Tokyo district court stated that bitcoin is not “subject to ownership” responding to a claimant who sought to get his bitcoins back after Mt. Gox bankruptcy.

The lawsuit filed by a Kyoto resident who claims to have lost 458 BTC which were in his account when the notorious Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox filed bankruptcy was dismissed. 

The Judge Masumi Kurachi said bitcoins did not fall under the Civil Code, which assigns proprietorship over tangible entities that occupy space and can be exclusively controlled. The judge stated that bitcoin transactions imply intermediary and that transaction parties did not exercise exclusive control, according to The Japan Times. 

Mark Karpeles, the former CEO of Mt. Gox, was arrested on Saturday by Tokyo police on the allegations of manipulating the exchange accounts and creating fake accounts with exaggerated balances. 

In February 2014, CEO of the bitcoin exchange that at the time controlled as much as 70% of the bitcoin market filed for bankruptcy protection, declaring that the site was hacked and 850,000 BTC were stolen (worth about $450 million). Few weeks later, Karpeles announced that 200,000 BTC were found in an old wallet, which brought the missing amount down to 650,000 BTC. If the allegations against Karpeles are true, 650,000 bitcoins believed to be missing from the Mt. Gox exchange may never have existed in reality.

Aliona Chapel