[Bitcoin]

Bitcoin has become a significant funding source for one of Russia’s leading political dissidents.

Alexei Navalny, a politician believed by many to be President Vladimir Putin’s main opponent, has attracted more than 591 BTC in donations over the last three years, worth about $3 million at current prices, public blockchain data shows.

The donations became a flashpoint this week when a pro-Putin television network questioned their timing.

Navalny’s investigative center, the Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), regularly publishes exposés of government officials, including prime minister Dimitri Medvedev and attorney general Yuri Chaika.

On Monday, an anonymous Telegram channel, “FBK Staffer’s Confession,”  noted that the Navalny organization’s wallet received several large donations a few days before FBK published one such investigation, insinuating it was a paid hit piece. The claim was covered in Russian media, including the pro-Putin Tsargrad TV.

When contacted by Russian news publication Znak, FBK’s chief of staff Leonid Volkov denied any connection between the transactions and its investigations, saying the anonymous blogger “dragged the non-existent facts together in by the head and shoulders.”

Volkov added:

“You can say that each time Encke’s Comet approaches the Earth it coincides with a big war: 1914 (First World War), 1941 (World War II) and 2014 (War on Eastern Ukraine). But its rotation period is three years, and it approached the Earth many times when there were no big wars.”

Funding dissent
The Navalny wallet (3QzYvaRFY6bakFBW4YBRrzmwzTnfZcaA6E, listed on the donations page of his website) received its first bitcoin in December 2016 and since then has seen more than 2,000 transactions, including withdrawals, according to blockchain data.

Most transactions were worth from a fraction of a bitcoin to several bitcoins. From time to time, larger transactions occurred, bringing in up to 20 BTC at once.

Yet Navalny’s political movement, which also accepts donations via bank transfers and PayPal, is not the only dissenting voice in Russia to take cryptocurrency.

Investigative outlets including Zona.Media and The Insider, as well as internet freedom movement Roskomsvoboda, accept donations in bitcoin or ether. However, their wallets have accumulated only small amounts of crypto, no more than 2 BTC each.


Reference: https://www.coindesk.com/russian-opposition-leader-raises-3-million-in-bitcoin-donations

[Binance Promises Decentralized Future Powered by Crypto With Launch of DEX]

Binance Promises Decentralized Future Powered by Crypto With Launch of DEX

Leading cryptocurrency exchange Binance has released its decentralized exchange (DEX). Unlike the company’s flagship exchange, which is centralized, Binance DEX does not interact with a centralized party. Instead, Binance DEX allows cryptocurrency traders to manage their own private keys. Announced on Tuesday ahead of schedule, the decentralized exchange will run on Binance’s native blockchain, Binance Chain.

CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao says the new exchange fulfills the company’s mission of building a decentralized future and an open global financial system powered by cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

Says Zhao,

“With no central custody of funds, Binance DEX offers far more control over your own assets. We hope this brings a new level of freedom to our community. We will work closely with projects and teams to grow the entire ecosystem.”

With the Binance Chain mainnet launch, Binance Coin (BNB), the seventh largest cryptocurrency by market cap, has become the native asset on Binance Chain, moving from the Ethereum blockchain. In a massive token swap on Tuesday, five million ERC20 BNB were burned as part of the conversion process.

BNB is used for network transactions. During the Binance DEX testnet phase, nearly 8.5 million transactions were made across a simulated trading competition, coding competition and bug bounty program.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/23/binance-promises-decentralized-future-powered-by-crypto-with-launch-of-dex/

[Note]

Veil is a new more advanced type of privacy coin similar to Monero, Dash, Zcash, Zcoin, Nano, and Verge. Veil claims to have "Integrated the best-in-class anonymity technologies to become the first cryptocurrency that provides uncompromising, always-on privacy."

So what differentiates the Veil with other privacy coins as mentioned above? Veil claims to have the latest technology in the industry, that's "Always on privacy" uncompromising unlike other privacy coin that have many cryptographic weakness that can be used to exploit the users privacy.

There's nothing more worse like trusting a coin with your privacy and end up your ass is wide open, not knowing your privacy is compromised. The way I see it, we all needs privacy in some point of our lives because we are human beings after all. I think privacy is one of the major reasons why people use cryptocurrency today and the Veil coin is here to give you the more advanced type of privacy.

