QuadrigaCX Has Sent All Its Bitcoin and Ether to 'Big Four' Auditor EY

QuadrigaCX's online wallets for bitcoin and ethereum have nearly been emptied and the funds sent to the failed cryptocurrency exchange's court-appointed monitor, Ernst & Young.

On Feb. 14, 52 bitcoin and 960 ether were sent to freshly created blockchain addresses from addresses identified earlier as belonging to the Canadian exchange.

The amounts matched the balances that EY had previously said it found in the exchange's "Hot" wallets, meaning the active ones connected to the internet.

On Thursday, EY confirmed that, as expected, it had taken control of the funds by transferring the crypto from QuadrigaCX's accounts to the professional services firm's own cold wallet, stored offline.

"On February 14, 2019, after testing the transfer arrangements, the Applicants successfully transferred the following cryptocurrency to the Monitor," EY said.

In total, 51 bitcoin, 33 bitcoin cash, 2,000 bitcoin gold, 822 litecoin and 951 ether were transferred.

Each of the QuadrigaCX wallets appears to have sent a test transaction before transferring over the bulk of its funds on Feb. 14.

The ethereum address that was listed in the court filing as the exchange's hot wallet for that cryptocurrency first sent 0.01 ETH that day, and two hours later 960 ETH, to an address that saw no other transactions.

The group of bitcoin addresses that eagle-eyed blockchain watchers had previously identified as belonging to QuadrigaCX sent 0.01 BTC, and then two hours later 52.6 BTC, to a new address that, again, saw no other transactions.

Even before the 104-bitcoin mishap, Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge Michael Wood suggested that the hot wallet funds be sent to the safety of new cold wallets maintained by EY. EY image via Shutterstock.