User Who Sent Over $500k in BTC to Defunct Mt. Gox Wallet Gets Money Back
Some stories do have happy endings. In a rare example of recourse for cryptocurrency carelessness, a Bitcoin user who accidentally sent 800 bitcoins to a wallet belonging to defunct exchange Mt. Gox last month said on Reddit Friday that he has recovered the money.
“I have recovered my bitcoins!” the user, posting under the handle TheDJFC, wrote after another Redditor noted that the coins, currently worth about $504,000, had moved wallets.
Although TheDJFC wrote that details of the exact story were still forthcoming, it appeared that he had contacted a Tokyo law firm, who in turn worked with Chinese Bitcoin exchange BTC China and the Bitcoin Foundation to get Mt. Gox founder Mark Karpeles to return the coins.
“Special thanks to: Bobby Lee of BTC China, The Bitcoin Foundation, Mark Karpeles, and Uchida & Samejima Law Firm in Tokyo,” the (probably ecstatic) user wrote on Reddit.
He also thanked the Reddit user who had originally identified the accidental recipient wallet as one belonging to Mt. Gox, saying that he had rewarded the tracker 2.5 bitcoins (about $1574).
If 2.5 bitcoins weren’t enough to throw around as a reward, TheDJFC said he had donated 5 bitcoins ($3150) to the Bitcoin Foundation “for their help behind the scenes.”
“Ultimately I’m not sure if it was required,” he wrote, posting proof of the transaction on the Reddit threat. “But the whole process seemed more sane with good people on my side.”
The user had previously lost most hope for recovering the half-million dollars after he accidentally transferred them to the wrong wallet, posting “if you just received 800 Bitcoin out of the blue, it was from me” on Reddit in June.
Reddit users responded positively to the news, with one exclaiming “Wow kudos for btc and faith in humanity restored.”
“I guess nice things do happen to nice people sometimes, good for you buddy,” another wrote.
Special circumstances aside, the lucky user may be one of the only people to see his money returned from Mt. Gox, once the largest Bitcoin exchange in the world until it declared bankruptcy in February, claiming it had “lost” around 850,000 bitcoins (valued, at the time, at about $450 million).