Canadian Exchange Quadriga Faces Uncertain Future

Dima Zaitsev, Head of International PR at ICOBox, responds to the news of the lost nearly $200 million

Canadian cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga found itself with a big problem when its founder Gerald Cotten suddenly passed away in December while travelling in India. Cotten was the only person who handled the customers’ funds worth about $190 million in fiat and digital currencies, most of which were held in “cold storage,” and the company is now unable to access the accounts. Nobody, including the CEO’s widow, seems to have any knowledge of the encryption keys and passwords he used.

Quadriga has filed for creditor protection and also hired an investigator to try to recover access to the data, although the success has been extremely limited. Now the court appointed an attorney who will take possession of the encrypted laptop, and a preliminary hearing has been scheduled in court in Nova Scotia to appoint Ernst and Young as an independent party to monitor the proceedings.

Soon after Cotten’s death, rumors started to circulate among the company’s customers that the CEO didn’t actually die but absconded with their fortunes. In response, his official Death Certificate has been recently published online, to elevate the public’s legitimate concerns.

“This very unfortunate situation once again proves that the crypto industry is in dire need of comprehensive regulation. This is life, unpredictable extenuating circumstances do occur, and the government needs to tell us how to best act in them,” says Dima Zaitsev, Head of International PR at ICOBox.