Potential Mt. Gox Buyer: Exchange Has Important Role in Bitcoin's Future

William Quigley, part of a group aiming to relaunch Mt. Gox, appeared on CNBC today to discuss his bid.

AccessTimeIconApr 15, 2014 at 11:06 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 3, 2021 at 11:46 a.m. UTC

Presented By Icon

Election 2024 coverage presented by

Stand with crypto

The latest attempt to bring bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox back to life appears to be a serious one.

William Quigley, managing director of Santa Monica-based venture capital firm Clearstone Venture Partners, is part of a group of investors aiming to resuscitate the collapsed exchange. He recently appeared on CNBC to talk about the bid.

  • Bitcoin Mining in the U.S. Will Become 'a Lot More Decentralized': Core Scientific CEO
    13:18
    Bitcoin Mining in the U.S. Will Become 'a Lot More Decentralized': Core Scientific CEO
  • Binance to Discontinue Its Nigerian Naira Services After Government Scrutiny
    05:10
    Binance to Discontinue Its Nigerian Naira Services After Government Scrutiny
  • The first video of the year 2024
    04:07
    The first video of the year 2024
  • The last regression video of the year 3.67.0
    40:07
    The last regression video of the year 3.67.0
  • Quigley's fellow investors include John Betts, a former Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs executive, and venture capitalist Brock Pierce. The proposal, which offered to purchase Mt. Gox for just 1 BTC, first surfaced on 10th April.

    Said Quigley:

    "You have to understand, of course, that Mt. Gox is much more that just [its] assets [...] The company still has a very important role in the continuation of bitcoin."

    As part of the plan put forth by Quigley and his fellow investors, Betts would serve as the new Mt. Gox CEO.

    Mt. Gox's precarious state

    In the interview, Quigley acknowledged that Mt. Gox had losses that amounted "to the tune of several hundred million dollars". However, he said he believes that the reason why the exchange was plagued by so many problems can be attributed to its own lax practices.

    He explained:

    "The company didn’t start as a bitcoin exchange. The measures that we would all put in place when bitcoin is worth $1,000, those weren’t thought important when bitcoin was trading at a penny or 10 cents."

    Quigley said that the 1 BTC payment for the failed exchange is simply a token, stating:

    "I want to put the one bitcoin term in context. That is a symbolic amount. It’s akin to what we do in the US when we buy a business that has a negative net worth."

    Investments in bitcoin

    The amount of VC investment in bitcoin has made Quigley take an interest in reviving Mt. Gox.

    In the past month alone, bitcoin companies such as Circle and Kraken have received millions of dollars to ramp up their respective operations. “Silicon Valley is investing a lot of money in a lot of bitcoin businesses,” Quigley said.

    He added:

    "I would say there really is a great future for bitcoin. My belief is that we have a tremendous opportunity, at least certainly in the next year."

    Quigley went on to compare the amount of investment in the bitcoin industry to the early days of the Internet, a popular comparison that has been widely invoked by bitcoin supporters.

    Further, Quigley believes the current legal proceedings in Japan will allow his group of investors to bring the exchange back to life. "I want to point out that Mt. Gox is not in a traditional bankruptcy liquidation process: it’s in a civil rehabilitation process," he said.

    His course of action to reboot Mt. Gox was simple:

    "Our plan, of course, is to take the exchange, fix the security issues and rehabilitate it."

    To learn more about Quigley's bid for Mt. Gox, watch the full CNBC interview below.

    Disclosure

    Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information have been updated.

    CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk has adopted a set of principles aimed at ensuring the integrity, editorial independence and freedom from bias of its publications. CoinDesk is part of the Bullish group, which owns and invests in digital asset businesses and digital assets. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive Bullish group equity-based compensation. Bullish was incubated by technology investor Block.one.


    Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk's longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.