The QuadrigaCX Saga Continues… Empty Cold Storage, Other Exchanges

Dima Zaitsev shares his thoughts on the continuing masterclass in mismanagement from the world’s most infamous exchange

At this point, no one seems to know what to make of the QuadrigaCX situation.

In early 2019, news broke of the founder Gerald Cotten’s passing. Supposedly, Cotten was the only team member at QuadrigaCX who knew the passwords to the exchange’s cold wallets, and with his death, the exchange could no longer access over $145 million in user assets.

Allegations immediately flew that Cotten faked his death and ran off with the money. While the truth is still unknown, a recent investigation found that the exchange’s cold storage had been empty since April 2018. New information suggests that QuadrigaCX may have stored nearly 650,000 ETH on other exchanges like Kraken, Bitfinex and Poloniex.

If QuadrigaCX did use these other exchanges to store funds, retrieval may be a breeze and users may finally have their assets returned. On the other hand, this may mean Cotten did run of with the funds.

Dima Zaitsev is relieved that users may recover their funds, but is dismayed at the gross mismanagement on display, “I’ve never seen an organization make so many poor decisions. While the industry is relatively new, teams need to make sure they have experienced management teams on board. These kinds of soft skills are crucial to any venture.”