30-year-old Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, died last year in India from complications with Crohn’s disease. Before his death, he had the only password to unlock the funds and didn’t get to transfer that knowledge to anyone.
QuadrigaCX had stored most of the money in offline accounts known as cold wallets, a measure that was put in place to protect it from hackers, and Cotten had the only password to unlock the funds, according to court documents cited by Canadian media and posted online by cryptocurrency news site CoinDesk.
QuadrigaCX has lost nearly $190 million of their investors’ money following Cotten’s death as all efforts to get the passwords have proved abortive.
His widow, Jennifer Roberston, said in a statement that she has recovered her late husband’s work laptop, but is unable to access it because she doesn’t know the password. The company said they’ve hired a security expert to try to access the funds, but he has been unsuccessful so far.
The company is no longer accepting investments on their platform after it was put on pause by directors late last month.
11 thoughts on “QuadrigaCX investors to lose $190 million after founder dies unexpectedly”