Incident library · 10 cases
Canadian crypto incident library
The failures that shaped Canadian crypto rules, with the figures from official records. Each case lists what broke, the losses as stated in court, regulator or law-enforcement documents, the Canadian angle, and what a user could have checked. These cases are the evidence behind the Mitey danger scale.
| Year | Case | What broke | Scale (sourced) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Celsius Network Crypto lender failure | Customer deposits lent out and rehypothecated for yield, misrepresentations about safety and liquidity, and price support of its own token; a liquidity run ended in a freeze. | About US$25 billion in assets at its peak (fall 2021) |
| 2022 | FTX Exchange/custodian failure | Commingling and misappropriation of customer deposits by an affiliated trading firm, a hidden code exception, false statements about segregation and concentrated control. | Over US$8 billion of customer money stolen |
| 2022 | TerraUSD (UST) and LUNA Algorithmic stablecoin collapse | A reflexive algorithmic peg backed by a volatile sister token, unsustainable yield, an earlier de-peg hidden by secret support, and a supposedly independent reserve controlled by the founder. | Combined UST and LUNA market value over US$50 billion at the peak; over US$40 billion in investor losses |
| 2022 | Ronin bridge hack Bridge exploit | A small validator set where one company controlled most keys, stale access permissions, and no monitoring for six days. | US$620 million in Ethereum |
| 2022 | Harmony Horizon bridge hack Bridge exploit | Multisig signing keys held by one operator were compromised. | US$100 million of virtual currency |
| 2022 | Wormhole bridge exploit Bridge exploit | A smart-contract bug in signature verification on one side of the bridge. | 120,000 wrapped ETH minted without backing |
| 2022 | Nomad bridge exploit Bridge exploit | An upgrade and initialization bug that slipped in during an audit window and could be replayed by anyone. | No official total-loss figure found; about US$38.8 million in the recovery pool as of November 11, 2022 |
| 2020 | Coinsquare wash trading Exchange fraud | Fake volume and liquidity signals, misleading statements to clients, and failed compliance and whistleblower controls. | Wash trades over 90% of reported volume (July 2018 – December 2019); no client-loss figure stated |
| 2019 | QuadrigaCX Exchange fraud | No segregation of client assets, false cold-storage claims, one person controlling everything, no books or internal controls, fictitious balances, and no registration. | $215 million owed to clients at the filing; $46 million recovered or identified; at least $169 million lost |
| 2019 | Einstein Exchange Exchange fraud | Customer assets pooled and moved to company bank accounts and outside platforms; the platform did not hold most customer assets; later deposits paid earlier customers. | Less than $45,000 in cash and crypto against customer liabilities of more than US$18 million |
Patterns across the cases
- Custody and commingling (platform failures): your claim becomes one creditor claim among many. See platform failure.
- Key compromise (bridges): a few signing keys guarded huge pools. See bridge risk.
- Reflexive design (algorithmic stablecoins): the peg depended on confidence. See de-peg risk.
- Rules followed: many of the CSA's platform terms (custody, segregation, no leverage) arrived after these failures. See the rules tracker.
Education only. Nothing on this page is financial, investment, tax or legal advice, or a recommendation to buy, sell, stake, lend or borrow any crypto-asset. Crypto-assets can lose some or all of their value and are not covered by CDIC. Canadian rules change: check the dated sources above and talk to a qualified professional about your situation. Full disclaimer.