To The Grave

A cryptocurrency exchange in Canada has lost control of at least $137 million of its customers' assets following the sudden death of its founder, who was the only person known to have access to the offline wallet that stored the digital coins.

In a sworn affidavit filed Thursday by Jennifer Robertson, widow of QuadrigaCX's sole director and officer Gerry Cotten, Robertson testified that Cotten died of Crohn's disease in India in December at the age of 30.

Robertson testified that Cotten stored the cold wallet on an encrypted laptop that only he could decrypt.  Based on company records, she said the cold wallet stored $180 million in Canadian dollars ($137 million in US dollars), all of which is currently inaccessible to QuadrigaCX and more than 100,000 customers.

-- Ars Technica, "Digital exchange loses $137 million as founder takes passwords to the grave", 2 February 2019

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/02/digital-exchange-loses-137-million-as-founder-takes-passwords-to-the-grave/