$1.7M of Bitcoin tied to QuadrigaCX reawakens after years of dormancy

Five wallets tied to the defunct Canadian cryptocurrency speech QuadrigaCX, antecedently thought to beryllium inaccessible, person conscionable been spotted moving astir $1.7 cardinal worthy of Bitcoin aft years of dormancy.

Crypto researcher ZachXBT alerted the crypto assemblage successful a Twitter station connected Dec. 19, highlighting the 5 wallets person transferred astir 104 Bitcoin (BTC) connected Dec. 17 to assorted wallets.

Blockchain records amusement the wallets had not sent BTC since astatine slightest April 2018.

— ZachXBT (@zachxbt) December 19, 2022

Once Canada's largest crypto exchange, QuadrigaCX declared bankruptcy successful Apr. 2019 pursuing the Dec. 2018 decease of its laminitis and CEO, Gerald Cotten, who was solely liable for the backstage keys of the exchange's wallets.

155,000 speech users are owed up to $200 cardinal successful cryptocurrencies astatine the clip of its bankruptcy.

In Feb. 2019, a study from Big Four accounting steadfast Ernst & Young (EY) — the steadfast overseeing the exchange’s property — stated that QuadrigaCX accidentally transferred astir 103 BTC connected Feb 6. 2019 to acold wallets successful which only the late-Cotten had access to — astir identical to the magnitude to the Bitcoin that has conscionable precocious moved.

At the time, the steadfast said it would beryllium moving with absorption to retrieve the cryptocurrency from the acold wallets.

Related: Crypto’s regulatory destiny volition beryllium decided successful the twelvemonth ahead

The mysterious decease of QuadrigaCX’s laminitis and CEO followed by the illness of the speech had sparked conspiracy theories that the laminitis faked his ain death arsenic portion of a fraudulent exit scam.

The communicative was the taxable of a 2022 Netflix documentary.

In 2014, years earlier his death, Cotten said connected a podcast that the champion mode to support backstage keys was to people them disconnected and store them offline successful a information deposit container and revealed the exchange stored its backstage keys offline successful the company’s information deposit container astatine a bank.

It’s chartless if the question of the BTC is related to EY's betterment efforts. Cointelegraph contacted EY for remark but did not instantly person a response.