Netflix to release documentary about QuadrigaCX CEO's mysterious life and death

Online streaming platform and production company Netflix will be producing a film on deceased crypto exchange QuadrigaCX founder Gerald Cotten.

In a Thursday tweet from Netflix, the platform announced that the documentary Trust No One: The Hunt for the Crypto King will premiere in 2022. The story, which follows “a group of investors turned sleuths,” will focus on the events around the death of Cotten, who reportedly died while doing volunteer work at an orphanage in India, leaving QuadrigaCX users out of pocket for roughly $190 million in crypto.

Details are sparse regarding the casting or direction the documentary takes, but the trailer hints at plastic surgery and avoiding authorities on a yacht. Netflix has become well known around the world for producing documentaries that provide disturbing accounts of controversial figures including Michael Jackson and singer R. Kelly.

Cotten died in December 2018, reportedly due to complications from Crohn’s disease. At the time, he was the only person to have access to millions in crypto from more than 100,000 users with wallets on the QuadrigaCX exchange. This led many in the crypto space to initially suspect that Cotten had faked his death and absconded with the funds, but there has never been any evidence to suggest this. A later investigation revealed Panama-based payments processor Crypto Capital may have had control of many of the funds.

Following Cotten’s death, QuadrigaCX trustee Ernst & Young began selling other assets from the founder’s estate, raising roughly $30 million as of November. However, the firm said it received 17,053 claims from QuadrigaCX users totaling more than $170 million.

Related: QuadrigaCX Victims Request Proof of Gerald Cotten’s Death by Exhuming Body

The crypto space has had its share of controversial and charismatic figures in the 12 years since the technology was first introduced. This year, computer programmer and crypto evangelist John McAfee died in his prison cell in Spain following a court ruling that he could be extradited to the United States for charges, including failing to submit tax returns from 2014 to 2018 and allegedly not reporting income related to pushing crypto projects and consulting work.