FTX Bitcoin stash worth the same as Mt. Gox 840K BTC before hack

If FTX triggers new Bitcoin (BTC) bear market declines, BTC price action will need to fall further to match the Mt. Gox.

Data from the chain analysis company Glassnode confirms that the “Mt. Gox bear market” of almost a decade ago is still hitting the 2022 lows.

FTX vs. Mt. Gox: Same, same, but different

With the fallout from the FTX bankruptcy scandal still unfolding, questions remain about how many major crypto entities will be affected and how big the industry losses will be.

BTC/USD fell over 25% last week as the fallout became known and has failed to recover much lost ground.

At the same time, several comparisons with Mt. Gox appeared: Alleged mismanagement, poor security and insider trading have all been cited as examples.

However, the raw data reveals some interesting additional numbers to keep in mind.

Mt. Gox imploded as a result of a giant 840,000 BTC hack in February 2014. Just months before, Bitcoin had seen a new all-time high of around $1,100, with Mt. Gox which handles around 70% of all trading activity.

In the months that followed, Bitcoin lost up to 85% of its value against that high, bottoming out in January 2015 – almost a year after the hack.

This cycle became the first Bitcoin bear market witnessed on a large scale by hodlers, and it took until December 2017 for a new all-time high to emerge.

Fast forward to 2022, and at recent two-year low months, BTC/USD was down 77% in just under a year against its recent highs of $69,000.

With the time frame being similar between FTX and Mt. Gox, the question facing analysts is whether BTC price action will add another 10% to the pullback from the previous peak – or worse.

As Cointelegraph reported, demands for a $10,000 rollback were already in place even before the FTX episode. The black swan bankruptcy, others warned, meanwhile, has set the crypto industry back several years.

What’s in a $400 million wipeout?

Comparing FTX to a similar Black Swan event from nearly ten years ago may seem out of place. However, the numbers involved are eerily similar in some ways.

Related: Bitcoin Will Shrug Off FTX ‘Black Swan’ Just Like Mt. Gox — analysis

Mt. Gox lost 840,000 BTC, worth at the time around $460 million. Before going down, FTX had a Bitcoin balance of 20,000, according to data from on-chain analytics platform CryptoQuant — also worth just over $400 million.

However, as a fraction of the market value, this year’s loss pales in comparison to the 2014 move.

Bitcoin’s market capitalization at the beginning of March 2014 was $6.9 billion compared to $320 billion today. The total market cap for crypto today is $834 billion, data from CoinMarketCap confirms.

The views and opinions expressed herein are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph.com. Every investment and trade involves risk, you should do your own research when making a decision.