Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery

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Premiering at Hot Docs 2021

Dead Man’s Switch: A Crypto Mystery is an entertaining and timely documentary that unpacks the mysterious and improbable story of Canadian CEO Gerald Cotten and his failed cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX.

On November 30th, 2018, the 30-year old ‘Gerry’, then CEO of Canada’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, traveled to India to open an orphanage and celebrate his honeymoon. Nine days later he was allegedly dead due to Crohn’s disease, and $215 million dollars in cash and cryptocurrency were suddenly missing.

A month later, when his widow, Jennifer Robertson, announced his death to the world via a post on the Quadriga exchange website, creditors, journalists, regulators and cryptocurrency enthusiasts alike jumped on the story. Determined to get to the bottom of what happened to Gerry and who held the keys to the fortunes of 115,000 creditors.

Through interviews with skeptics like crypto activist Mitch Airey and author David Gerard; independent journalists and financial analysts Amy Castor, Alexandra Posadzki and Taylor Monahan plus compliance regulators, friends, and real, everyday creditors suddenly suffering real and sometimes significant financial losses – filmmaker Sheona McDonald fleshes out the story of Gerry’s life, death & business dealings in a compelling documentary with twists and turns at every step.

Every player has a different perspective or theory about what happened, what didn’t happen or what needed to happen. But with over 200 million dollars-worth of Canadian fiat and cryptocurrency lost there is one question they all share:

“Where’s the money, Gerry?”

QuadrigaCX is not the first exchange to be hacked or go under and it won’t be the last. Questionable activity is a constant and serious factor in a contemporary industry growing quickly in an unregulated environment. The fact that hundreds of thousands of clients trusted QuadrigaCX with their money and left their funds and coins on the exchange shows that we are used to trusting a regulated system of banking and securities – what happens when there is no system to trust?

Gerry’s story couldn’t have happened in a vacuum. Without creditors eager to not miss out on quick, tax-free, unregulated gains, Gerry wouldn’t have had a business or anyone to take advantage of. This raises the question, not only of regulation, but of responsibility - individual and collective.

On the surface Gerry’s story is one of personal tragedy, not just for Gerry, but for the thousands of creditors who trusted this young entrepreneur with their millions of dollars. At its core this is a film about human-nature, greed, and navigating the wild west of a dark new world.

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