QuadrigaCX – one of the cryptocurrency exchange heavyweights in Canada formerly – has officially been ruled bankrupt by the judge, 3 months after announcing the sudden death of its CEO and founder.

According to a report by the broadcast network CBC on April 8th, Michael Wood – the Nova Scotia Supreme Court Justice in charge – has accepted QuadrigaCX request for bankruptcy declaration. The final decision is backed by the court-appointed monitor of the case Ernst & Young, who advised the judge to go through with the announcement a month ago.

Regarding the CCAA creditor protection for QuadrigaCX restructuring and assets recovering process, Ernst & Young suggested to have it operate under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act (BIA).

With such a transition to BIA, EY will become a BIA trustee, which ultimately provide the firm with larger investigative authority that allows them to request valuable documents as well as collect witnesses’ testimonials.

Judge Wood has further approved an asset preservation order, which will give EY control of any assets in the possession of Jennifer Robertson – the departed QuadrigaCX former founder Gerald Cotten’s widow – along with her husband’s estate. The order is an attempt to prevent any potential transactional activities regarding the assets, including selling, removing or acquiring new assets.

After its founder, Cotten passed away and taking with him the private key to all of the firm’s cold storages, QuadrigaCX filed for creditor protection CCAA to seek assistance in retrieving the lost funds of its customers. Up to the point of the announcement, the exchange still need to return a total of $195 million to around 115,000 of its clients.