Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery – Hot Docs 2021

By Sean Patrick Kelly

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The mysterious rise and fall of the largest Bitcoin exchange in Canada is examined in Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery. Founded in 2013 by Gerald Cotten and Michael Patryn, QuadrigaCX quickly grew to become the largest exchange of Bitcoin in Canada. However, it is revealed in early 2019 that Cotton suddenly died while in India and $215 million in cryptocurrency has gone missing. Various journalists and investigators lead us down the rabbit hole of what exactly happened with Quadriga and more importantly, the money of its investors.

Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery is a documentary by Sheona McDonald about the sudden rise and fall of the Bitcoin exchange QuadrigaCX. Featuring interviews with independent cryptocurrency journalist Amy Castor and Globe and Mail business reporter Alexandra Posadzki, among others, we follow the steps of how exactly Quadriga rose to prominence and how millions of dollars would vanish without a trace. The end result is a bit of a cautionary tale about the dangers of cryptocurrency.

I don’t want to get too deep into the various twists and turns made in Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery, but this documentary is a good example of the old adage that if something or someone sounds too good to be true, it probably is. On the surface, the film’s enigmatic subject of Gerald Cotten seemed like a successful businessman in his early 30s, however, there quickly turns out to be more than meets the eye. The mysterious circumstances surrounding Cotten’s death is only the first layer of a multilayered mystery that is sure to keep viewers of Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery on the edge of their seats.