Below Zero: Canadian Exchange QuadrigaCX found to have no funds in their cold storage
According to a recent report by Bloomberg, six cold wallets used by QuadrigaCX have finally been identified. However, five of them have been empty since April 2018. Quadriga has been under court-approved creditor protection since Feb. 5, and Ernst & Young has been assisting with the process. Ernst & Young also found another three addresses that may have also been used by Quadriga, but those also contained no balances either.
Over a four year period the highest amount of bitcoin the wallets had stored was 2,776 Bitcoin, while they averaged about 124 Bitcoin at the end of each month. An interesting finding is Ernst & Young noticed 14 accounts linked to these wallets that were created unusually and trading on other exchanges with false deposits. Ernst & Young has contacted 14 unnamed exchanges about this activity, however, only four have responded so far.
QuadrigaCX, a Canadian cryptocurrency exchange, ceased operations on Jan. 26, leaving many of its clients confused and panicked. Seven weeks prior, the firm’s CEO and founder, Gerald Cotten suddenly passed away. On Feb. 8, QuadrigaCX filed an application for creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, citing issues with locating “very significant cryptocurrency reserves held in cold wallets.”
Ever since then, clients have been attempting to locate Cotten’s wallet addresses. Since news broke on QudarigaCX, there have been a lot of questions. These revelations only add more to the mystery surrounding the Canadian exchange.