In terms of the market side, the veil has about $6.21 million in market capitalization with the total supply of 14,297,748 and the circulation supply of 11,157,350 at the moment. The price per coin is only $0.43306 at the time of writing this quick overview. Well, I don't know about you but I'm planning to HODL my coins for a very long time.



Note: Four weeks ago, Veil has only $1.8m in market capitalization with the price of only $0.15 per coin and look at the price now. But I think the only problem with the Veil market is the lack of liquidity, the trading volume is very low only $10k to $30k per day.

Disclaimer: This is not a financial advice, make your own research before making any form of investment. Thanks


Reference:
https://veil-project.com
https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5065331.0
https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/veil/

Wow, the bitcoin is very bullish today.
It appears the bitcoin price is heading back to $6k.
The bitcoin market cap added about $6 billion in 2 days as i speak.
The entire cryptocurrency market adds about $12 billion within the last 48 hours.

    * BTC Dominance = 53.02% - Up(0.4%)
    * Total Market Cap = $187.02B - Up (3.9%)
    * Total Volume = $ 57.43B - Up (16.4%)

What do you think about market behavior today? Do you think the bitcoin is going to back $6k or not? thanks


  

Why the cryptocurrency market always go down during the holidays? even the smaller ones like Easter?
I noticed many times in the past the crypto market normally goes down when people are on holidays from Christmas to Eid-mubarak.
Just noticed the market also relaxed during the smaller holidays like Easter, Diwali (a bit) and Maulud. but not on the valatine's day - lol!

Well, the market started recovering from the Easter holidays today and it appears the bitcoin is heading to another milestone, which is very nice.
What is your take on this matter? Feel free to share views with us here... thanks

 

[ActMyName]

Hello guys,

Few days ago, I received an email from Yobit.net about a signature campaign. I thought it was fake and I don't even care because I ran out of data.
The next day, I bought the data for browsing the web and I come straight to bitcointalk, boom! Then, I saw Yobit signature everywhere.
Then I started thinking why is the majority of people promoting Yobit campaign? I didn't know it was the payout.

Then, I saw this guy - ActMyName, made a post about people spamming because of the Yobit campaign.
Well, spamming is not good at all because many people don't like it including myself. we all need good posts and quality content.
I really want to join the Yobit signature campaign but I was seeing some really bad comments about it. what do you think about it?

What is your advice to me as a friend? is it worth it or not. thanks for your time and advice.  
    

[John McAfee]

John McAfee has doubled down on his bitcoin price prediction, a cool million per coin


John McAfee has been really bold when it comes to predicting the price of bitcoin, claiming that each unit of the cryptocurrency will be worth $1 million by the end of 2020.

The cybersecurity expert had first said in July 2017 that one bitcoin would be worth $500,000 by the end of 2020. If that didn’t happen, he promised that he’ll do something that none of us probably want to see.



URL: https://twitter.com/officialmcafee/status/887024683379544065

But it looks like last year’s crypto bear market hasn’t injected any fear into McAfee’s soul that he might have to live up to his words. He is sticking to his million dollar prediction despite the volatility.

In one of his latest tweets, McAfee claims that it is “mathematically impossible” that one BTC will be less than $1 million “by the end of 2020.”


Reference: https://www.ccn.com/john-mcafee-maths-bitcoin-1-million-by-2020

[2019 Returns...]

Year-to-date, the bitcoin price has increased by 44 percent against the U.S. dollar from $3,700 to $5,320, becoming one of the best-performing assets in the global market alongside oil.

     2019 Returns...
   - Bitcoin $BTC: +39%
   - Oil $USO: +38%
   - Nasdaq 100 $QQQ: +22%
   - S&P 500 $SPY: +17%
   - Small Caps $IWM: +17%
   - MLPs $AMLP: +16%
   - REITs $VNQ: +15%
   - EM $EEM: +14%
   - EAFE $EFA: +13%
   - Commodities $DBC: +12%
   - High Yield $HYG: +8%
   - Investment Grade $LQD: +6%
   - Bonds $AGG: +2%
   - Gold $GLD: -1%

   Twitter: @charliebilello | https://twitter.com/charliebilello/status/1119218063486914560   

The initial 20 percent rally from bitcoin in early April from $4,200 to $5,000 drastically changed the sentiment around the crypto market and investors generally expected bitcoin and the rest of the market to slow down following a strong upside movement.

In the past few days, bitcoin has continued to increase in value, surpassing $5,300 to record a 32 percent increase in price within one month.


