by - Five wallets transferred over $1 million worth of Bitcoin from QuadrigaCX
- Theorists believed the stock market’s so-called dead CEO was behind the transfer
After being inactive for years, five wallets connected to former Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX have been exchanged for nearly $1.7 million worth of Bitcoin [BTC] December 17.
This information was revealed via crypto researcher ZachXBT, which noted that the wallets sent around 104 bitcoins to the corresponding addresses on December 17. Additionally, wallets had not sent Bitcoin since April 2018, according to blockchain records.
Five wallets attributed to QuadrigaCX unexpectedly moved ~104 BTC on Dec. 17 for the first time in years.
1ECUQLuioJbFZAQchcZq9pggd4EwcpuANe
1J9Fqc3TicNoy1Y7tgmhQznWrP5AVLXj9R
1MhgmGaHwLAvvKVyFvy6zy9pRQFXaxwE9M
1HyYMMCdCcHnfjwMW2jE4cv9qVkVDFUzVa
1JPtxSGoekZfLQeYAWkbhBhkr2VEDADHZB— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 19, 2022
Gerald Cotten, the company’s founder and CEO, died in December 2018. Additionally, he was solely responsible for the private keys of the exchange’s wallets. Thus, QuadrigaCX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada, declared bankruptcy in April 2019.
Details of funds moved
The wallets transferred money on Friday, December 16 and Saturday, December 17. Over 69 BTC ($1.1 million) was sent to a bitcoin wallet called Wasabi.
The person responsible for transferring the money remained unknown at press time. A study was published in February 2019 by Ernst & Young (EY), one of the four major accounting firms in charge of the stock market’s assets.
He said that on February 6, 2019, QuadrigaCX unwittingly transferred around 103 BTC to cold wallets. These portfolios could only be viewed by the late Cotten. The company had announced that it would work to get Bitcoin out of cold wallets.
However, EY denied having a role in the transfers according to a statement made by QuadrigaCX’s bankruptcy committee. While the inspectors were “aware that Quadriga funds have moved”, EY remained silent on the matter.
QuadrigaCX collapse led to conspiracy theories
Conspiracy theories claimed that the QuadrigaCX founder faked his death as part of an illegal exit plan. Additionally, it was seen as his strange death and the subsequent collapse of the exchange.
Years before his death in 2014, Cotten said in a podcast that printing out private keys and keeping them offline in a vault was the best way to keep them. Additionally, it revealed that the exchange had stored its private keys offline in the company’s vault at a bank.
Cotten’s faked death, according to many theorists, raised the low probability that he was behind the transfer.
