the public cryptocurrency market, the South Korean government has been regulating the market to allow newcomers and casual investors to invest in cryptocurrencies without regulatory concerns and strict policies. Local cryptocurrency exchanges have started to add new users once again.

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GE Transportation Joins Global Blockchain Transport Alliance

The transportation sector of General Electric (GE) has become a member of Blockchain in Transport Alliance (BiTA). GE is one of the leaders in innovative and sustainable technology with twelve business sectors including power, aviation, digital, healthcare, renewable energy, transportation and global research.

GE transportation posted an official announcement on its website on Feb. 28, 2017. BiTA provides a forum for the freight industry to help them incorporate blockchain technology by bringing all of them under the same roof.

GE Transportation’s CEO, Monica Caldas, said, “We understand the importance of using data and analytics to drive outcomes for our customers. As a company, we’ve defined what it means to be a Digital Industrial leader – employing these technologies first internally to drive productivity and then applying those learnings for our customers’ benefit as well.”

With a famous quote from Deloitte, “10% of global GDP will be stored on blockchain by 2025”, BiTA was launched in Nov. 2017. It was described as “a standards organization by the trucking industry FOR the trucking industry”. Retail, logistics and transport giants slowly started joining the venture – it currently has more than 230 members including Schneider, SAP, Convoy, Salesforce, FedEx, Marine Transport International, Kleinschmidt, U.S. Express, TMC and others.

GE Transportation’s Chief Digital Officer, Laurie Tolson, explained the significance of the decision, “As GE Transportation extends its capabilities into the broader supply chain, we’re connecting partners and customers at every node and across multiple modes. We look forward to bringing our applications to BiTA as we collectively seek to leverage the potential of blockchain across the industries we serve.”

Previously, GE aviation was looking at ways to use blockchain technology to transform the aviation industry, while GE Global Research engineers were trying to find ways to create a marketplace for producers and consumers of electricity generated by wind and solar farms.

BiTA’s managing director, Craig Fuller, applauded the company for its efforts, “GE Transportation is always on the forefront of technology trends and investments that define the future of freight and supply chains. We are thrilled they are helping to lead the blockchain framework for the industry and will be an active participant in BiTA.”

Berkshire Hathaway’s BNSF Railway (BNSF) also joined BiTA last month. Interestingly, its owner, Warren Buffett, has famously called bitcoin a bubble and has said “they [cryptocurrencies] will come to a bad ending”.

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POSTED IN: BLOCKCHAIN NEWS, NEWS
TAGS: BITA, BLOCKCHAIN, GE
AUTHOR
Habiba Tahir
Source: https://ccn.com