EY, the court-appointed trustee of now-defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, did Not Initiate transfers of $1.7M in Bitcoin
In a statement, this Tuesday, EY, the court-appointed trustee of now-defunct Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, did not initiate transfers of $1.7 million in Bitcoin. EY has been managing QuadrigaCX’s remaining funds since the exchange went down in January 2019, and recently stated that it has not made any transfers of Bitcoin. The firm did, however, confirm that some funds were transferred to EY’s designated accounts, though it is unclear if those transfers were made by EY or a third party. EY is currently working through the process of evaluating and organizing QuadrigaCX’s remaining funds in an effort to return them to their rightful owners.
The Trustee and Representative Counsel were alarmed to discover an unauthorized transfer of Bitcoin from certain cold wallets held by Quadriga. The cold wallets, which had been identified in the First, Second, and Third Reports of the Monitor in the CCAA Proceedings, were moved on February 6, 2019, the day after the Initial Order was granted in the CCAA proceedings. Quadriga had inadvertently transferred certain cryptocurrencies into cold wallets that the Applicants were unable to access. This unexpected movement of Bitcoin has prompted further investigations into the matter.
It is mentioned that the Trustee and Representative Counsel are actively investigating the unauthorized transfers for the benefit of the Estate. The addresses of the Quadriga cold wallets are as follows:
- 1MhgmGaHwLAvvKVyFvy6zy9pRQFXaxw;
- 1JPtxSGoekZfLQeYAWkbhBhkr2VEDAD;
- 1ECUQLuioJbFZAQchcZq9pggd4Ewcpu;
- 1J9Fqc3TicNoy1Y7tgmhQznWrP5AVLX;
- 1HyYMMCdCcHnfjwMW2jE4cv9qVkVDFU; and
- 1JZJaDDC44DCKLnezDsbW43Zf8LspCKBYP
More about QuadrigaCX
The sudden closure of QuadrigaCX in February 2019 left customers in a state of shock, with millions of funds stranded in inaccessible cold wallets. Cold storage is a security procedure wherein funds are moved offline, and in this case, QuadrigaCX’s late CEO, Gerald Cotten, was the only person who had knowledge of the cold wallet addresses. Unfortunately, these addresses were known only to him, and with Cotten’s passing, no one has access to the funds.
