Cryptocurrency Exchange Locked Out of Funds After CEO's Death

A Canadian cryptocurrency exchange can no longer access customer funds because the company's CEO is dead and no one knows the passwords to his computers.

The computers hold more than $180 million in virtual currencies for the cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX. However the company's founder and CEO Gerald Cotton unexpectedly died in India this past December from Crohn's disease.

The exchange has now gone offline. On Thursday, QuadrigaCX posted a notice telling customers it had lost access to the cryptocurrency reserves and filed for creditor protection with a Canadian higher court in Nova Scotia.

On the same day, Cotton's widow, Jennifer Robertson, filed an affidavit with the court explaining the reasons behind the missing funds.

"The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the Companies' business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key," she said in the affidavit, which was obtained by CoinDesk. "Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them (the passwords) written down anywhere."

So far, only the cryptocurrency stored on QuadrigaCX's online server has been retrieved. But the bulk of the funds, located in offline computers dubbed "cold wallets," remain locked away. Cotton did this to keep the cryptocurrency secure from hacks, but he failed to tell anyone else with the exchange his passwords.

QuadrigaCX is now seeking creditors protection from the court so it can avoid facing immediate legal action from angry customers. At this point, a lawsuit would "only serve to complicate an already difficult situation," Robertson's affidavit says.

The exchange had about 115,000 users who held balances on the exchange. Collectively, it owes them about $250 million.

Cotton's widow has hired an outside security expert to try and hack the computers. The exchange's current management is also looking at selling the platform's technology to get the funds to compensate customers. In the meantime, QuadrigaCX users have been complaining on Reddit, and demanding evidence that proves Cotton is indeed dead.

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Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
Xbox 360 FTW
The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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