Have you heard of Gerald Cotten? This name might not be unfamiliar to those who have been in the crypto world for a long time. But the story? The story is truly crazy.

So Gerald Cotten was the CEO of QuadrigaCX, the largest crypto exchange in Canada. In 2018, he went on his honeymoon to India. Suddenly, he passed away. He was only 30 years old. Tragic, right? But here’s where the problem begins.

When he died, it turned out that only he knew the passwords to all the systems. $190 million customer funds? Disappeared just like that. No backup. No recovery plan. No second person with access. Just one CEO who is already dead and a cold wallet that no one can open. That’s the official story.

But then investigators started digging deeper. When they finally found the QuadrigaCX cold wallet that was supposed to hold all the funds, the results were shocking. Empty. Not recently empty. Empty for a long time. It turns out Gerald had secretly transferred customer funds to his personal account over the years. Running the crypto exchange by day. Draining it from the inside at night. No one knew. No one checked.

And here’s an even stranger part. Gerald’s body was never properly examined. He was buried very quickly. When