Source: Cointelegraph
Original: “These Five Cryptocurrency Figures Mysteriously Disappeared, Died, or Fooled the Entire Industry”
Zerebro developer Jeffy Yu was found alive days after pretending to commit suicide during a live stream, currently residing at his parents' home in San Francisco. Following this live stream incident, a so-called "posthumous issuance" meme coin briefly surpassed a market value of $100 million.
Yu's case is not the first incident in the cryptocurrency industry to blur the lines between real death and faked death.
From mysteriously missing founders to suspicious sealed coffins, this industry has long been filled with various dramatic exits, leaving not the truth, but more questions.
Here are five disturbing cases—whether they truly happened, were carefully planned, or remain unresolved—that continue to spark discussions in the cryptocurrency world.
On May 4, a video clip of Yu's "suicide" during a live stream spread widely online. The footage showed him pulling the trigger after finishing a cigarette, followed by the camera falling.
Hours later, a pre-arranged social media post announced the issuance of LLJEFFY coin, a meme coin described as his "final artwork." The coin's market value subsequently soared to nearly $105 million.
However, Yu did not actually disappear. The blockchain wallet associated with him remained active. A letter purportedly written by Yu revealed that this exit plan was a response to long-term harassment and extortion.
A reporter from the San Francisco Standard eventually found him at his parents' home. When asked about the suicide performance and whether he profited from it, he declined to comment.
In the meme coin market, such extreme performances are not unprecedented. At the end of 2024, the live streaming feature of the Pump.fun platform sparked a series of shocking behaviors—including suicide threats, animal abuse, and other extreme performances—all aimed at inflating token prices. The platform subsequently shut down this feature and later reintroduced a more restrained version.
In February 2025, a suspected Chinese programmer named Hu Lezhi destroyed 500 Ether (ETH) (valued at approximately $1.3 million at the time) and donated an additional 1,950 ETH (worth over $5 million) to various organizations, including WikiLeaks and the Ethereum Foundation.
These transactions were accompanied by a series of on-chain messages claiming that a hedge fund named WizardQuant (also known as Kwan De Investment) was using "brain-machine weapons" to control its employees—including Hu himself.
These messages read like a sci-fi horror novel. Hu claimed he had been a subject of mind control experiments since childhood and warned that humanity would eventually become "puppets or complete slaves of digital machines."
In his final message, Hu stated that if they reached the ultimate state of becoming "complete slaves to digital machines," they would choose to "leave this world." Some analysts interpreted these continuous messages as an on-chain suicide note.
As of now, they have not reappeared. Unlike Yu's case, Hu's wallet showed no signs of activity.
On October 28, 2022, DeFi development expert Nikolai Mushegian posted a disturbing tweet: "The CIA and Mossad, along with certain elites, are running a sex trafficking extortion ring… They will torture me to death."
The next morning, he was found face down floating in the waters near his beach villa in Puerto Rico.
Mushegian was not just an ordinary cryptocurrency practitioner. He was an early developer of MakerDAO and a core architect of the stablecoin ecosystem.
He also became increasingly paranoid—or, depending on one's perspective, increasingly insightful. Critics viewed this tweet as a manifestation of a mental health crisis, but others were not quick to downplay it.
The timing of his death sparked a series of speculations: assassination, targeted silencing, and even MKUltra-style mind control.
Authorities ultimately ruled it an accidental drowning.
In December 2018, Gerald Cotten, the 30-year-old founder of the Canadian cryptocurrency exchange QuadrigaCX, reportedly died in India from Crohn's disease.
But a significant problem arose: he was the only person who could access $190 million worth of cryptocurrency assets.
As news of his death spread, skepticism followed. There was no public autopsy report, his name was misspelled on the death certificate (Cotten was spelled as Cottan), the coffin was sealed, and more investors demanded DNA testing on his remains.
Quadriga officially declared bankruptcy in 2019. Thousands of customers were locked out of their funds. Eventually, investigators discovered that the cold wallet had been completely emptied, prompting auditing firm EY to begin asset recovery efforts.
Some suspected Cotten had been running a Ponzi scheme for years and used his "death" as the ultimate escape plan. These speculations remain unproven, but the official narrative still insists he died in a tragic incident, which has been confirmed by Indian authorities.
Ruja Ignatova, co-founder of the $4 billion OneCoin scam who calls herself the "Crypto Queen," has been missing since she took a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens in October 2017.
Cotten left no access. Ignatova left no trace.
Since then, various rumors have emerged. Some claim she underwent plastic surgery and is living under a new identity, or is being protected by the Bulgarian mafia.
A Bulgarian investigative media outlet claimed that Ignatova was allegedly murdered on a yacht in the Ionian Sea in November 2018, and her body was dismembered and thrown into the sea on the orders of Bulgarian crime boss Christoferos Amanatidis to cover up her ties to OneCoin.
Recently, German officials reportedly speculated that Ignatova is living in a suburb of South Africa, protected by a private security team.
Since 2022, Ignatova has been listed on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Related: Former Cred executive admits to wire fraud
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