Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of Mt. Gox, is seeking community backing for a proposal aimed at recovering more than $5.2 billion worth of Bitcoin stolen from the exchange over a decade ago.
On Friday, Karpelès submitted a proposal on GitHub suggesting the introduction of a new consensus rule that would enable the 79,956 hacked Bitcoin — currently held in a single wallet — to be transferred to a designated recovery address without requiring the original private key.
“These coins have not moved in over 15 years. They are among the most well-known and publicly tracked UTXOs in Bitcoin’s history,” he wrote.
Mark Karpeles noted that with Mt. Gox trustee Nobuaki Kobayashi already managing repayments to creditors, any successfully recovered coins could be distributed through the existing legal and administrative framework to their rightful owners.
“I want to be upfront: this is a hard fork. It makes a previously invalid transaction valid. All nodes would need to upgrade before the activation height. I’m not trying to disguise that fact or sneak it through as something else,” he said.
However, Karpelès emphasized that the proposal was not meant to circumvent the Bitcoin development process, but rather to initiate an open discussion within the broader Bitcoin community.
“The MtGox trustee has declined to pursue on-chain recovery, citing uncertainty over whether such a consensus change would ever gain adoption,” Mark Karpeles said.
“This creates a deadlock: the trustee won’t act without certainty, and the community can’t properly assess the idea without a concrete proposal. This patch is meant to break that deadlock by putting something tangible on the table for discussion.”
Bitcoin immutability at risk, critics argue
The proposal sparked strong backlash on the online forum Bitcointalk, where many users contended that such a move would set a dangerous precedent for Bitcoin — a decentralized system designed to be irreversible and immutable.
“Each time a hack incident happens, someone will call for another new consensus rule to recover stolen funds. This will destroy the bitcoin concept entirely,” wrote a forum member known as “coupable,” who has been active on the platform since 2015.
Another user, “PrivacyG,” added that Bitcoin should remain independent of decisions made by law enforcement authorities in any jurisdiction.
Karpelès acknowledged that concerns over immutability represent the strongest argument against his proposal. However, he maintained that this case is unique, pointing to what he described as both law enforcement findings and broad community agreement that the wallet in question contains Bitcoin stolen from Mt. Gox.
Some individuals who say they were impacted by the Mt. Gox bankruptcy voiced support for the idea. “If those coins ever move by whatever mechanism, then I am going to want my share of them back,” said one claimant, identified as Samson.
“I’m a creditor and have been paid what little was left of my Bitcoin from the bankruptcy – I got about 15% back… I would support obtaining a court order to claim these coins.”
A brief recap of Mt. Gox’s collapse
Mt. Gox was once the world’s largest Bitcoin exchange, operating between 2010 and 2014 and at its peak processing roughly 70% of all Bitcoin transactions globally.
Its prominence, however, made it a prime target for hackers. In 2011, attackers exploited security vulnerabilities to siphon off thousands of Bitcoin, while additional operational failures reportedly resulted in the loss of even more coins.
On Feb. 24, 2014, a leaked document alleged that the company was insolvent after losing 744,408 Bitcoin in a theft that had gone undetected for years.
Just days later, on Feb. 28, 2014, the exchange filed for bankruptcy protection in Tokyo, disclosing approximately $65 million in liabilities. It reported the loss of 750,000 customer Bitcoin and 100,000 of its own — assets valued at nearly half a billion dollars at the time.
