Crypto investors are hopeful that Mt Gox’s bitcoin sell-off will be halted until September

• Last week the trustees of bust bitcoin exchange Mt Gox said they had sold $400 million of bitcoin since the end of last year.
• Bitcoin investors blamed the large sell orders for a slump in bitcoin’s price at the start of the year.
• Many investors believe Mt Gox’s trustees can’t sell any more bitcoin until the next creditors meeting in September.
• The expected pause in selling is helping bitcoin rally from recent lows.

LONDON — The price of bitcoin is rising against the dollar on Tuesday morning amid chatter among investors that a major seller is unlikely to continue to offload more bitcoin in the near future.

Bitcoin slumped last week after it emerged that t he trustees of bankrupt Japanese exchange Mt Gox had sold bitcoin holdings worth $400 million since the end of last year.

The sales coincided with a slump in bitcoin’s price at the start of the year and the cryptocurrency dipped last week as investors realised Mt Gox has a stash of bitcoin worth $1.7 billion that could be dumped onto the market at a later date.

However, multiple reports in the bitcoin specialist press reported that Mt Gox’s trustees won’t sell anymore bitcoin until at least September this year. The next Mt Gox creditors meeting is not until September 18. NewsBTC said: “Many are hopeful that with the next Mt. Got court date six months away, Kobayashi won’t be able to dump another load of coins on the market.”

A Japanese Twitter user has cast some doubt on this assertion, Tweeting:

Still, hopes that the large sell orders will at least be paused for a while are helping bitcoin to recover from its recent lows. Bitcoin is up 0.45% against the dollar to $9,168.42 at the time of writing (8.15 a.m. GMT/4.15 a.m. ET), up from a low of around $8,500 hit last Friday.