"I have known almost all the problems that an exchange platform can encounter (...), I have accumulated a lot of experience in cryptocurrencies. My goal is that this (the Mt. Gox affair, editor's note ) does not happen again," said this French entrepreneur residing in Japan on Monday at a press conference in Tokyo.
In early 2014, a bitcoin theft worth nearly $470 million at the time forced Mt. Gox to file for bankruptcy.
This Japanese company was at the time of the facts the main global platform for transactions in this virtual currency.
The fall had been hard for Mr. Karpelès.
The man who was once nicknamed the "bitcoin baron" then spent nearly a year in pre-trial detention in Japan, where the courts suspected him of embezzlement for personal enrichment.
Having always claimed his innocence, he was finally given a two and a half year suspended prison sentence in 2019, having been acquitted on the essentials but found guilty of manipulation of electronic data.
His conviction was upheld on appeal in 2020.
“Much remains to be done in terms of security” in cryptocurrency transactions, Mr. Karpelès said on Monday, citing as an example the recent theft equivalent to some $600 million in the Ronin network, used for gambling. online Axie Infinity.
He plans to launch "Ungox" in the third quarter of 2022, an independent site assessing the risk levels of different platforms and projects in cryptocurrencies, with a free part and paid premium content, also imagining audit services for companies present. or wishing to enter this market, which is often considered to be very opaque.
The entrepreneur immediately ruled out the use of advertising revenue to "stay independent", and estimated at three million dollars the need for financing for the first two years of the site, which would require "at least ten full-time analysts ".
© 2022 AFP