The $190M grave robbery you never heard about
December 9, 2018. Gerald Cotten, 30, dies in Jaipur. Crohn's complications. Honeymoon gone wrong. Death certificate filed 3 days later in Halifax.
Here's the kicker: he ran QuadrigaCX, Canada's largest exchange, solo from one encrypted laptop. 115,000 users. $250M CAD locked in cold wallets. Only he had the keys.
Then it got weird:
• Signed his will 12 days before death
• Creditors demanded exhumation
• Internet screamed Belize exit scam
March 2019: auditors cracked 6 cold wallets. All empty. Drained April 2018, 8 months before he "died."
Ontario Securities Commission ruling: Ponzi scheme. $169M customer funds vanished.
No Belize. No faked death. Just old-school fraud with a crypto wrapper. Cold wallets were hot air the whole time.
This is why you verify reserves. This is why CEX = not your keys. And this is why 2018 still haunts the space.
December 9, 2018. Gerald Cotten, 30, dies in Jaipur. Crohn's complications. Honeymoon gone wrong. Death certificate filed 3 days later in Halifax.
Here's the kicker: he ran QuadrigaCX, Canada's largest exchange, solo from one encrypted laptop. 115,000 users. $250M CAD locked in cold wallets. Only he had the keys.
Then it got weird:
• Signed his will 12 days before death
• Creditors demanded exhumation
• Internet screamed Belize exit scam
March 2019: auditors cracked 6 cold wallets. All empty. Drained April 2018, 8 months before he "died."
Ontario Securities Commission ruling: Ponzi scheme. $169M customer funds vanished.
No Belize. No faked death. Just old-school fraud with a crypto wrapper. Cold wallets were hot air the whole time.
This is why you verify reserves. This is why CEX = not your keys. And this is why 2018 still haunts the space.
