Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of Mt.Gox, has proposed a hard fork to unlock approximately 79,956 BTC stolen from the exchange in 2011.
Can we get some bitcoins back to MtGox creditors?https://t.co/Z7rymy1vuS
— Mark Karpelès (@MagicalTux) February 27, 2026
The coins, currently valued at around $5 billion, have remained at the hacker’s address for 15 years without any attempts to move or return them, Karpeles noted.
In 2014, Mt.Gox filed for bankruptcy, which later transitioned to civil rehabilitation. Nobuaki Kobayashi, the process administrator, oversees the return of funds to creditors but lacks access to the 79,956 BTC, as the private key is known only to the hacker. Karpeles believes these funds could be included in the overall asset pool.
His initiative involves adding a “consensus rule” to unlock the coins using a signature from the asset recovery address.
“This proposal is not an attempt to bypass the usual Bitcoin development process. It is an attempt to start a discussion on whether the community considers this particular, exceptional case worthy of attention,” Karpeles emphasized.
The project envisions implementing a script targeting a specific address, activated at a set block if approved by the majority.
“This is a hard fork: it makes a previously invalid transaction valid. All nodes in the network will need to update to reach the maximum activation level,” the programmer clarified.
Arguments For and Against
In support of the proposal, Karpeles cited fairness for creditors and minimal technical risk. He noted that there have been precedents for such protocol rule interventions.
Additionally, the return of coins clearly removed from circulation would benefit the overall Bitcoin economy, as would clearing the massive “dust” UTXO accumulated at the address.
Karpeles acknowledged the primary concern of violating the blockchain’s immutability principle:
“The main value of Bitcoin lies in the guarantee that consensus rules will not be changed to redirect specific UTXO. Even a well-justified exception could undermine trust in this guarantee. If it can be done once, it can be done again.”
The consequences could include demands for similar solutions in other thefts and reduced security standards if such problems can be resolved this way, the programmer added.
Back in October 2025, the Mt.Gox administrator postponed the deadline for creditor payments to October 31, 2026.