Case of the Death of the Exchange CEO in 2018, Netflix Documentary Traces $250 Million Lost Cryptocurrency

The streaming platform and production company Netflix will produce a documentary about the late founder of the cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten, titled "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King."

Streaming platform and film production company Netflix is set to produce a documentary about the late founder of the cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, Gerald Cotten, titled "Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King."

Netflix announced in a tweet that the film will follow a group of investors turned detectives as they attempt to unravel the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of cryptocurrency millionaire Gerry Cotten and track down the $250 million they believe Cotten stole from them. The documentary is set to premiere in 2022.

Gerald Cotten, the founder of QuadrigaCX, once Canada's largest Bitcoin exchange, passed away in early December 2018 while volunteering in India. Cotten left behind debts of $200 million to customers, including approximately $147 million worth of cryptocurrencies.

In April 2019, QuadrigaCX filed for bankruptcy, affecting over 76,000 customers. Under Canada's bankruptcy proceedings, customers could only recover $32 million in cash and cryptocurrencies worth $1 million. Customers suffered significant losses as QuadrigaCX stored most of the cryptocurrencies in a cold wallet, a wallet with keys known only to Gerald Cotten, to protect the funds from hacking or theft, with only a small amount of cryptocurrencies kept in the hot wallet accessible to QuadrigaCX users.

Victims suspected that Gerald Cotten faked his death and hired lawyers to apply for exhumation and autopsy to confirm that Cotten did not fake his death for financial gain. The suspicion arose as Gerald Cotten and his wife had no other sources of income over the years but acquired luxury homes, cars, private jets, and yachts. Some accounting firms suggested that Cotten may have transferred customers' funds to his personal accounts, exchanged fake cryptocurrency deposits for real cryptocurrencies, and falsified income.

However, an investigation indicated that the majority of the funds might be controlled by the Panama-based payment processor Crypto Capital.

This article is authorized for reprint from Horizon News Network