Paying a heavy price: This crypto exchange can't refund $190 mn to customers after CEO died with only password

By Trista Kelley

Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX owes its customers about $190 (249 million Canadian dollars). The exchange's founder, Gerald Cotten, died last year, taking his encrypted access to the money with him and leaving a big problem for investors.

"Quadriga's inventory of cryptocurrency has become unavailable and some of it may be lost," Jennifer Robertson, Cotten's widow, wrote after his reported death of Crohn's disease in December, as CoinDesk reported, citing a court filing.


He seemingly had sole control or knowledge of Quadriga's cold storage solution.

While Robertson has Cotten's laptop, it's encrypted and she does not have a password or recovery key. A consultant hired to attempt to recover it's contents hasn't had much luck.

Users have been complaining about "withdrawal issues and a lack of communication" from QuadrigaCX for months, Coindesk said.

Robertson said that the exchange's new directors voted to "temporarily pause" the platform on January 26.

The exchange is considering selling off its operating platform to refund its users, and "multiple parties" are interested, Coindesk said, citing the filing. But none are named in the documents.