Long before the collapse of FTX but after the collapse of Mt. Gox there was another major crypto exchange that failed. This exchange though failed in a rather remarkable fashion because of the mystery that surrounds it. QuadrigaCX was the largest exchange in Canada when suddenly the CEO died and everything fell apart. Unlike most of these companies that have their keys stored by attorneys or by some sort of collective the keys to QuadrigaCX were only known to the CEO, Gerald Cotten, and he never wrote them down.
After establishing the exchange as the largest operator in Canada it did not take long for things to get pretty weird. In 2018 Mr. Cotten and his wife traveled to India where he suddenly died. Prior to his wife making the announcement there was no reason to believe that the 30 year old was in bad condition but according to his wife he went to the hospital was spetic and died of cardiac arrest the next day. Making the situation even odder is the way that everything was handled from the company to the wife. Jen, his wife, submitted a will that had only been created 12 days before his death and left everything to his wife but did not provide the private keys to be able to access the crypto in case of something like his death. Suddenly the largest exchange in Canada had gone from top of the world to a bunch of question marks.
Naturally the fallout was swift and with 115,000 users in Canada the collapse was significant. Prior to Mr. Cotten's death no one had really done much work into looking into QuadrigaCX and if they were doing what they said they were with peoples Bitcoin. Once his death was announced and the private keys becoming inaccessible blockchain slouths quickly went to work where they realized that there was a lot of Bitcoin missing. The offline, cold storage, wallets that had previous been discussed did not exist and some of the wallets that did were empty. As this news came out people were quick to jump to a ton of conclusions from saying he faked his death to it was a Ponzi scheme. A total of $190 million in funds was just suddenly missing and no one had a clue where it could have gone.
What adds an interesting bit to this is how there was still quite a bit of Bitcoin on the exchange which would lead you to think his death was not an attempt to run off with the funds because he left a lot behind. His body was also ceremated quickly which has helped fuel the idea that he might not have been the deceased person and could be off living his life but he did leave his wife behind with a huge mess on her hands. For a while the people in charge of accounting and figuring out who is owed what had quietly been operating without much attention brought to this bankrupcy.
That all changed though when suddenly moved 104 BTC tied to a wallet that only Mr. Cotten was believed to have access to. Some thought it was the accounting firm because in 2019 when handling this mess they had sent 100 BTC to this address on accident not knowing that no one had access to this wallet. Now 3 years later either someone found the private keys, hacked, or in another way gained access to this wallet and moved 104 BTC out. The Bitcoin moved has been sent to various wallets but 70% have been sent to a privacy wallet which is leading people to believe that this crypto is going to be attempted to be mixed/tumbled.
According to Chainalysis this is not the first defunct trading service whose wallets have suddenly come to life. Just a couple of weeks ago the same thing happened with BTC-e's wallets leading me to wonder if someone might have figured out a way to recover funds from these wallets and since they are defunct are just trying to help themselves. If some sort of software has been created it will serve a double edge sword because while it would allow funds to be recovered for people it could also compromise various wallet securities meaning your crypto could be at risk even in cold storage. Out of all of the things I have written about I never imagined saying that... cold storage wallets could be at risk if hacking software has come this far.
Until more is known though I am going to stick in the group that the private keys were left somewhere and someone found them. With this peace of mind I will continue to stack my free sats daily in the meantime. If you have not signed up for the Fold App's debit card yet and would like to earn 20,000 sats just for doing so use my referral link here! FYI if you do not use a referral link when signing up you will not receive the 20,000 sats for signing up for the debit card!
Please know I am not a financial advisor and make sure you do your own research! If you enjoyed this article and would like to support me further below are a few referral links that if you used when signing up I would appreciate it! Also, follow me on Twitter @Cje95_
Fold App
Offers daily wheel spins to win free sats daily! If you sign up for Fold with my link here you will get 20,000 sats for free!
Robinhood
Robinhood is offering an excellent signup deal if you use my link here where we will both be awarded free stock. All that you have to do is sign up and connect your bank account for the award! With commission-free crypto trading and the ability to set limit orders, it is a great hybrid offering in my opinion! Not to forget the addition of wallets and the ability to send and receive crypto!
Unstoppable Domains
Sign up using my link here and get a free $10 credit towards your first $40+ purchase!
