Bitcoin is back at sub-$20K levels, and fears of a dump of the Mt Gox cache of BTC are said to be the reason.

As this is being written, bitcoin is trading at $19,987.56, and below the psychological and technical support level of $20K. Twitter has been agog with rumors that a massive supply of bitcoin is likely to hit the market on August 28 and emanating from users of the defunct Mt Gox exchange.

Settlement payouts to bitcoin creditors by Mt Gox have been hanging fire for a while now, but the most recent rumors said a chunk of 137,000 bitcoins were set to be released in one go; another said payouts would be in instalments commencing this weekend.

Mt Gox shut down a decade ago but a recovery procedure managed to extract funds from the exchange. The rehabilitation trustee announced in July that he was preparing to make settlement payments to creditors.

Creditors receiving these amounts are likely to make 40X returns on their enforced holdings at Mt Gox, based on a back-of-envelope calculation considering the $500 price of bitcoin in 2014 when Gox imploded, and the current price of a shade below $20K.

However, many Twitter users dismissed these rumors as so much fluff, and typical of the crypto market.

One user, Eric Wall, said the exchange had not yet been able to set up the infrastructure required to effect the payments to creditors. Wall also clarified that creditors have as yet not even been able to register where they want the payouts, and that the payments would be made in instalments and not in a single tranche.

Besides, Wall noted that Mr Gox had not announced an official time line for the payout.

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