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Did the bitcoin multimillionaire truly stage his own death?
Netflix’s true-crime documentary, Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King, was released on Wednesday 30th of March 2022.
This documentary is based on the strange death of a 30-year-old, the founder of the once-thriving crypto exchange, QuadrigaCX. It explores the idea that this man was able to stage his own death after becoming a rising celebrity in the cryptocurrency industry.
The crypto exchange’s founder, Gerald Cotten, is said to have passed away in 2018 after traveling to India. And only Cotton had the keys to crypto wallets containing around $250 million worth of cryptocurrencies belonging to 115,000 customers. As a result, no one has had access to this money.
As thousands of individuals worldwide relied on Gerry Cotten to manage their money, his sudden death caused a panic-inducing wave of confusion. The mysterious disappearance or death of Gerald Cotton was followed by a plethora of conspiracy theories and unofficial investigations. The Netflix documentary seeks to explain some of the mysteries surrounding the well-known crypto case, which still confuses people today.
Gerald “Gerry” Cotten: A Biography
Those who knew Gerry Cotten characterized him as a young man who loved stupid jokes and always had a smile on his face. Nobody had seen him furious; he appeared to be a cheery neighbor interested in technology.
Cotton established Canada-based bitcoin exchange QuadrigaCX in 2013, and it was Canada’s largest crypto exchange then. Cotten’s life appeared to be going well during that period. However, months before Cotton’s death, many users had been finding it difficult to withdraw their money from the QuadrigaCX crypto exchange and were waiting so long to receive funds. Then he mysteriously died.
The company owed its customers $215 million in cash and cryptocurrencies. And only Cotton had access to this money. The website stopped working a while after his death, and the company went out of business.
The people who had lost their money began to question Cotten’s demise. It was even more suspicious that he passed away while establishing a nonprofit organization in Jaipur, India. They communicated via a Telegram group, discussing Cotten’s potential survival. After all, only by proving that he was actually alive would people who had lost money be able to recover it.
Cotten’s digital history was investigated, and it turned out that he was an experienced scammer. Through an investment plan, he had already conned others online. As a result, it became more likely that Gerry Cotten could have pretended to have died to flee with the money. Numerous aspects of Cotton’s life sparked questions, including his business partner’s murky past and his wife, who was hardly known to anyone. People often have a sense of optimism in difficult times, but with the QuadrigaCX scam, the final outcomes were not encouraging.
Where Did The $215 Million Go?
The most crucial question in the cryptocurrency scam case is, “what happened to the money?” Many false accounts were discovered. One of them was named “Sceptre Gerry.” Cotten used to fund these fictitious accounts with phony assets totaling thousands of dollars in crypto and fiat currency.
The Ontario Securities Commission could understand why he transferred funds to other accounts.
He used to trade cryptocurrency on several platforms using his customer’s funds. He was effectively gambling with other people’s money, hoping to make some money, but he soon found himself losing more than he could. He gambled with other people’s money and lost almost $150 million. A Ponzi scheme eventually resulted from this.
Gerry used to take money from one user and reimburse another when one user demanded their money back. When participants began to pull out of the Ponzi scheme, Gerry’s plan fell apart since he could no longer make up for the lost money.
While we certainly love a well-crafted conspiracy theory that leads us to feel there is a bigger picture at work, we often fall into a rabbit hole. The documentary “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King” raised issues about people’s willingness to believe anything they are told, whether it’s true or not. It demonstrates how we would rather live in denial than accept the truth. The creditors are still eager to prove Gerry’s death by opening his coffin.
Have You Seen the Documentary Yet?
If you’re looking for yet another scam story, watch the Netflix documentary “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King.” The narrative becomes increasingly bizarre as it goes along, keeping the viewer hooked to the screen. It might have been more effective if the documentary had spent more time examining Gerry’s past and marriage. Nevertheless, the film reveals an important lesson we should all take away to avoid falling victim to another con artist’s trap.
The 2022 crime investigative documentary “Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King” was directed by Luke Sewell.