Founded | 2013 |
---|---|
Founders |
|
Defunct | 5 February 2019 |
Products | Cryptocurrency exchange |
Website | quadrigacxtrustee.com |
Quadriga Fintech Solutions was the owner and operator of QuadrigaCX, which was believed to be Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange at the time of its collapse in 2019, with the exchange ceasing operations and the company filing for bankruptcy with C$215.7 million in liabilities and about C$28 million in assets.[1]
The company's CEO and founder, Gerald William Cotten, died in 2018 after traveling to India. Up to C$250 million (US$190 million) in cryptocurrency owed to 115,000 customers was missing[2] or could not be accessed because only Cotten held the password to off-line cold wallets.[3][4][5]
Quadriga likely never invested the funds entrusted to it, according to Chainalysis, a cryptocurrency tracking firm. Either the funds were never received or quickly went missing. "What Quadriga really did with the money that customers gave it to buy Bitcoin remains a mystery," according to Chainalysis.[6]
Ernst & Young was appointed as an independent monitor while Quadriga was granted temporary legal protection from its creditors under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act.[7][8] On 8 April 2019 the firm entered bankruptcy under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act as the possibility of a successful reorganization appeared to be remote.[9][10]
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) were reportedly investigating the company.[11] Lawyers for the customers of the exchange have asked that Cotten's body be exhumed.[12]
thechronicleherald2019-02-07
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).bizarre
was invoked but never defined (see the help page)."What we found very quickly was that Quadriga as an exchange actually didn't have those customer funds that were reported in the media to be now lost—those funds actually never existed", Levin explains. What Quadriga really did with the money that customers gave it to buy Bitcoin remains a mystery.
NYT5Feb2019
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).Supreme
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).