Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) has argued that the now-shuttered Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX should be placed in bankruptcy instead of being restructured as part of ongoing creditor protection proceedings. EY proposed the course of action in its “Fourth Report of the Monitor” filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on April 1. As previously reported, QuadrigaCX reported it had lost access to its cold wallet holdings following the death of its founder, Gerald Cotten, in December 2018 — Cotten having ostensibly been the sole person with access to the wallets’ corresponding keys. With the reportedly …

The Premier of Bermuda, David Burt, has argued that a QuadrigaCX-like situation could not have happened in Bermuda because of the country’s existing legislation in regard to cryptocurrencies. Burt made his statements in an interview on Fortune’s “Balancing the Ledger” show on March 25. Burt delivered his comments following QuadrigaCX’ founder, Gerald Cotten’s sudden death last December, and financial difficulty the exchange subsequently faced. QuadrigaCX has not been able to access its cold wallets where it kept most of its assets, because Cotten was apparently solely responsible for the wallets and corresponding keys. Burt stated in the interview that QuadrigaCX’s …

Top Stories This Week Six Global Banks Sign Up to Issue Stablecoins on IBM’s Now-Live Blockchain Network This week, six international banks signed letters of intent to issue their own stablecoins — which will be backed by their national fiat currencies — on IBM’s now-live blockchain-powered payments network, “World Wire.” According to the joint announcement by IBM and Stellar, the World Wire has gone live with over 44 banks on its service, supporting 47 currencies in 72 countries. The IBM project was launched with Stellar in September 2018, and plans to expand the blockchain-powered settlement network to further assets. The …

A new committee appointed by law firms Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer will provide guidance in representing affected clients of major Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX. The development was announced in a court notice on March 19. In the filing, Miller Thompson reveals that it has established the Official Committee of Affected Users of now-shuttered QuadrigaCX, comprising of seven users affected by the shutdown of the trading platform following the sudden death of its co-founder, Gerald Cotten, last December. At the time, the exchange reported that it was not able to access its cold wallet holdings, as Cotten had purportedly …

A co-founder of controversial QuadrigaCX exchange was reportedly involved in multiple criminal activities in the past, Bloomberg reports on March 19. Michael Patryn, who co-founded Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX along with Gerald Cotten in 2013, was previously known as Omar Dhanani, a person that was involved in multiple crimes in the United States, Bloomberg states. $145 million in clients’ crypto assets was found to be missing from the QuadrigaCX exchange after its co-founder and CEO Cotten died at the age of 30 from complications of Crohn’s disease in December 2018. The exchange is now ongoing legal and financial proceedings amid …

The late founder of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerry Cotten, was purportedly funding the exchange with his own money while it was in litigation with a major Canadian bank. Cotten’s widow Jennifer Robertson revealed details about the exchange’s financial situation in a statement published on March 13. The statement reads that Cotten was putting his own money into Quadriga to fund user withdrawals in 2018, after the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) had frozen five accounts holding $21.6 million. Robertson stated: “While I had no direct knowledge of how Gerry operated the business, he told me that he had …

The widow of the founder of now-defunct cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has asked the court for $225,000 in compensation for legal costs, Bloomberg reports on March 4. Jennifer Robertson, the wife of late QuadrigaCX founder Gerry Cotten, is seeking repayment for financing used to help the crypto exchange acquire court-approved protection from creditors. After $145 million in crypto assets went missing following Cotten’s death, Robertson provided interim financing for legal proceedings. According to Bloomberg, Robertson paid CA$300,000 (~$225,000), which covered Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young’s (EY) appointment as a monitor to the legal proceedings, in addition to fees associated …

Top Stories This Week Nasdaq Begins Listing Brave New Coin’s Bitcoin and Ethereum Price Indexes Nasdaq, the world’s second-largest stock exchange, began its live listing of two crypto price indexes from United States blockchain and crypto market data company Brave New Coin (BNC) this week. The listings, which had been announced earlier this month, are BNC’s Bitcoin Liquid Index (BLX) and Ethereum Liquid Index (ELX). According to the announcement, the indexes will show reference rates for the price of 1 BTC and 1 ETH, quoted in USD and refreshed every 30 seconds. Brave New Coin has also announced future plans …

Cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX probably stored a significant quantity of Ethereum (ETH) in other crypto exchanges, according to new evidence. This claim was made in a report published by crypto research and consulting platform ZeroNonCense on Feb. 28, which obtained corroborating information from Kraken CEO Jesse Powell and MyCrypto CEO Taylor Monahan. More precisely, the author of the report reportedly “believes that there is a very strong possibility” that nearly 650,000 ETH belonging to QuadrigaCX were stored on the Kraken, Bitfinex and Poloniex crypto exchanges during QuadrigaCX’s operations. The report claims that the fact that QuadrigaCX had accounts on all those …

Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young (EY) released its “Third Report of the Monitor” in the creditor protection proceedings of Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX on March 1. Within the report, the audit firm has identified six separate crypto wallets that were used primarily to store Bitcoin (BTC), the cryptocurrency most used on the platform. Apart from one inadvertent transaction of Bitcoin amounting to nearly $500,000, there have been no deposits in the wallets since April 2018. Furthermore the report states: “To date, the Applicants have been unable to identify a reason why Quadriga may have stopped using the Identified …

Cryptocurrency exchange Kraken has posted a $100,000 reward for the discovery of the major Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX’s missing funds. Kraken announced the offer in a blog post on Feb. 28. QuadrigaCX has faced financial difficulty following the sudden death of its founder Gerry Cotten in December last year. Since then, Quadriga has not been able to access its cold wallets where it kept most of the assets, because Cotten was apparently solely responsible for the wallets and corresponding keys. Quadriga purportedly only has CA$375,000 ($286,000) in cash, while it owes CA$260 million ($198,435,000) to its users. Facing insolvency, the …

Jennifer Robertson — the current director and widow of the founder of now-shuttered Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX — has asked a Canadian court to appoint a chief restructuring officer (CRO) to handle proceedings in the aftermath of the exchange’s controversial closure. In an affidavit filed with the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia on Feb. 25, Robertson further requested that the court grant a stay of proceedings extension of the current period of creditor protection. As previously reported, Robertson’s spouse, 30-year-old Gerald Cotten, died in December 2018. At that time, the exchange reported that it was unable to access its cold …