When Mt. Gox, the Japan-based bitcoin exchange that was once the largest in the world, collapsed in early 2014, more than 24,000 customers around the world lost access to their money.

Many of them never got it back. Now, six years later, some of those customers are finally getting some answers — and their money.

Mt. Gox was founded in 2010 by Jed McCaleb, an early bitcoin adopter who later helped create Ripple, another cryptocurrency. At its peak in 2013 and early 2014, Mt. Gox handled more than 70 percent of all bitcoin transactions worldwide.

But it was also plagued by hacks, fraud and mismanagement. In February 2014, Mt. Gox abruptly stopped allowing customers to withdraw their money, and it filed for bankruptcy protection in Japan a few weeks later.

At the time of its collapse, Mt. Gox had about 850,000 bitcoins in its possession — worth more than $450 million at today’s prices — belonging to its customers and 100,000 of its own. The exchange said it had been hacked and that 200,000 of its own bitcoins had been stolen.

But many people suspected that Mt. Gox’s problems were caused by fraud and mismanagement rather than a hack.

In the years since Mt. Gox’s collapse, there have been numerous attempts to find and return the missing bitcoins.

But until now, most of those efforts have been unsuccessful.

In April 2018, however, a Japanese court approved a plan to repay Mt. Gox’s creditors with $1 billion worth of bitcoin that had been seized by the Japanese authorities when the exchange collapsed.

The repayment process is expected to begin later this year and will be overseen by a trustee appointed by the court.

The repayment plan is good news for Mt. Gox’s creditors, who have been waiting years for their money.

But it leaves many unanswered questions about what happened to Mt. Gox and how much its customers will ultimately get back.

MtGox was once the biggest Bitcoin exchange in the world handling over 70% of BTC transactions globally but succumbed to bankruptcy in 2014 after 850,000 Bitcoins belonging to clients and 100,000 of their own went missing following what they claimed was a hack but many people believed was due to fraud or mismanagement . Six years later some answers are finally forthcoming as a Japanese court has approved a plan to repay MtGox’s creditors with $1 billion worth of Bitcoin that was seized by authorities when the exchange collapsed .

It’s estimated that 24000 people around the world lost access to their money when MtGox went under with many never getting their funds back – although this new development offers hope that they finally will .