Crypto exchange QuadrigaCX cannot own 120 million euros worth of currency after death

Users of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX are currently unable to access their currency because the owner, the only one with access to the cold wallet, has passed away. As a result, 120 million euros in crypto is unreachable for the time being.

The 30-year-old owner of QuadrigaCX, Gerry Cotten, died of Crohn’s disease in December. Cotten had placed the cold wallet on an encrypted laptop and only he knew how to decrypt it. Most of the credits of the 115,000 customers who are in the plus are on this laptop. Coindesk writes this based on court documents. The exchange traded in bitcoin, bitcoin cash, bitcoin cash SV, bitcoin gold, litecoin and ether.

QuadrigaCX applies for creditor protection; temporary creditor protection to save time to decrypt the laptop. That job, and the job of satisfying the creditors, now rests with Cotten’s widow. He has hired experts to crack Cotten’s accounts and devices. His personal and professional e-mail has already succeeded, but this has not proved to be enough to get to the funds. He also used an encrypted messenger, but those messages are automatically deleted after a while, which makes it less likely that the experts will get to it in time.

Since the problems started at the exchange, it has still accepted automatic and manual deposits. However, the stock market has since gone dark. To top it off, QuadrigaCX is also embroiled in a legal battle with multiple payment processors. They hold another 46 million euros of the stock exchange.

The widow does not rule out that it is better at the bottom of the line to sell the stock market. One of the reasons for the creditor protection is therefore to preserve the value of the exchange. Offers to buy the exchange are said to have already been made.