The search for what happened to QuadrigaCX’s missing money is a never-ending one. 

In the latest twist, Ernst & Young, the trustee in the Canadian crypto exchange’s bankruptcy case, hired an analytics firm to probe the blockchain for additional clues on where it all went. 

Miller Thomson, the law firm representing Quadriga’s former users, sent out a letter to Quadriga creditors on Friday, letting them know that on August 17, EY retained Kroll Associates “to conduct further analysis on a subset of transaction data.” 

The decision was guided in part by the “official committee,” a subset of Quadriga users who represent the exchange’s former users as a whole. The group has been working with EY since February collecting and reviewing proposals from third-party cryptocurrency­ asset tracing firms, Miller Thomson said.

Kroll, a division of New York-based financial consultancy firm Duff & Phelps, will not be tackling the project alone, however. It is joining forces with Coinfirm, a London-based blockchain analytics firm.

Kroll will receive up to $50,000 USD for their efforts. And EY has provided a contractual indemnity of up to $150,000 USD—three times the professional fees—to protect Kroll from any lawsuits or negligence claims. 

Crypto Capital

In its letter, Miller Thomson also noted that it appears Crypto Capital is not holding any of Quadriga’s money. 

Recall that back in January, Miller Thomson reached out to creditors asking for help in identifying if Quadriga had used the Panamanian third-party processor to funnel cash in and out of the exchange.

Crypto Capital is of interest because it is tied to crypto exchange Bitfinex, which is allegedly missing some $850 million. (I guess the hope was that some additional Quadriga money might have been tied up in all of that mess—and there would be more to reclaim.)

Disbursement of funds

So far, EY has located $35 million (CA$46 million ) to pay out to creditors. The amount represents a fraction of the total $190 million (CA$246 million) that went missing when the exchange went belly up early last year. 

As of May, EY has received 16,959 claims from the 76,000 or so users who held funds on the exchange when it collapsed.

Two things have to happen before those claims can be filled. The first is that EY has to review each claim individually, and that takes time and money.

But the bigger holdup by far is that the Canada Revenue Agency needs to complete its audit of Quadriga’s tax liabilities, said Miller Thomson.  

In March, the CRA collected a vast trove of documents from EY, and there’s no telling how long that will take to dig through, especially given current circumstances.  

“The CRA did not confirm a timeline of when the CRA Audit will be completed given the COVID­19 pandemic,” the law firm said.