I read this news today and was certainly a little surprised, but not much. Immediately it is obvious that he did not die. Everything was clearly planned long ago:
1) All coins are on cold media.
2) Only he had the password
3) Sudden death
Everything is obvious
1) All coins are on cold media.
2) Only he had the password
3) Sudden death
Everything is obvious
Not really. But the fractional banking accusations are true. Follow the money trail, we have a transparent ledger for a purpose.
Precise report at https://blog.zerononcense.com/2019/02/04/quadrigacx-chain-analysis-report-pt-1-bitcoin-wallets
Regarding his Death, this might be true or not, who knows. If there is no money left to make a run with he just really might be dead. Fractional banking even opens up a remote possibility of having gotten killed.
Some interesting findings from the article:
Quote
It appears that there are no identifiable cold wallet reserves for QuadrigaCX.
It appears that QuadrigaCX was using deposits from their customers to pay other customers once they requested their withdrawal.
It does not appear that QuadrigaCX has lost access to their Bitcoin holdings.
It appears that QuadrigaCX was using deposits from their customers to pay other customers once they requested their withdrawal.
It does not appear that QuadrigaCX has lost access to their Bitcoin holdings.
It's still only speculation, but it does raise interesting points. The fact that there seems to be no linked cold storage wallet that has ever been active is shady, and increases the chances of them running a fractional reserve since essentially they'd be running a ponzi of taking customer deposits and repaying older withdrawals.
But still, it could just be that the cold wallet has been obscured from public eyes and that QuadrigaCX does have one. But, the chances of them operating on fractional reserve is higher.
When your bitcoin is with a third party, it is the same as if you deposited a sum of money with a bank - they are able to lend it out and do whatever. Except in the bitcoin world there are way less regulations, and exchanges can often become insolvent as a result.