$140m of missing cryptocurrency and a dead founder – The Wall Street Journal

DUBLIN — It's a mystery that highlights the bizarre and Wild West nature of cryptocurrency investing. A Canadian cryptocurrency exchange has either lost $140m of customers holdings or the crypto is trapped in a locked electronic vault with no key. Cryptocurrency, as you may know, is kept in digital wallets that are locked with access keys, which are secure and nonrecoverable digital passwords. The Canadian company's access key is apparently missing because the founder, sole employee, and holder of the password died unexpectedly without sharing it. The internet is littered with the sad tales of people who bought Bitcoin before the boom and then lost their passwords, leaving their Bitcoin permanently locked up. This Canadian case is that story writ large – and in this instance, the locked-up cryptocurrency belongs to a group of aggrieved customers and the password isn't forgotten but lost due to the death of the man who knew it. Adding to the confusion, researchers allege that the cryptocurrency in question isn't even really locked up at all – they say it has disappeared. On balance, it's yet another story that makes me glad I didn't dip my toes in these particular unregulated waters. – Felicity Duncan

A Crypto-Mystery: Is $140 Million Stuck or Missing?

By Paul Vigna

(The Wall Street Journal) A Canadian cryptocurrency exchange says about $140 million worth of customers' holdings are stuck in an electronic vault because the company's founder, and sole employee, died without sharing the password.

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