I just read about QuadrigaCX, and the vanishing hundreds of millions . Very interesting . I suggest newbies read the whole thing .
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/11/the-strange-tale-of-quadriga-gerald-cotten HALIFAX - In an office in Toronto, there's a laptop that could contain the keys to unlock $180 million in digital assets - virtual money possibly lost after the recent death of the whiz kid who founded one of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchanges.
Gerald Cotten, a 30-year-old Nova Scotia resident and CEO of QuadrigaCX, was travelling in India on Dec. 9 when he died suddenly. His widow, Jennifer Robertson, has said Cotten was the only person with access to the laptop and the digital keys to the so-called cold wallets that are believed to hold the missing Bitcoins and other cryptocurrencies.
Experts in the cryptocurrency industry say there's a slim chance technicians will be able to recover the currency. About 115,000 platform users are owed about $180 million in cryptocurrency and another $70 million in cash.
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A troubled Vancouver cryptocurrency business that was shut down in early November amid allegations that it owes its clients $16 million only has about $45,000 in “hard assets” remaining, according to a court-appointed receiver.
The B.C. Securities Commission (BCSC) shut down Vancouver’s Einstein Exchange after investigating numerous complaints from clients who said they could not access their cash and cryptocurrency assets from the company, which offered crypto-trading services.