On 17th December, Crypto Investigator ZachXBT claimed five wallets connected to the now-defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX abruptly moved 104 Bitcoins (BTC) out of cold storage. This is the first time in more than three years that the Bitcoins in question have moved. What’s even more surprising, is that the transfers were not started by Ernst and Young (EY), QuadrigaCX’s bankruptcy trustee.
QuadrigaCX went bankrupt in 2019 after the sudden death of founder Gerald Cotten. Cotten passed away from Crohn’s illness while visiting India for his honeymoon. News soon spread that approximately $200 million in client property was missing. To safeguard user cash from hackers and other possible bad actors, Cotten had maintained control over all customer funds outside the company’s exchange platform. With his passing, the keys to these accounts were also lost.
Authorities discovered Cotten had been mismanaging client cash and had transferred sizable sums into personal accounts rather than keeping them in cold storage wallets. Regardless, it was found that there were just about CA$26 million dollars left in QuadrigaCX.
Moreover, EY declared in February 2019 that it had lost control of around 100 BTC after accidentally transferring the currency to cold wallets managed by Quadriga. EY said that it could not access the Bitcoin as only Cotten had access to the keys.
Why did Bitcoin move all of a sudden?
There is no confirmation on who currently controls the wallets. However, the sum is eerily close to the amount accidentally transferred by EY.
Conspiracy theories claim that the founder of QuadrigaCX faked his death as part of an illegal exit. Moreover, there is also a Netflix documentary about the same. Since the amount is similar to that lost by EY, and since Cotten is the only person with access to those wallets, he may be still alive. However, it is also possible that someone else had access to Cotten’s keys.
On the other hand, there is a possibility of some illicit work at play. And the actors were aware of the 2019 transfer but claimed it to be an accident. Now with the markets tanking, the player/players probably want to cash out. However, this is purely speculation.
At press time, Bitcoin (BTC) was trading at $16,807.84, up by 0.5% in the last 24 hours.