Crypto News: Ex–Mt. Gox CEO Suggests Hard Fork to Recover 80,000 Stolen Bitcoin
The post Crypto News: Ex–Mt. Gox CEO Suggests Hard Fork to Recover 80,000 Stolen Bitcoin appeared on BitcoinEthereumNews.com.
Key Insights: As per the latest crypto news, former Mt. Gox CEO Karpelès wants support for a hard fork to recover 79,956 stolen Mt. Gox BTC ($5.2B). The patch would let the coins move to a recovery address without the private key; the trustee would distribute. He admits it’s a hard fork and says it’s meant to spark review, since the trustee won’t act without certainty. Critics warn it breaks immutability; some creditors back court action to reclaim the coins. According to recent crypto news, former Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpelès proposed a hard fork to recover 80,000 stolen BTC. The CEO said 12 years have passed since Mt. Gox entered bankruptcy, yet one painful issue still hangs over the case. He argued that the story cannot fully close while a large pile of stolen bitcoin remains locked in plain sight. Crypto News: Former Mt. Gox CEO Says Hard Fork Could Help Recover 80,000 Stolen Bitcoin This week’s crypto news shows that the former Mt. Gox CEO asked the Bitcoin community to consider an unusual recovery plan. He published a proposal on GitHub that would change Bitcoin’s consensus rules. Thus, the network could move 79,956 BTC linked to the Mt. Gox hack into a designated recovery address. Worth over $5.2 billion, the coins sit in one wallet and are effectively frozen without the private key. Karpelès said they haven’t moved in 15+ years and remain some of Bitcoin’s most closely watched UTXOs. In his view, public visibility makes this case distinct from everyday thefts that vanish into mixers and fragmented wallets. Still, his plan comes with a major trade-off. He acknowledged the change would require a hard fork. In practical terms, it would make a transaction valid that Bitcoin’s current rules reject. That means node operators, miners, exchanges, and wallet…
Filed under: News - @ February 28, 2026 8:02 pm