Key Takeaways
- QuadrigaCX filed for bankruptcy in 2019 after its CEO Gerald Cotten died in mysterious and sudden circumstances
- Cotten was claimed to be the only one with access to cold wallets containing funds
- Cotten was later revealed to have been scamming customers, with QuadrigaCX a Ponzi scheme
- Over 100 BTC were transferred mistakenly to a wallet in 2019 after the bankruptcy filing, with bankruptcy trustee EY stating the funds were now lost as nobody had access
- This weekend, the wallets woke again, with funds transferred to a crypto mixing service
Sleeping bitcoin wallets belonging to controversial exchange (no, not that one) QuadrigaCX woke up this weekend. Over 100 bitcoins tied to the defunct exchange moved out of cold wallets that until now, were thought to wallets which nobody could access.
QuadrigaCX, for anyone unfamiliar, is the exchange founded by Gerald Cotten and the subject of the captivating Netflix drama “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King”. It was one of the early mainstream exchanges, handling over 80% of Canadian Bitcoin volume at one point. Only thing was, it was all a scam.
What happened QuadrigaCX?
It filed for bankruptcy in 2019 with close to $200 million being owed to customers. It was later revealed to be a Ponzi scheme, with Cotten opening accounts under aliases and crediting himself with fictitious balances, which…
