Fortress Buying MTGOX Customers BTC for $900 (200% of bankruptcy value)???

[bitcoin2045]

Has anyone here received this letter from Fortress:

Investor Fortress Will Buy Mt Gox Creditor Claims for $900 Per Bitcoin

Creditors of Mt Gox waiting to get their bitcoin back from the long-defunct exchange can now get pennies on the dollar by selling their claims to Fortress Investment Group.

In a letter sent to creditors, Michael Hourigan, a managing director at the New York-based private equity firm, said he is purchasing these claims for a bitcoin investment vehicle the firm operates.

Mt Gox collapsed in 2014 after some 850,000 bitcoins disappeared from the exchange?s servers. While the exchange entered bankruptcy at the time, its status switched to civil rehabilitation last year.

Creditors of the exchange hoped that they would receive their missing bitcoin after the switch, rather than the cash equivalent at the time of the exchange?s collapse. The case is currently sitting before the Tokyo District Court.

Selling claims
Multiple copies of the Fortress letter were shared with CoinDesk, with one version published in full below.

?Dear Creditor,? the letter begins. ?I manage an investment vehicle which has been buying Mt. Gox creditor claims.?

It goes on to add:

?We review each claim individually but are now generally able to offer $900 per BTC claim, or roughly 200% of the bankruptcy value (which was $451 per BTC claim). We can pay that in Bitcoin, or any fiat currency of your choice. Our payment would be made within 10 business days of the claim transfer confirmation.?

The $900 price is fair to both creditors and Fortress? investors, Hourigan contends. (It represents about 7.5 percent of bitcoin?s Monday afternoon market price of $11,870.72, according to CoinDesk?s bitcoin price index.)

One creditor, who did not wish their identity to be made public, told CoinDesk that the letter also included their individual claim amount and a letter number.

Former Mt Gox creditor advocate Andy Pag announced in April that he had sold his stake to a New York-based investment firm for $600 per bitcoin. He did not name the firm at the time and did not respond to a request for comment by press time Monday.

Long-term interest
Fortress has long been active in the crypto space and was reportedly looking to launch a bitcoin investment fund as far back as 2013 ? before Mt Gox collapsed.

The New York-based firm bought $20 million in bitcoin that year, according to public filings.

Former Fortress CIO Michael Novogratz has continued to remain active in the space as well, most famously with his ?crypto merchant bank,? Galaxy Digital.

Fortress was acquired by Japan-based SoftBank in late 2017, which itself has been active in the blockchain space (though less active with bitcoin projects specifically). However, Fortress remains in control of its day-to-day operations, according to the Financial Times.

Neither Hourigan nor a Fortress spokesperson immediately returned requests for comment.

Link to letter:

https://www.coindesk.com/fortress-will-buy-mt-gox-creditors-claims-for-900-per-bitcoin-owed

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[rocket25]

I also received this letter for my Mt Gox claim, which was for 100 BTC. The letter offers me $90,000 USD to purchase my claim, which is $900 per BTC as the OP stated.

This is a much higher price than any previous ones I've seen in the market the last few years.

[Lucius]

I can only say that Mt.Gox is a big Japanese shame after all this years, and that Japan is not country which was once known for honor and honesty. Now I see thay have new scheme, Fortress which is owned by SoftBank (Japan bank) is trying to get victims coins by paying only $900 per BTC, which is at this time 10x less then current value.

I am not sure is there any solution for victims on the horizon, or this case will last for few more years - but what I notice from published letter is that Fortress offer is valid only until July 31. Question is why they limit their offer for such a short time?

[DdmrDdmr]

This thread on Reddit debating whether the offer is good or not seems interesting: https://www.reddit.com/r/mtgoxinsolvency/comments/c9j5o0/fortress_investment_group_is_buying_claims_for/

Apparently, Fortress Investment Group is not the only one trying to but the claims (allegedly 507 capital is at a low 360$/BTC, and another one at a much higher price, but the name is not mentioned, so it may not be credible).

The debate is really where the amount offered in USD is worth taking now (higher than bankruptcy value, but about half of current settlement BTC equivalent value were it to be liquidated today), or waiting for the claims to be settled in BTCs (which could be a few years down the road) with the expectancy of BTC rising substantially until then.

[bitcoin2045]

The other firms such as BE Capital, Alex Ortega etc. have been making lowball offers for years - generally in the price range of $350 per claim. This offer from Fortress of $900 per claim is almost 3x the next highest offer according to all the old Reddit threads on this topic.

[dothebeats]

That's how big investment groups, especially bankers, hustle their way towards more profit: by trying to lure people into thinking that they are offering better solutions while in reality they already have a huge leverage in the deal. Personally, I can't seem to judge by myself whether $451 or $900 is a fair price to pay for 1 bitcoins lost during the hack. Of course, it's a no-brainer that people would want to get the full amount equivalent today but apparently, Mt. Gox isn't going to honor those and will just pressure people into receiving pennies, and after that's all over, then they'll proceed into selling what is left of the stack. It's a shame that the Japanese gov't cannot legally press Mt. Gox further into just giving out the claims in bitcoin, really, since this is a huge blunder for the whole Japanese crypto scene and they are being played in plain sight.

[squatter]

Now I see thay have new scheme, Fortress which is owned by SoftBank (Japan bank) it trying to get victims coins by paying only $900 per BTC, which is at this time 10x less then current value.

Yes, they are vultures. To be fair though, it's impossible to even nearly repay the bitcoins in full. The majority were hacked and part of what was left was sold by the bankruptcy trustee. 7.5% sucks, but it's better than all other publicized offers so far.

I am not sure is there any solution for victims on the horizon, or this case will last for few more years - but what I notice from published letter is that Fortress offer is valid only until July 31. Question is why they limit their offer for such a short time?

Volatility might be a concern. The offer was based on a price in the high $11,000s.

[Kemarit]

I am not sure is there any solution for victims on the horizon, or this case will last for few more years - but what I notice from published letter is that Fortress offer is valid only until July 31. Question is why they limit their offer for such a short time?

They wanted to put more pressure on those victims and wanted to get everything from them at a cheap price. It's like a 'take it or leave it' offer. So if you really wanted to get this out of your chest and totally move on, I'm sure majority of the victims here will take that bite and doesn't care how much they've lost (after so many years). So Fortress wanted to take advantage of the sentiments and emotions for those who have lost and offering something that it is hard to refuse.

[deadsilent]

Here we go again.
Don't forget they are lost their credibility since the hacking incident which happened many times and lost huge amounts causing them to close the exchange and left their clients behind. But I think it could be not from the real team of MTGOX since we all know they were hacked. The informations of traders maybe leaked and used by hackers to use it for their scheme. Anyway, I will not buy that crap. Why you have to pay for what they lost?