Report: Crypto Exchange QuadrigaCX CEO’s Stumping Death & Missing Of $145 Million Funds

The Canadian Cryptocurrency Exchange is in trouble and diving down especially after the sudden and mysterious death of the Gerald Cotten, co-founder, and CEO of QuadrigaCX. The establishment is reportedly looking over the missing CA$190 million dollars ($145 million) in digital assets, local news outlet The Globe and Mail report on Feb. 1.

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The exchange is already gripped in legal discords with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and now is inaccessible.

Reportedly, the exchange filed an application with the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) for creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court and on Jan 31, 2019, the exchange announced that it is going to close and entering into bankruptcy-like streamlining. The company has $286,000 (CA$375,000) in cash, while it owes $198,435,000 (CA$260 million) to its customers.

Gerald Cotten’s Cryptic Death

The mysterious death of Gerald Cotten on Dec. 9 and its announcement on Jan. 14 which is followed by the missing keys is also strange and indigestible. According to the Globe and Mail, the administration along with Gerry’s wife are not able to find the deposits and suffering liquidity crisis ever since Gerry passed away.

It has also come to notice that Gerry used to work from his home and encrypted computer. As he was the sole in charge of the wallet and the keys, the firm is not able to identify and locate the keys. In order to safeguard the digital assets from hacking and theft, the exchange held the funds in cold wallets. This offline storage arrangement was considered a theft-free system and protected by digital security keys which were kept by only Gerry.

However, the exchange hasn’t clearly mentioned the following consequences after Gerald Cotton’s demise and lost cold-wallet access, but people started to conclude the funds have gone in the astray as the authorized person is himself no more. The exchange also declared on the single-page website about the lost access to cold wallets which is storing tens of millions of digital assets, and unable to gain a processor.

Soon after the cotton’s passing news, many agitated platform users asked for proof of Cotten’s death through Twitter and Reddit. Since last year loads of customers were unable to withdraw funds due to a legal battle between the exchange and CIBC because of some ownership claims and allegedly frozen the accounts and suspicion on QuadrigaCX.

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Jennifer Robertson, wife and partner of Gerald Cotten stated the cause of Gerry’s death is due to the complications of Crohn’s disease while traveling in India with an objective to provide a refuge and open an orphanage for the needy children.

QuadrigaCX has hired the accounting firm, Ernst & Young, to act as a “monitor” in hearings which is about to commence from February 5.

Probably, the system and hearings in court can reveal important information behind Gerry’s death and QuadrigaCX missing wallet keys along with stored cryptocurrency. One thing is sure enough to understand that users don’t faith blindly on any of the crypto exchanges to keep their hard earned money. Due diligence is must here in this growing industry before taking any steps.