The Canadian cryptocurrency exchange is in trouble and facing legal actions; as a result of the unfortunate death of its leader. The exchange owes its customers millions in Canadian dollars and can’t access any of the funds due to no one knows the passwords to access the CEOs computers.
The computers hold more than US$137 million in virtual currencies for the cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX. However the company’s founder and CEO Gerald Cotton unexpectedly died in India this past December from Crohn’s disease.
The court has ordered the exchange to pay its clients $190 million and is restricted from excessing the most of its assets.
This, the exchange’s representatives claim, as Cotton was the only person who had access to the funds held in cold storage. QuadrigaCX has since gone offline and has posted a notice telling users about the ordeal.
It has also filed for creditor protection with a Canadian higher court in Nova Scotia to avoid facing legal action from angry users, which would only “complicate an already difficult situation.”
So far, only the cryptocurrency stored on QuadrigaCX’s online server has been retrieved. But the bulk of the funds, located in offline computers dubbed “cold wallets,” remain locked away.
Cotton did this to keep the cryptocurrency secure from hacks, but he failed to tell anyone else within the exchange his passwords.
