Film
Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery
A documentary investigation into the collapse of QuadrigaCX, Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchange, and the death of its founder Gerald Cotten in India. Combining financial thriller pacing with genuine uncertainty, it explores whether $200 million vanished through incompetence, design, or fraud—and whether Cotten is actually dead. For anyone fascinated by how quickly trust evaporates in unregulated spaces.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy patient investigative documentaries that treat online sleuthing like a detective hunt, and you find crypto's jargon more fascinating than off-putting.
Skip it if you want a broad, sweeping exposé of the wider crypto industry, since this stays narrow on one stubborn fortune and a handful of people piecing together a puzzle.
What it asks of you: It runs a brisk 78 minutes and is built on interviews and online digging, so it asks you to keep names and transactions straight as it goes.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
The Tinder Swindler2022
A fast-moving documentary about financial deception that's equally compelling whether you understand the mechanics or not. Focuses on human impact rather than technical detail, making the fraud feel immediate and personal.
But Relies heavily on victim interviews and their emotional testimony, which can feel repetitive if you're after cold forensic analysis rather than character study.
Fyre2019
Another chaotic collapse examined through interviews with the perpetrator, accomplices, and people left holding the bag. Same energy of unraveling lies and the moment when everything becomes obviously unsustainable.
But The tone is often comedic about what was ultimately a con that hurt real people. If you need your documentary to take its subject gravely seriously, this won't feel right.
The Dropout2022
Elizabeth Holmes built a biotech company on claims she couldn't back up, attracting billions in investment. It's the same story as Quadriga—charisma and jargon substituting for actual substance, and an audience desperate to believe.
But Eight episodes is a significant time commitment for what is essentially a single-thread story. The pacing occasionally stalls when the plot doesn't move forward.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Dead Man's Switch: A Crypto Mystery
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
Akira1988
Both are about what happens when money enters systems too vast and opaque to track or govern. Quadriga investigates a real collapse; Akira imagines a society built on the permanent possibility of such collapse.
A 1980s anime about a chaotic megacity where power concentrates in unaccountable hands, money vanishes without trace, and no one can prove what happened to it. The aesthetic and the timeline are utterly different, but the anxiety about invisible systems and stolen futures is identical.
But It's animated, in Japanese, and deliberately oblique. If you need documentary clarity and narrative closure, this will feel like the opposite of helpful.
More like this (3)
Anna2017
A documentary about a woman who conned high society by posing as a German heiress with money in Switzerland. Like Quadriga, it hinges on people's willingness to believe a plausible story without verification.
But The subject remains somewhat opaque even after the film ends. Some viewers find the lack of clear answers frustrating rather than intriguing.
The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley2019
Theranos and Quadriga are cousins: both used technical-sounding language to obscure that the core product didn't actually work. Both had charismatic founders whose mythology became more important than reality.
But At two and a half hours, it's considerably longer than necessary. The documentary occasionally loses focus when trying to contextualize Silicon Valley more broadly.
WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn2021
Another case study in how venture capital and investor hunger can create an empire on pure narrative. The parallels to crypto exchange dynamics—mixing legitimate business with speculative excess—are striking.
But Less focused on actual fraud than on collective delusion and corporate structure. If you're specifically interested in criminal intent, this won't scratch that itch.
People
Cast
David GerardSelf- Amy CastorSelf
- Andrew LokenauthSelf
- Alan DepaGerald Cotten