Reference: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoin-44-ytd-gain-crypto-bull-market-imminent

[Big Investors Got Cold Feet in 2018]

Bitcoin’s gains may not be parabolic, but the price is moving steadily higher. With BTC currently hovering at the $5,300 level, the mood around crypto has improved tremendously. Nonetheless, the bitcoin price continues to trade 75% below its peak.

A new report by Adamant Capital suggests that the smart money represented by BTC whales is in an “accumulation” phase. This chapter reflects the “last phase of the bear market.” The firm, which runs a bitcoin alpha fund, is advising value investors that now’s the time to buy. Once the BTC bulls solidify their grip, the bitcoin price is headed for the moon, the analysis suggests:

    “During this accumulation phase, we expect for bitcoin to trade in a range of $3,000 to $6,500 until the new bull market permanently cements the denarian cryptocurrency as a multi-trillion dollar asset class.”


Big Investors Got Cold Feet in 2018

The crypto market is headed to the big time where it will go toe-to-toe with assets in the capital markets. So, how do you explain last year? When the price cratered below $6,000, BTC “hodlers” got spooked and sold. Adamant Capital points to more than “70,000 bitcoin days [being] destroyed.” Conditions worsened when crypto exchange Coinbase redirected some of its BTC. This activity combined gave institutional investors “cold feet” at year-end 2018. What a difference a new year makes, and the institutions have begun to dip their toes back into the crypto waters.


Reference: https://www.ccn.com/undervalued-bitcoin-trillion-dollar-asset-class

[Coinbase]

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase has expanded its crypto-to-crypto trading services to 11 more countries through its platforms Coinbase.com and Coinbase Pro.

The exchange will provide its services to 10 more countries in Latin America and Southeast Asia, and will also expand in New Zealand. With the latest launches, Coinbase has increased its reach to 53 countries, across four continents.  Customers in the new jurisdictions will be able to store, trade, send and receive cryptocurrencies.

Countries

   - Argentina
   - Mexico
   - Peru
   - Colombia
   - Chile
   - India
   - Hong Kong
   - South Korea
   - Indonesia
   - Philippines
   - New Zealand

Since August of last year, Coinbase reports that the majority of its customers are making crypto-to-crypto trades.

“Direct trading between cryptos is increasingly the new norm and in the last year has overtaken traditional fiat to crypto trading across the globe. Millions of Coinbase customers can now securely and quickly trade between different cryptos and send crypto off-platform at their convenience.”


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/18/coinbase-launches-crypto-to-crypto-trading-services-in-11-countries/

[Serena Williams Puts Bitcoin (BTC) and Crypto Back in the Mainstream Spotlight With Coinbase Investment]

Serena Williams Puts Bitcoin (BTC) and Crypto Back in the Mainstream Spotlight With Coinbase Investment



Tennis legend Serena Williams has just revealed new details about her company, Serena Ventures, an investment firm.

In an Instagram post, Williams writes to her 10.9 million followers that she’s been quietly building up a portfolio, investing in a variety of companies over the past five years.

“In 2014, (yes I know I can keep a secret) I launched Serena Ventures with the mission of giving opportunities to founders across an array of industries. Serena Ventures invests in companies that embrace diverse leadership, individual empowerment, creativity and opportunity.”

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase is one of more than 30 companies in the VC portfolio. The San Francisco-based startup is the largest crypto exchange in the US. Under the leadership of CEO Brian Armstrong, Coinbase is in a global expansion phase, launching crypto-to-crypto trading services in 11 countries earlier this week.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/20/serena-williams-puts-bitcoin-btc-and-crypto-back-in-the-mainstream-spotlight-with-coinbase-investment/

[John McAfee]

Bitcoin's recovery could be slow and painful before recapturing its peak.


John McAfee continues to trumpet a bitcoin price that will hit $1 million by the end of the decade. He isn’t even afraid of betting his manhood on the same. Nonetheless, crypto bears keep coming back to spoil the party. One such doubter is UBS analyst Kevin Dennean.

UBS Analyst: Bitcoin Price Faces a Long Road to Recovery

According to Forbes, Dennean recently wrote:

    “We’re struck by how long it took other asset bubbles to recover their peak levels (as long as 22 years for the Dow Jones Industrials) and how pedestrian the annualized returns from trough to the recovery often are.”

