When Wallets Go Cold
…not your coins.
Quadriga’s site maintenance last week was revealed to be what many customers feared.
“[We are] attempting to locate and secure our very significant cryptocurrency reserves held in cold wallets, and that are required to satisfy customer cryptocurrency balances on deposit […]”
Sources estimate that upwards of $190 million in cryptocurrencies are currently stuck in limbo.
The late Cotton’s wife, Jennifer Robertson explained in an affidavit:
“The laptop computer from which Gerry carried out the companies’ business is encrypted and I do not know the password or recovery key.
Despite repeated and diligent searches, I have not been able to find them written down anywhere. I have retained an expert, Chris McBryan, Insp (retired), who I understand to be highly qualified in this area, to assist in recovering any information about the Companies and the Quadriga business records.”
We will continue to relay any major developments to our readers and customers.
In news closer to YAP, we rolled out the first part of our site redesign! The developers even gave our Weekly YAP a featurette spot. Woo!
Seems sleek already. I wonder what else they have planned?
Crypto markets continued to struggle this week, with Bitcoin slipping below its $3,500 support mid-week. While prices remained depressed, however, bullish news continued to mount, including revitalized hopes for a Bitcoin ETF.
—
BTC 6 Month Chart
(Coindesk)
Today — 4470.88 CAD
One week ago — 4482.35 CAD
One month ago — 4997.36 CAD
Six months ago — 9694.92 CAD
—
Bitcoin falls below $3,500. Bitcoin fell to its lowest level since mid-December on Monday, hovering just above $3,400. The crypto market lost around $6 billion in a matter of hours after the recent selloff. There are no obvious reasons for the latest decline, and some analysts chalk up the selloff to technical factors rather than some fundamental weakness. Still, some see Bitcoin dropping to a new 12-month low in the near future.
VanEck-SolidX ETF back on the table. According to a tweet from Gabor Gurbacs, VanEck’s digital asset director, the Chicago Board Options Exchange has resubmitted their Bitcoin ETF proposal. The filing stated, “According to the Registration Statement, each Share will represent a fractional undivided beneficial interest in the Trust’s net assets. The Trust’s assets will consist of bitcoin held by the Trust utilizing a secure process as described below in ‘bitcoin Security and Storage for the Trust’.”
Georgia still in Bitcoin mania. The former Soviet Republic of Georgia is still home to Bitcoin mania, despite the collapse of prices, as the government has supported the industry. Bitfury, a bitcoin technology company, is “churning out millions of dollars’ worth of the digital money,” according to a profile by the New York Times. Bitfury was helped by a state giveaway of land, tax-free zones, and energy prices at half the rate found in the U.S. or Europe. Georgia is now considered one of the most active cryptocurrency sites in the world.
Iran could launch state-backed cryptocurrency. Because of financial sanctions from the U.S., and the vast influence that the American government has over the international financial system, Iran is looking at launching a cryptocurrency as a workaround. Perhaps as soon as this week Iran could announce a state-backed cryptocurrency. Al Jazeera reports that the rollout could come in phases, with the first phase to include a rial-backed digital token that would facilitate payments between Iranian banks and other Iranian institutions.
