The Secret Life and Strange Death of Quadriga Founder Gerald Cotten

Gerry’s alive.

“HE WAS NOT AN EVIL DUDE”

The initial portrait of Cotten that emerged in February 2018, once his death was announced through a Quadriga Facebook post, squared with the yacht salesman’s impressions. Cotten was a computer nerd who had entered the right business at the right time and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. The broad outlines of his story were blandly conventional, at least if you subtracted his interest in decentralized monetary systems. He grew up in a large brick house on a quiet suburban street in Belleville, “The Friendly City,” a waterfront community between Toronto and Montreal best known for its cheddar cheese. In 2010 he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in business administration from an honors program at York University’s Schulich School of Business in Toronto. His parents owned an antiques store; Cotten decided to go into crypto.

A couple of years after graduation, Cotten moved to Vancouver and joined a clubby community of…