QuadrigaCX’s trustee and court-appointed monitor of its bankruptcy proceedings, Ernst and Young Inc., has released a statement confirming that the firm is aware of the unauthorised transfer of 104 BTC from cold wallets belonging to the defunct crypto exchange.

The Trustee and Representative Counsel are Investigating the Unauthorized Transfers

The firm stated that ‘the Trustee and Representative Counsel have become aware of an unauthorised movement of bitcoin from certain cold wallets held by Quadriga.’ Ernst and Young added that the cold wallets have been considered inaccessible since February 2019, as their private keys ‘have not been located despite the detailed review.’

As a result, the trustee and representative counsel ‘are actively investigating the unauthorised transfers for the benefit of the Estate.’

Crypto Seems to Be Hit by Negative Events Every 4 Years — Crypto Twitter

The mysterious transfer of the 104 Bitcoin linked to QuadrigaCX, initially thought to be lost, has triggered an observation amongst the crypto Twitter community that the industry seems to be hit by an adverse event every four years.

Source: @dustinwatchman on Twitter

The crypto Twitter community cites that in 2014 Mt Gox was hacked, and thousands of Bitcoin were stolen. In 2018, QuadrigaCX went under due to its founder and CEO embezzling user funds. This year, and four years after the QuadrigaCX incident, the FTX crypto exchange collapsed due to Sam Bankman-Fried and top executives mishandling user funds.

Therefore, if the pattern remains, the crypto industry could be hit by a similar or worse incident in 2026.

Self-Custody is Increasingly Becoming Popular

The most recent implosion of FTX has led many crypto traders and investors to start withdrawing their digital assets from exchanges and into cold storage for fear of losing their crypto in the next big crypto exchange insolvency.

Consequently, popular hardware wallet manufacturers, such as Trezor and Ledger, have seen significant interest and sales of their wallet devices since mid-November when FTX filed for bankruptcy.

(By John P. Njui)