CRYPTO TRADER BOSS DIES WITH PASSWORD TO CLIENTS’ £110M

Canada’s leading cryptocurrency exchange company has said it cannot repay $190m (£110m) to clients
because its founder died with their passwords.
QuadrigaCX’s founder Gerald Cotten, 30, died “due to complications with Crohn’s disease” while
travelling in India to open an orphanage in December, his wife Jennifer Robertson said.
Mr Cotten held “sole responsibility for handling the funds and coins” and no other members of the team
could access the stored funds, she said in a sworn affidavit as she filed for credit protection on 31
January.
Ms Robertson said about $190m (£110m) in both cryptocurrency and normal money is in “cold storage”
– where the company, or just Mr Cotten in this case, holds the key, not the client.
The founder held “sole responsibility for handling the funds and coins” and no other members of the
team could access the stored funds, she added.
She has her husband’s laptop but she does not know the password and a technical expert they hired had
not been able to bypass its encryption, she told the court.
On 31 January the company’s board of directors applied for creditor protection, with Ernst & Young
expected to be appointed on Tuesday to oversee the proceedings.
A statement from the board said: “For the past weeks, we have worked extensively to address our
liquidity issues, which include attempting to locate and secure our very significant cryptocurrency
reserves held in cold wallets, and that are required to satisfy customer cryptocurrency balances on
deposit, as well as sourcing a financial institution to accept the bank drafts that are to be transferred to
us.
“Unfortunately, these efforts have not been successful.”
QuadrigaCX customers have been complaining on social media that they have not been able to withdraw
money from their accounts.
Ally Shapoval wrote: “Hello, Quadriga! I withdrew money from my Quadriga account to my bank more
than 2 weeks ago. WHERE IS MY MONEY? STILL NOT THERE.
“I sent you emails, you are not responding.”
Another wrote in French: “I have sent lots of emails, but I just get automatic responses, I’m not even
able to get my crypto out.”
Some are questioning whether Mr Cotten is even dead and others have accused the company of lying to
them.
Ms Robertson added in the affidavit that she and her colleagues have had threats made against them
from online cryptocurrency communities – especially from Reddit users.