Bitcoin (BTC) mining has become more decentralized and continues to diversify, a new report from Canadian wealth management company Canaccord claimed on Feb. 6. Canaccord, which tracks the blockchain and digital currency sectors along with its other financial operations, highlighted the increasingly wide distribution of Bitcoin’s hash rate over the past five years. This, the report says, represents a competitive marketplace which in turn makes the largest cryptocurrency less vulnerable to attack. Multiple mining pools currently contribute to Bitcoin network transaction processing, with that number increasing significantly since 2014. According to Canaccord’s data, in 2014, the Ghash.io pool controlled around …

Gerald Cotten, the recently deceased CEO of major Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX, had filed a will 12 days before his death, Bloomberg writes Tuesday, Feb. 5. According to the documents obtained by Bloomberg, Cotten signed his last will and testament on Nov. 27, 2018. He mentioned his wife, Jennifer Robertson, as the only beneficiary and the executor to his estate. Bloomberg has learned that Robertson will inherit several properties in Nova Scotia, where the couple lived, and in Kelowna, British Columbia, as well as a Lexus, a Jeanneau 51 yacht, an airplane and his two pet chihuahuas. Canadian crypto exchange …

Canada’s largest blockchain trade association, the Chamber of Digital Commerce has united with the Blockchain Association of Canada (BAC), which will now go by the Chamber of Digital Commerce Canada. The merger was announced in a press release posted on the Chamber of Digital Commerce website on Feb 5. Executive director and policy strategist of the BAC, Tanya Woods, will be serving as the managing director of the Chamber of Digital Commerce Canada. Woods has previously worked for the Canadian government, BCE, Nintendo, and Microsoft. Woods said in the press release: “Canada’s blockchain leaders and government would like to see …

Disclaimer: this article was updated on Feb. 6 to include the results of the hearing at Nova Scotia Supreme Court, where QuadrigaCX’s CCAA application was reviewed. Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is in hot water: Following the sudden death of its 30-year-old founder, Gerald Cotten, the exchange has allegedly lost access to its cold wallets, where most of the funds were stored. Now, the exchange has taken to court to avoid the collapse, but some community members suggest that QuadrigaCX’s cold wallets never existed. QuadrigaCX has been granted an order for creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court. Justice Michael …

A court-ordered lawyer will get the encrypted laptop of recently deceased CEO of major Canadian crypto exchange QuadrigaCX Gerald Cotten, Canadian broadcast network CBC reports Tuesday, Feb. 5. According to CBC, the laptop that might provide access to $190 million of QuadrigaCX customer funds will be given to a monitor — an independent third party who is appointed by the court to monitor the company's operations during bankruptcy procedures. According to Jack Julian, CBC's reporter who is attending the hearing in Nova Scotia’s court today, Feb. 5, the laptop was previously held by QuadrigaCX representatives. As the assets were stored …

Embattled Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX reportedly never had the $190 million in Bitcoin (BTC) it supposedly lost access to when its CEO unexpectedly died, new research claimed on Feb. 5. The report, published on cryptocurrency portal Zerononcense Blog, makes several claims about the true state of QuadrigaCX’s Bitcoin holdings, all of which contradict official statements. QuadrigaCX has faced financial difficulty since its CEO Gerald Cotten reportedly died of complications from Crohn’s disease in December 2018. In January via an affidavit made by Cotten’s wife, it was revealed the exchange apparently had no access to its wallets, as Cotten had not …

Top Stories This Week SWIFT Reveals Plans to Launch Proof-of-Concept With Blockchain Consortium R3 Major global banking payments network SWIFT announced plans this week to develop a Proof-of-Concept of a gateway that will let blockchain consortium R3 link to GPI (Global Payments Innovation) payments from their platform. According to SWIFT, users of the R3 platform will be able to authorize payments through the new GPI Link, settling GPI payments with the users’ banks, with the credit confirmation reported back to the trade platforms via GPI Link. Crypto Exchange Gemini Completes Security Compliance Review from Deloitte Gemini crypto exchange, which was …

Following the sudden death of its founder Gerry Cotten, cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is reportedly missing CA$190 million dollars ($145 million) in digital assets, Canadian news daily The Globe and Mail reports on Feb. 1 Citing a creditor protection filing from the Nova Scotia Supreme court, the Globe and Mail states that the firm has been unable to locate or access the funds since Cotten passed on Dec. 9, leading to a liquidity crisis at the exchange. QuadrigaCX filed for creditor protection in compliance with the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA) on Feb. 1. The exchange only has CA$375,000 ($286,000) in …

One of Canada’s top crypto exchanges, Coinsquare, is reportedly laying off almost 30 percent of its staff, including its chief financial officer (CFO) and chief operating officer (COO). The news was reported by Canadian startup and technology news platform BetaKit on Jan. 31. Coinsquare did not return Cointelegraph’s request for comment or confirmation by press time. Citing multiple sources, BetaKit estimates the total number of redundancies at around 40 team members — representing 27 percent of the company’s formerly 150-head workforce. A LinkedIn post from Coinsquare’s head of talent, Martin Hauck, published yesterday, noted that “the ever-evolving digital currency/cryptocurrency space …

Following months of financial and legal troubles, major Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX has filed for creditor protection, according to an official announcement on Jan. 31. Per a statement on the exchange’s website, the firm filed an application for creditor protection in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court today in compliance with the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act (CCAA). According to PwC Canada “the CCAA presents an opportunity for the company to avoid bankruptcy and allows the creditors to receive some form of payment for amounts owing to them by the company.” The announcement also states that on Feb. 5, the court will …

Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX is down for maintenance, according to an announcement on its webpage on Jan. 28. The exchange, which has been wrapped up in legal troubles with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC), is inaccessible as of press time. Screenshot of QuadrigaCX Webpage. Source: QuadrigaCX The exchanges users, some of whom have purportedly been unable to access or withdraw their funds for months, took to Reddit and Twitter. One user asked, “Shouldn't you let your customer know before taking it down?” Some users on a Reddit post speculated as to whether the exchange had gone insolvent. One …

Tokenized social media startup Kik has warned United States regulators that they would fight back against a proposed enforcement action against the company, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Jan. 27. Canada-based Kik is facing a prospective enforcement action over an alleged securities infraction, after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) judged its 2017 initial coin offering (ICO) to have involved the sale of unregistered securities. The startup is reported to have raised around $100 million in “kin” tokens for its chat-based social media network — which can be earned on the platform, traded or redeemed for goods …