The debacle ongoing at Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has continued to raise new dust as more evidence comes in.
A new report published by crypto information platform ZeroNoneCense claim that QuadrigaCX must have stored a substantial amount of Ethereum (ETH) in other crypto exchanges. The crypto research firm said that it strongly believes that QuadrigaCX stored as much as of 650,000 ETH belonging to the platform on other cryptocurrency exchanges including Kraken, Bitfinex and Poloniex.
The report read:
“Based on the transaction analysis included in the report, it appears that a significant amount of Ethereum (600,000+ ETH) was transferred to these exchanges as a means of ‘storage’ during the years that QuadrigaCX was in operation and offering Ethereum on their exchange.”
The authors, who claimed to have discovered all the exit points of ETH not related to customer transactions, suggested that the exchange had, in total, as much as $100 million worth of ETH in its accounts with these exchanges.
According to the CEO of ZeroNoneCense James Edwards, its claims were corroborated with information obtained from Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken Exchange and Taylor Monahan, CEO of MyCrypto.
It may be possible that the management of QuadrigaCX did not know of the money moved to these accounts until its revelation, Edwards wrote. As reported, Jennifer Robertson, the widow of the late founder and CEO of QuadrigaCX exchange swore an affidavit stating that she and all other staff involved at the exchange did not know about where Cotton was moving and storing crypto.
The exchange has applied for creditor protection claiming that it did not have access to funds of up to CA$190 million dollars (about $145 million) belonging to its customers after the death of Cotton. Robertson affidavit, however, did suggest that Cotton may have stored some of QuadigaCX’s funds on other exchanges.
As reported, Big Four audit firm Ernst & Young claimed that the exchange’s cold wallets were empty and were not in since for almost a year. Reports emerging during the saga indicates that the exchange did not have $190 million in Bitcoin (BTC) in the first instance which means the claim of missing funds were unfounded.
Kraken, one of the crypto exchanges mentioned in the report recently announced a $100,000 bounty bonus for any who can help recover the QuadigaCX’s lost funds.
Kraken wrote:
“Kraken is giving up to $100,000 USD (fiat or crypto) as a reward for the tip(s) that best lead to the discovery of the missing $190 million US dollars.”
ZeroNoneCense’s report claimed that Kraken received 84,248 ETH (or $16,051,305 at the time of transfer) from QuadigaCX. If the funds are still in these external exchanges, the authors conclude that it will be a trivial task to retrieve them and set the firm on the path to regain solvency and resume its operations.
Riccardo Lopp is a writer specializing in Crypto, ethereum and whole blockchain ecosystem. His background is in economics and statistics.
