Top Stories This Week Tesla CEO Elon Musk Compliments Bitcoin’s Structure, Sees Future With No Paper Money Elon Musk, tech entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla, said this week in an interview that Bitcoin’s (BTC) structure is “quite brilliant.” Speaking to advisory services firm ARK, Musk noted that digital currency is “a far better way to transfer value than pieces of paper.” However, Musk did point out some of the downsides of crypto, namely that it is energy-intensive computationally, but added that Tesla resources could help bring about the use of sustainable energy in crypto. Last year, Musk had noted that …

Canadian banks have showed hesitation concerning the management of insolvent cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX’s assets, national public broadcaster CBC reports on Feb. 22. QuadrigaCX has faced financial difficulty following the sudden death of its founder Gerry Cotten, who was the allegedly only one with access to the exchange’s cold wallets. As Cointelegraph reported earlier this week, QuadrigaCX has sent its remaining crypto assets from its hot wallets to Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young, the court-appointed monitor overseeing the case. During Friday’s court hearing, lawyers for the Bank of Montreal and the auditing firm reportedly said that the banks are …

The CEO of United States cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase added to theories surrounding the downfall of Canadian platform QuadrigaCX in fresh social media comments on Feb. 21. In a series of tweets, Brian Armstrong suggested the exchange, which is currently undergoing restructuring procedures and owes creditors around $190 million, did not attempt fraud. “(QuadrigaCX) was one of the oldest exchanges in existence (founded in 2013). If they planned an exit scam, it likely would have been timed better,” he summarized. Users of the now-defunct Quadriga are currently battling through the courts to secure missing funds. The exact circumstances under which their …

Canada’s now-offline QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency exchange has sent its remaining crypto assets from its hot wallets to Big Four auditing firm Ernst & Young (EY), according to the an official report EY published on Feb. 20. According to the EY’s “Second Report of the Monitor,” QuadrigaCX transferred almost all its online crypto to the auditor on Feb. 14, following some initial testing arrangements. The transferred amount included 51 Bitcoin (BTC), 952 Ethereum (ETH), 822 Litecoin (LTC), 33 Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and 2,033 Bitcoin Gold (BTG); a sum worth roughly $410,000 at press time. As the new report reads, EY will be …

The Supreme Court of Nova Scotia has ordered Canadian law firms Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer to represent customers of cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX in upcoming proceedings. The ruling was announced in a court filing published on Feb. 19. On Tuesday, Justice Michael Wood rendered a decision that Miller Thomson and Cox & Palmer will act as lead counsel to represent the representative committee of users of Canada’s major cryptocurrency exchange Quadriga. Specifically, the representative counsel will be responsible for “managing communications with users; acting as user liaison for the monitor [Ernst & Young]; advocating for user interests before the …

Top Stories This Week Fundstrat Global Advisors Expects 2019 to Bring More Institutional Investors to Crypto According to a report on the 2019 crypto outlook released by New York-based research company Fundstrat Global Advisors, incremental improvements in the crypto space can provide support for higher prices for cryptocurrencies. The report notes that, as the United States dollar is expected to weaken and more institutional investors enter the space, a visible market recovery can be expected. Fundstrat states that the current year’s crypto hangover can be attributed to the waning interest in the initial coin offering (ICO) sector as well as …

The founder of major Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten, may have stored the exchange’s private keys on paper in a safety deposit box, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 15. In an interview on the “True Bromance Podcast” in February 2014, Cotten warned of the danger of losing keys to cold wallet storage systems, and thus losing access to the assets stored on them. “Even the U.S. government, with the biggest computers in the world, could not retrieve those coins if you’ve lost the private key. It’s impossible to retrieve those," Cotten said. Cotten further explained that the best way to …

A Canadian judge has delayed a decision on legal representation for customers of major Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX. The news was tweeted by Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reporter Jack Julian on. Feb. 14. On Thursday, Feb. 14, the Nova Scotia Supreme Court reportedly brought together over “a dozen” lawyers who represent 115,000 cryptocurrency traders owed around $260 million ($195 million) by Quadriga after the exchange’s founder’s, Gerald Cotten, passed suddenly. Specifically, the customers are seeking CA$70 million ($52 million) in cash and CA$190 million ($142 million) in Bitcoin (BTC) and other cryptocurrencies. Justice Michael Wood reportedly said that he would issue …

An internet analyst has claimed to have delineated four Bitcoin addresses that belonged to defunct Canadian exchange QuadrigaCX, publishing their findings on Reddit on Feb. 13. The post, by a user known on Reddit as u/dekoze, indicates five addresses allegedly associated with the exchange, noting that the number is just a fraction of the total number of associated wallets. Transactions sent to the addresses roughly equal the amount of Bitcoin Quadriga previously reportedly sent to locked cold wallets by mistake. “Notably, every address was inactive since April 2018 and the majority of their received BTC was either directly from the …

For the second week, QuadrigaCX’s crisis remains one of the hottest topics in the crypto world. After the CEO of the Canadian exchange, 30-year-old Geral Cotten, suddenly died, the exchange has allegedly lost access to its cold wallets, where as much as 190 million Canadian dollars ($145 million) in digital assets were stored. The firm has since managed to obtain creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, which has granted it with a 30-day stay of proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) — which will end on March 7 — to search for the missing funds. According …

Embattled Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has become the subject of a bidding war as lawyers meet to win creditor representation, Bloomberg reported on Feb. 12. The hearing at the Nova Scotia Supreme Court on Feb. 14 will decide which law firms can lobby for compensation on behalf of clients of the exchange, which currently owes them around $260 million CAD ($196 million). The sum of $190 million CAD results from cryptocurrency and other deposits which the exchange reportedly lost following the death of its CEO, Gerald Cotten, in December. The ensuing legal action has added another $70 million CAD. In …

Major Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX accidentally transferred nearly $500,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) to its cold wallets earlier this month, according to a report published by Ernst & Young on Feb. 12. The founder of QuadrigaCX, 30-year-old Gerald Cotten, died in December 2018. The exchange has been unable to access its cold wallets since, as Cotten was solely responsible for the wallets and corresponding keys. The vast majority of Quadriga’s assets were reportedly lost in the missing cold wallets. In the beginning of February, it was reported that Quadriga is missing CA$190 million dollars ($145 million) in digital assets. The exchange …