Mark Karpeles has proposed a Bitcoin hard fork to recover 79,956 BTC stolen from Mt. Gox in 2011, valued at around $5 billion.
Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of Mt. Gox, has recommended a hard fork of Bitcoin to recover 79,956 BTC, valued at around $5 billion, that was stolen from the exchange back in 2011.
Can we get some bitcoins back to MtGox creditors?https://twitter.com/MagicalTux/status/2027466833486569756
— Mark Karpelès (@MagicalTux) February 27, 2026
These coins have remained untouched in a hacker’s wallet for 15 years, and Karpeles argues there have been no attempts to recover or move them. Following Mt. Gox's bankruptcy filing in 2014, the process of fund recovery has been overseen by Nobuaki Kobayashi, who lacks access to these specific bitcoins as the hacker holds the private key.
Karpeles believes that by adding a consensus rule to the Bitcoin network, these coins could be included in the pool available to creditors. His proposal would initiate a discussion to determine if the community views this situation as exceptional and warranting a hard fork.
"This proposal is not an attempt to circumvent the usual Bitcoin development process. It is an effort to start a discussion on whether the community considers this specific, exceptional case worthy of attention," he stated.
To implement the fork, Karpeles suggests creating a script that will activate under specific conditions if approved by a majority of the network's nodes, effectively making previously invalid transactions valid.
"All nodes in the network will need to update to reach the maximum activation level," he explained.
Pros and Cons of the Proposal
In advocating for the hard fork, Karpeles cited fairness to creditors and minimal technical risk as key arguments. He pointed out that precedents exist for modifications to protocol rules.
However, he acknowledged concerns regarding the principle of blockchain immutability, stressing that changing consensus rules for specific cases could undermine overall trust in the system. This could lead to demands for similar recoveries in future thefts and may lower security standards if protocol changes become a solution for breaches.
As a reminder, the deadline for creditor payments from Mt. Gox has been postponed to October 31, 2026, providing context for the ongoing discussions surrounding the recovery of these funds.
