QuadrigaCX's CEO died with the only key to $190 million in customer funds

QuadrigaCX was founded in 2013 as Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, allowing users to trade Bitcoin and other digital assets. By 2018 it had 363,000 registered users and was processing millions of dollars in trades. The company was run by Gerald Cotten, who personally controlled the offline cold wallets that held the exchange's cryptocurrency reserves.

Cotten died in December 2018 at age 30 while traveling in India, from complications of Crohn's disease. He was the only person who knew the passwords to the cold wallets. When the company tried to access customer funds, it discovered the cold wallets had been empty since April 2018. C$250 million (US$190 million) owed to 115,000 customers was missing.

The Ontario Securities Commission concluded in June 2020 that QuadrigaCX was not a simple case of a lost password — it was an old-fashioned Ponzi scheme. Cotten had opened accounts under aliases, credited himself with fictitious cryptocurrency balances, and traded against unsuspecting clients. Co-founder Michael Patryn was later revealed to be Omar Dhanani, a convicted identity thief. The case became one of the most notorious crypto exchange collapses in history.