Imagine you try to withdraw $10,000, but can’t. Not because you forgot a password. But because the CEO just died. 115,000 users lost $130M+ in 2019 because the CEO was reported dead. And he was the only person in the world who knew the passwords to the cold wallets. This is the insane story of Gerald Cotten, CEO of QuadrigaCX, one of Canada's largest crypto exchanges. Dec 2018 - Cotten is in India - He dies suddenly. He's 30 - His exchange says ONLY he knew the passwords to the cold wallets Jan 2019 - Quadriga announces his death - Customers can't get their money out - But then something goes wrong Investigators open the cold wallets. They're EMPTY. They'd been empty since April 2018. 8 months BEFORE he died. Dec 2019 - Customers' lawyers ask police to dig up his body to prove he's really dead - June 2020 - Ontario's securities regulator rules it was fraud - He opened accounts under fake names - Credited himself fake balances - And traded his customers' money - $215M lost in total The cold wallets were never locked. They were completely empty. Gerald Cotten had spent years gambling away his users' money on rival exchanges to fund a lifestyle of private jets and partying. While the mystery of his sudden death in India still remains, he was confirmed dead. And victims recovered just 13% of their funds.