The CEO of Chinese cryptocurrency exchange Idax has gone missing prompting fears that users of the platform have lost their virtual assets.
On November 29th, an official announcement on the echange's website announced that Lei Guorong had "gone missing with unknown cause and Idax Global staffs were out of touch with Idax Global CEO".
The exchange suspended deposits and withdrawals having experienced a run on its holdings a few days prior.
While Idax has not explicitly linked this decision to its CEO's disappearance, it is natural that comparisons will be drawn with the Quadriga affair of December 2018 when users lost an estimated C$250m after its owner's sudden death.
The suspicion is that Idax no longer has access to client funds held in cold wallets, as Guorong took the keys with him.
While not a particularly well-known exchange outside of the region, Idax is one of a number of Chinese exchanges forced to shut down as a result of the government's clampdown on crypto.
China has recently renewed its hard-line approach to cryptocurrency trading and exchanges, with the People's Bank announcing that any crypto discovered would be "disposed of immediately".
The news of Idax's woes follows only days after the potential hack of South Korean crypto exchange, UpBit. In a suspected inside job, around $50m worth of ethereum disappeared into the ether.
UpBit has confirmed that the losses will be covered and that all cryptocurrencies have been moved to its cold wallet to protect its customers.