Dennean went on to add that “crypto-bull contingents should consider what happens after the bubble–not every bubble that bursts recovers the old highs.”

The analyst believes that just like other asset classes, the BTC price faces a slow and painful path to recovery. He likened the bitcoin price “bubble” to the 1929 Dow Jones collapse, suggesting he thinks it might take slightly more than two decades for the cryptocurrency to reach its highs of $20,000.


Reference: https://www.ccn.com/bitcoins-20000-slow-painful-analyst

The Antminer S17 Pro comes out in two different versions; The Antminer S17 Pro version - the miner that produce ~ 50TH/s hashing power and The Antminer S17 Pro version - the one that produce up to ~ 53TH/s.

There prices varies based on their hashing power:

1. Antminer S17 Pro (53 th/s)
€2.726,- VAT excl.
€3.299,- VAT incl.

2. Antminer S17 Pro (50 th/s)
€2.479,- VAT excl.
€2.999,- VAT incl

Up to 62TH/s max power in turbo mode!

Do you think the latest Antminer S17 Pro is worth buying in this market conditions and mining difficulty? Considering the hardware cost and also the cost of electricity.

In fact, VANTA network is the new form of BitConnect or even worse. If not, how could VANTA network forced bounty hunters to trade their shitcoin (VNT) for 10 consecutive days to get paid, huh? For what? To fake trading volume. Only those who traded VNT got their bounty payment and those that failed to do so got nothing in return after working 6 weeks promoting VANTA network.

VANTA network paid only about 20% of the hunters who traded VNT for 10 consecutive days and stolen over 80% of the bounty pool. They want hunters to trade VNT to create fake trading volume to attract more people, investors and exchanges alike. 

Tell me, what do you think about this shady project called VANTA network?
For me, I see nothing but the new form of BitConnect on steroids or even worse!

[Smartbit]

The Bitcoin network just reached a new milestone.

More than 400 million transactions have now been processed on the network, according to the data tracker Smartbit.


Source: Smartbit

On average, the Bitcoin network is processing about 350,000 transactions per day at a speed of four transactions per second, with an average cost of $1.70 in fees per transaction. Since its inception in January of 2009, the network has been operating with nearly zero downtime. Estimates place Bitcoin’s uptime at 99.98%.

The number of blockchain wallet users has also reached a new all-time high at 35 million, up 45% since April 2018 when the number of users crossed 24 million.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/09/bitcoin-btc-hits-400-million-transactions-ethereum-based-crypto-lending-platform-launches-and-tron-founder-reveals-big-donation/

CME Bitcoin futures volume hit a record high of $546 million on April 4, as 22,542 contracts were traded.

The volume high broke the previous record of over 64,300 Bitcoin traded on February 19.

    CME Bitcoin futures had a record trading day on April 4, hitting an all-time high volume of over 22.5K contracts (112.7K equivalent bitcoin), surpassing previous record of over 18.3K (64.3K equivalent bitcoin) on February 19. More #Bitcoin futures. $BTC_F https://t.co/kWYK203apA pic.twitter.com/CX5nF8dXyv

    — CMEGroup (@CMEGroup) April 5, 2019

CME’s cumulative volume chart shows that 12,634 contracts worth $306 million in Bitcoin (63,170 BTC equivalent) was traded by the end of Singapore/Hong Kong trading day on April 4, while 17,502 contracts worth $424 million in Bitcoin (87,510 BTC equivalent) was traded by the end of London trading day.

By the end of trading day in Chicago, a record 22,542 contracts worth $546 million in Bitcoin (112,710 BTC equivalent) had traded.

The unexpected record-breaking numbers follow Bitcoin’s double-digit percentage surge, which began last Monday.

Bitcoin futures had a strong start on Tuesday, April 2 as the Cboe and CME April contracts increased by over 16% to $4,805.

In a note to Barron’s, Gabor Gurbacs, digital asset strategist at VanEck, says he believes Bitcoin’s recent price spike to its highest level since November 2017 was triggered by the futures market.

Renewed interest in Bitcoin futures remains high, despite Cboe Global Markets’ decision to stop new Bitcoin futures.

Bitcoin is currently trading at $5,213, up  25.46% since April 1 when it was trading at $4,155.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/09/cme-bitcoin-futures-hit-record-high-112710-btc-traded-worth-546-million/

[BitMEX]

BitMEX CEO Arthur Hayes says he believes Bitcoin is heading to a new all-time high. In an interview with Venture Coinist, Hayes says the new generation’s love for all things digital will fuel mass adoption of crypto.

