Lawyers line up for crypto creditors

HALIFAX — More than a dozen lawyers converged on a Halifax courtroom Thursday to make their pitches to represent creditors owed $260 million in the QuadrigaCX cryptocurrency debacle.

In all, three teams of lawyers have applied to the Nova Scotia Supreme Court to represent 115,000 cryptocurrency traders owed $70 million in cash and $190 million in Bitcoins and other digital assets.

Justice Michael Wood said he would issue a written decision within a week.

The law firms selected as so-called representative counsel will work closely with affected QuadrigaCX users, as a court-appointed monitor continues to look for the money they are owed.

The Vancouver-based exchange was shut down

Jan. 28 following the sudden death of its CEO and sole director, 30-year-old Gerald Cotten. He had led his fiveyear-old business from his home north of Halifax.

Court documents say the $190 million in missing cryptocurrency is locked in offline digital wallets — but they are beyond the reach of the company because Cotten was the only person who had the encrypted pass codes.

At one point during Thursday’s hearing, a lawyer representing the monitor, Ernst and Young, said lawyers’ fees at this stage should be capped at $100,000.

Under a court order that granted QuadrigaCX protection from its creditors on Feb. 5, the company is required to pay all legal fees.

The law firms Miller Thomson in Toronto and

Cox & Palmer in Halifax represent 252 creditors owed about $15 million.