Quadriga Users Set to Receive Repayment

Creditors of the bankrupt Canadian crypto exchange Quadriga will soon be repaid 13% of their claim.

The figure was revealed in documents published by the accounting firm EY on Friday.

Quadriga Subject to Over 17,000 Claims

In the notice to creditors released by EY, it is revealed that 17,648 claims from creditors have been accepted. In total, this amounts to CAD $303.1 million in debt owed.

Although most claimants are only identified by their Quadriga user ID, Canada Post and the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) are also listed. There are also 125 disputed claims.

Of the accepted claims,15 claims have a value of more than 1 million CAD. A further 28 have a value between 500,000 and 999,999 CAD. The vast majority of the claims (15,236) represent smaller retail users of the platform who lost less than 10,000 CAD in its collapse.

Crypto Prices Set at 2019 Level

If it wasn’t bad enough that Quadriga customers have lost 87% of their assets held on the platform, the 13% they are able to recover would be paid in dollars. And the value of their crypto will be decided according to its price when the firm went under in April 2019.

According to the notice to creditors, Bitcoin debts will be paid at a rate of 6,739 CAD per BTC. This represents a significant devaluation compared to its current price of nearly 37,000 CAD.

Other cryptocurrencies held with Quadriga have also seen their price skyrocket since 2019.

Claimants who held Ether on the platform will only be able to recover 13% of their assets valued at the price of 223.45 CAD/ETH. Today, ETH is trading at around 2,460 CAD.

Lessons for FTX Creditors

There are a number of parallels between the Quadriga case and the insolvency proceedings of FTX.

Allegations of criminal wrongdoing at the highest level. Crypto assets that seemingly vanished into thin air. A string of overlapping law enforcement investigations. These are just some of the threads that connect the two.

Now, as the bankruptcy case of a long-defunct crypto exchange comes to a close, users of the FTX platform will be watching closely. 

Will they now wait another three and a half years to recover their assets? And what does the precedent of valuing claims based on crypto prices at the point of collapse mean for future payouts to FTX claimants?

The resolution of Quadriga’s bankruptcy proceedings raises these questions and more.