The deadline for an investigation ordered by the court on the reason behind the closure of Mt. Gox and if it could be still be revitalized under the rules that govern bankruptcy protection has been moved to May 9, Reuters reported citing a short announcement by the company.

Nagashima Ohno & Tsunematsu Partner Nobuaki Kobayashi was supposed to hand in his report Friday, March 28 as ordered by the Tokyo District Court, on the failure of Japan-based Mt. Gox, which once was the biggest bitcoin exchange in the world, the report said.

Kobayashi asked for the deadline to be extended in a petition submitted to the court because work still needed to be undertaken by investigating bodies as well as the task needed to validate the financial situation of the bitcoin exchange. Earlier this week, Mt. Gox said it had furnished the Tokyo Metropolitan Police with records and filings in conjunction with its application for civil rehabilitation, the report said. 

On February 28, Mt. Gox sought bankruptcy protection claiming that a total of 850,000 bitcoins-750,000 belonging to its clients and 100,000 of its own-were robbed by hackers who took advantage of the software's security flaw. In addition, Mt. Gox said some $27 million were also gone from its bank accounts in Japan. A recent development had Mt. Gox saying that they had discovered 200,000 bitcoins in an old-format online wallet which it was not anymore using and which the online exchange thought did not anymore contain the crypto-currency. This has caused creditors to hope that they would be able to get back some of their bitcoins, the report said.

Mt. Gox has asked the court to restructure its business in a process that can be likened to a Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceeding in the US. However, the decision to qualify for that procedure will hinge on the results of the probe done by Kobayashi and the assent of the creditors, the report said.