The downfall of cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has seemingly cost one cryptocurrency enthusiast, Tong Zou, his entire life savings after he merely attempted to use the platform ot move funds while saving on transfer fees.
According to The Star Zou, a 30-year-old software engineer who’s been working in California, wanted to save on a move to Vancouver, and as such deposited his CAD $560,000 ($420,000) life savings to QuadrigaCX, so he could then withdraw the funds and move them to his bank in Canada.
During a phone interview, he stated:
It’s all my savings, so I’m just living on what little I have left and trying to start over. It pretty much took everything away from me
Zou is one of QuadrigaCX’s 115,000 users who have lost their funds after the firm’s CEO Gerald Cotten unexpectedly passed away back in December. His wife, Jennifer Robertson, has revealed the exchange has been locked out of its CAD $190 million ($145 million) stored in cold wallets.
The exchange has halted its operations since, and was recently granted creditor protection by a Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Zou believes he is one of the “largest affected individual” users in the situation, according to an affidavit he filed this week.
He reportedly bought bitcoin while in the US, to move it to QuadrigaCX. On the exchange he sold it for Canadian dollars he was going to deposit to his bank. His funds have been locked since October, as the exchange was dealing with problems with a local financial firm.
I wasn’t using it for trading — I just wanted to move my money over to my Canadian bank account. What I didn’t know was that my withdrawal would be pending or incomplete and it never got deposited in my bank account. I’ve been waiting four months so far.
The money, Zou added, was going to be used to buy an apartment. Instead, he’s now “searching for a job.” Via Telegram, he has been in contact with other affected users, who’ve turned to Bennett Jones LLP and McInnes Cooper to represent them in QuadrigaCXs’ creditor protection proceedings.
To pay back its users, QuadrigaCX has reportedly looked into selling its platform. While the British Columbia Securities Commission has revealed it didn’t regulate the exchange, the Ontario Securities Commission is reportedly ‘looking into’ the exchange’s situation.
