Centralized Exchange Failure

Canada's largest crypto exchange collapsed when its CEO 'died' in India holding sole access to ~$190M in customer funds; regulators later ruled it a Ponzi.

Hackers stole 119,754 BTC ($71M then, $9B+ at recovery) from Bitfinex multi-sig hot wallets, recovered six years later via DOJ wallet-file decryption.

The largest Bitcoin exchange of its era halted withdrawals and filed for bankruptcy, with 850,000 BTC missing — most of it stolen years earlier.