    Interview - https://youtu.be/fQpQgaNyZEw

“Now that we’ve come to this time period where the baby booming generation and the older Gen Xers are entering the years when they are disposing of assets, their tastes and preferences are less relevant than the younger generation, Millennials, who are entering their prime asset earning years. And so what do we know about Millennials?

Some of them, on the younger end of the spectrum, are digital natives, mobile first. They’ve had a screen in their hand since they were a young child. They’re very comfortable using a service which has very little human interaction…

So, if you take this sort of change in how we deal with services, and we bring it to the financial services ecosystem, you can see that analogue ways of dealing with money and trading are not going to be successful in the next 10 to 20 years. It’s going to be mobile-first platforms. It’s going to be platforms that deal only on the internet.”

Hayes says a new round of money printing from governments around the world will boost Bitcoin by the end of the year, bringing BTC to $10,000.

“I think that we could easily be at $10,000 Bitcoin by year end, just because all central banks are now printing money again just like they were in 2016 and 2017. Now, whether we go down to $2,000 or $3,000 mark, I don’t really know. I don’t think it will be a quick, straight shot up to $10,000 or $20,000 because the first thing people are going to invest in with all their newfound free money is probably Lyft, Uber, Pinterest. All these major tech IPOs that are coming to market are going to soak up a lot of this liquidity. And once you get done with those things, and towards the end of the year, then people are going to look for the next thing.”

In the long run, Hayes says cash will disappear completely, removing the number one way people enjoy financial privacy. Without cash, Hayes envisions true mass adoption of cryptocurrency, giving Bitcoin the potential to reach $50,000 and beyond.

“I think China and India are going to be the first to really do it, but every other government – I don’t care if you’re in the West or the East – will ban cash in the next five years. And at that point, people are really going to discover what financial privacy really means. And it doesn’t mean holding a million US dollars in gold bars in your basement, because that’s really hard to move that around. You’re going to need some sort of digital cash.

And that’s where I see the value proposition of Bitcoin finally clicking in everyone’s head, when they realize, ‘Oh shit. I used to be able to take out a $10 bill and go buy a dime bag of weed. But I can’t do that anymore. There’s no more cash. I have to use this app’…

So all of a sudden, people are really going to think about ‘How do I get financial privacy?’ And at that point, crypto is going to take the next leg forward. Now whether that’s Bitcoin or something else, I have no idea. Bitcoin is probably the most widely known crypto, and it most likely will be the successor. In terms of a price target, I don’t know, say $50,000 in the next two to five years. But it could go materially higher if the world plays out the way I think it’s going to play out.”


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/12/arthur-hayes-predicts-bitcoin-rise-to-50000-and-the-end-of-cash-btc-xrp-ethereum-litecoin-forecast/

[Bakkt]

Bakkt, the upcoming Bitcoin futures exchange from Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange, has hinted at a new release day.

In an announcement on Medium, CEO Kelly Loeffler says that “race day” is approaching as the startup awaits regulatory approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC).

“As we work through regulatory approvals, we are mindful that the infrastructure we are building has the potential to create more opportunities for digital assets to grow in relevance and trust — by being more secure, investible and useful.

As a former marathoner, this point in time recalls the stage in the training regimen when you’re putting in long runs with your training team. Race day is approaching, and there is more work to be done. I’m proud to be going the distance with this growing team and of the culture we are building, while bringing digital assets into the mainstream economy.”

Appearing on BlockTV, CFTC Commissioner Dan Berkovitz says he and his team are working very hard on all of the applications they’re reviewing, including Bakkt. Despite several delays of Bakkt’s application, the Commission is pro-crypto and pro-innovation, and the regulatory rigor, he explains, is about “getting the bad guys.”

“We think that these technologies may take some time to develop. In the short term, there may be uses for cryptocurrency. In the longer term, blockchain – I think we’re looking at a process of several years.”

Bakkt has just expanded its team with new hire Mike Blandina. A former Silicon Valley software engineer, Blandina joins Bakkt as the company’s chief product officer.

