It was assumed that the wallets had been inaccessible after the creator of the exchange passed away in 2018, as he was the only person accountable for the private keys of the wallets, and he was the only one who possessed those keys.
After years of dormancy, it was recently revealed that five accounts related to the defunct Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX were abruptly exchanging around $1.7 million worth of Bitcoin. It had been thought that these wallets did not exist prior to the recent finding, which disproved this theory.
A researcher in the cryptocurrency field by the name of ZachXBT issued a warning to the cryptocurrency community on December 19 in the form of a tweet. The message focused on the five wallets that moved around 104 Bitcoin to other wallets.
The information that has been preserved on the blockchain indicates that the wallets have not moved any Bitcoin since at least April of 2018.
After the demise of its founder and CEO, Gerald Cotten, in December 2018, QuadrigaCX was formerly the most prominent bitcoin exchange in Canada. Gerald Cotten passed away. Nonetheless, in April of 2019, the exchange made the announcement that it was going to seek protection under the bankruptcy laws. Cotten was the sole individual who had knowledge of the private keys to the wallets used by the exchange.
At the time of its failure, roughly 155,000 clients were owed a total of nearly $200 million in cryptocurrencies.
According to a report that was published in February 2019 by Ernst & Young, one of the Big Four accounting firms that was overseeing the exchange’s estate, on February 6, 2019, QuadrigaCX made an accidental transfer of approximately 103 BTC to cold wallets that were only accessible to the deceased Cotten.
The overall value is really close to being exactly the same as the most recent transaction volume in Bitcoin.
