Bitcoin exchange CEO had died in Jaipur, lakh customers left in lurch

: The CEO of one of the largest cryptocurrency exchanges in Canada, whose death left over a lakh of customers without the passwords to access their funds worth USD 145 million, had been admitted at a private hospital here.

He was admitted to Fortis Hospital and died on December 9, a police officer said, confirming the death in Jaipur of Quadriga CEO and co-founder Gerald Cotten.

We gave his wife Jennifer Kathleen Margaret Robertson a No Objection Certificate (NOC) on December 10, allowing her to take the body to Canada for conducting the last rites, Jawahar Circle station house officer Anoop Singh said.

A hospital spokesperson said Cotten was admitted on December 8 with symptoms of diarrhoea.

He suffered a cardiac arrest and died the next day, the spokesperson said.

Quadriga is now unable to gain access to Canadian dollars 190 million (over Rs 1,000 crore) of bitcoin and other digital assets after his death.

Reports from Toronto said he died of complications arising from Crohn's Disease, an inflammatory bowel ailment, while volunteering at an Indian orphanage.

Many of the digital currencies held by Quadriga are stored offline in accounts known as "cold wallets," a way of protecting them from hackers.

Cotten was the only person with access to the wallets, according to the company.

His death has left the company struggling to figure out how to refund more than 100,000 of its users, CNN reported.

Cotten's widow Jennifer Robertson said people were posting inaccurate speculation on social media about "whether he is really dead."