Blandina’s primary focus will be to develop use cases for Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies in the real word. As a digital payments specialist, Blandina served as head of payments and credit engineering at PayPal and director of engineering for Google Wallet at Google.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/11/bakkt-says-race-day-is-approaching-to-bring-crypto-to-the-mainstream/

[WikiLeaks Receives $20,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) Donations 24 Hours After the Arrest of Julian Assange]

WikiLeaks Receives $20,000 in Bitcoin (BTC) Donations 24 Hours After the Arrest of Julian Assange



In the early hours of April 11, 2019, WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange was arrested by UK police for extradition to the United States, where he will face trial for the unauthorized disclosure of classified government documents.

Ecuador withdrew Assange’s asylum status at its London embassy, where Assange had been allowed to seek refuge since 2012. Following the withdrawal of Ecuador’s support, Assange was dragged out of the embassy while holding a copy of ‘Gore Vidal: History of the National Security State.’

WikiLeaks asserts that the withdrawal of asylum was politically motivated.

Assange’s arrest is the culmination of a years-long legal battle over his extradition and efforts by the US government to convict him on computer hacking charges for the widespread dissemination of classified documents in concert with whistleblower Bradley Manning (now Chelsea Manning). The documents, which included 391,832 United States Army field reports, were published on the internet on October 22, 2010 and became the biggest leak in US military history.

Assange’s arrest immediately prompted WikiLeaks to make an urgent plea for donations to its official defense fund.

    URGENT: Julian Assange has been arrested by UK police.

    DONATE:https://t.co/vvbZBOgCwL

    — WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) April 11, 2019

With the support of Pamela Anderson and other high-profile names, the fund received $20,000 donations in 24 hours, reports Bitcoinist. Donations are also being made with Zcash which gives the sender and their transaction extra layers of privacy.

Its use of Bitcoin donations have proved useful over the years as it circumvented bans by payment providers like PayPal and Visa. WikiLeaks has received over 4,000 Bitcoin ($22 million) donations over the years.

Even with the donations, the rule of law and complex political climate may dampen the hopes of Assange supporters. After his arrest, he was taken to a police station before being presented to the magistrates court. He pleaded not guilty to a charge of not surrendering to court.

District Judge Michael Snow found him guilty, sending him away for sentencing. He faces up to 12 months in prison. Assange also faces a conspiracy to hack charge that could bring him an additional five years.

While being driven to the magistrates court, he gave a thumbs up. There was no smile.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/12/wikileaks-receives-20000-in-bitcoin-btc-donations-24-hours-after-the-arrest-of-julian-assange/

[Quadriga Fails to Find $195 Million in Missing Bitcoin, Ethereum and Crypto Assets, Court Approves Bankruptcy Proceedings]

Quadriga Fails to Find $195 Million in Missing Bitcoin, Ethereum and Crypto Assets, Court Approves Bankruptcy Proceedings

QuadrigaCX, the embattled Canadian cryptocurrency exchange, has failed to locate millions in customers’ missing cryptocurrency assets since the company’s owner died suddenly in December of 2018. On Monday, Nova Scotia Supreme Court Judge Michael Wood ruled that Quadriga Fintech Solutions Corp, the holding company, can begin bankruptcy proceedings.

Roughly 115,000 customers are owed $195 million ($260 million Canadian dollars) in cash and cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin and Ethereum, following the death of Quadriga’s founder Gerald Cotton. The exchange says Cotton, who died in India following complications from Crohn’s disease, did not reveal to anyone in his organization the private keys that access the cryptocurrencies on his laptop computer.

Quadriga’s court-appointed auditor Ernst & Young issued an April 1 report, asserting that creditors may benefit from the bankruptcy proceedings with the potential sale of the company’s assets, including but not limited to Quadriga’s operating platform.

In March, Michael Wood granted the Canadian crypto exchange a 45-day extension to find more than $100 million in lost Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Bitcoin SV and Bitcoin Gold.

The court also approved a freeze on accounts held by Cotton’s widow, Jennifer Robertson, and the Cotten estate, including Robertson’s trusts and businesses.

Robertson says that her husband’s death was “sudden and unexpected”, refuting conspiracy theories that Cotten is still alive and that his death was a ruse to escape financial troubles.

QuadrigaCX was believed to be Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, but following the death of Cotten, Ernst & Young says the company’s cold storage wallets are empty.

The next hearing is scheduled for April 18 to address issues involving credit protection and third-party payments processors.


Reference: https://dailyhodl.com/2019/04/09/quadriga-fails-to-find-195-million-in-missing-bitcoin-ethereum-and-crypto-assets-court-approves-bankruptcy-proceedings/