Kraken’s QuadrigaCX $100,000 bounty reveals unlikely culprit

The QuadrigaCX affair has taken another turn. After the CEO of Canada’s largest crypto exchange, Gerald Cotten, died unexpectedly from Crohn’s disease at the age of 30 last month, the funds he had sole access to have mysteriously disappeared.

To find out where the funds might have gone, crypto exchange Kraken has put up a $100,000 bounty for any information that leads to the recovery of the missing funds. So far, there have been around 400 responses—ranging from useful bits of information to wild, speculative theories. One particularly creative individual went so far as to suggest that the mastermind may have been a well-known Muppet from Sesame Street.

“There’s a lot of speculation about what happened, people have their own theories. Somebody said the cookie monster did it. There’s some silly stuff in there,” Powell told Decrypt.

On a more serious note, the bounty did result in some helpful data, including conversations between the Cotten and his co-founder Michael Patryn, as well as previously unseen phone numbers. Those phone numbers are important, as they can be used to connect people to accounts held on the exchange. Powell said that all such information is being passed to the FBI and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

Powell added that Kraken’s investigative work has finished, having analyzed which funds on the exchange belonged to QuadrigaCX. Check out our full-length interview with Powell, coming soon.