- $1.7 million in bitcoin thought lost by QuadrigaCX has suddenly been moved after almost four years
- The bitcoin was sent to Gerald Cotten’s inaccessible cold wallets in February 2019, by ‘accident’
- Some names have already been thrown about as to who could be behind the coin move
The $1.7 million in bitcoin moved from old QuadrigaCX wallets this week has turned out to be the bitcoin thought lost forever when it was sent there in 2019. ₿103 was sent from QuadrigaCX hot wallets to several cold wallets in February 2019, cold wallets that had been inaccessible since founder Gerald Cotten died the prior year with the private keys. Some were suspicious of the activity at the time, and the fact that the bitcoin has now moved to a mixer reinforces the thought that it was a nefarious act, with some names already being thrown about as to who could have done it.
Bitcoin Thought Lost Forever
The bitcoin in question was thought lost when on February 6, 2019, under the instructions of liquidators EY, it was removed from hot wallets to much safer cold storage options. However, somehow the recipient addresses belonged to the inaccessible cold wallets, and the bitcoin was considered gone for good. This was made all the more galling seeing as when the addresses of the cold wallets were identified, far from containing millions in crypto they contained just the bitcoin inadvertently sent to them.
However, getting on for four years since the coins were moved they have left the wallets and gone to the Wasabi mixer in an effort to disguise their origin and onward path. This has confirmed two things – either the individual or individuals who carried out the coin move knew they had access and were biding their time, or someone, somehow, has got access to those cold wallets and rinsed them.
QuadrigaCX Developer Fingered by Co-founder
One person who thinks he knows who it is is QuadrigaCX co-founder Michael Patryn, who tweeted about the way the coin move was handled back in 2019:
So… Alex, the dev at Quadriga, was instructed to send these coins while the company was under the control of Ernst & Young, three years ago. They claimed to have accidentally lost the funds by sending to defunct wallets. Now it’s suddenly moving again. Wen competence. pic.twitter.com/CR9OB07Bcc
— 0xsifu (@0xSifu) December 20, 2022
Patryn is referring to QuadrigaCX’s lone developer, Alex Hanin, although in a later tweet he blamed EY for the loss of the bitcoin and doesn’t lay the blame at Hanin’s door directly. Of course, the implication is that Hanin intentionally sent the coins to the ‘inaccessible’ wallets, knowing he would pick them up at some point down the line when the heat was off. Hanin managed to escape scrutiny at the time, despite some wanting him investigated:
Unless the money is traced through the other side of the Wasabi mixer there will likely be no way of knowing how these wallets were suddenly accessed, but the nature of Bitcoin wallets, and the fact there are five of them that have been accessed at the same time, suggests that the actions of a QuadrigaCX insider, a theft of the private keys, or maybe…just maybe…Gerald has come to collect…
