Zerebro developer Jeffy Yu has been discovered alive at his mother and father’ house in San Francisco, days after faking his suicide on a livestream that launched a supposed posthumous memecoin previous $100 million.
Yu’s case isn’t the primary time crypto has blurred the road between actual demise, faked demise and one thing in between.
From lacking founders to sealed caskets, the trade has an extended historical past of exits that left behind extra questions than closure.
Listed here are 5 unsettling instances — actual, staged or unresolved — that proceed to hang-out the crypto world.
1. Jeffy Yu faked his demise, then his crypto pumped
A clip of Yu broadcasting his “suicide” circulated on Could 4. The video confirmed him smoking a cigarette earlier than pulling the set off, then the digicam dropped.
Hours later, a scheduled social media put up introduced the posthumous launch of LLJEFFY, a memecoin described as his “remaining artwork piece.” The coin surged to almost $105 million in market cap.
However Yu wasn’t useless. Blockchain wallets tied to him saved shifting. A replica of a letter — allegedly written by Yu — described the exit design as a response to ongoing harassment and blackmail.
Reporters from The San Francisco Normal finally discovered Yu at his mother and father’ house. He refused to touch upon the suicide stunt or whether or not he profited from it.
On this planet of memecoins, this sort of spectacle isn’t new. In late 2024, Pump.enjoyable’s livestream function triggered a wave of stunts — suicide threats, animal abuse and different stunning acts — to pump token costs. The corporate shut it down and later relaunched a toned-down model.
2. A crypto whistleblower’s descent into paranoia and attainable demise
In February 2025, a suspected Chinese language programmer who referred to as themselves Hu Lezhi burned 500 Ether (ETH) (value round $1.3 million on the time) and donated one other 1,950 ETH (over $5 million) to varied teams like WikiLeaks and the Ethereum Basis.
All of it got here with onchain messages alleging {that a} hedge fund referred to as WizardQuant (aka Kuande Funding) was utilizing “brain-computer weapons” to regulate its staff — together with Hu.
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The messages learn like sci-fi horror. Hu claimed he’d been a mind-control check topic since childhood and warned of a future the place people had been nothing greater than “puppets or full slaves to the digital machine.”
In considered one of his final messages, Hu stated they’d “depart the world” in the event that they reached the ultimate stage of changing into a “full slave to the digital machine.” Some translated the sequence of messages as an onchain suicide notice.
Up to now, they haven’t re-emerged. And in contrast to Yu, Hu’s pockets hasn’t moved.
3. The crypto whiz and the cryptic tweet earlier than his demise
On Oct. 28, 2022, DeFi developer Nikolai Mushegian posted a chilling tweet: “CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are working some form of intercourse trafficking entrapment blackmail ring… they’re going to torture me to demise.”
By the following morning, he was discovered face-down within the surf close to his seashore home in Puerto Rico.
Mushegian wasn’t a random crypto child. He was an early developer at MakerDAO and a key architect of the stablecoin ecosystem.
He was additionally more and more paranoid — or, relying on who you ask, more and more conscious. Critics dismissed the tweet as a psychological well being disaster, however others weren’t so fast to look away.
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The timing of his demise sparked a wave of theories: assassination, focused silencing and even MKUltra-style thoughts management.
Formally, it was dominated an unintended drowning.
4. Crypto buyers can’t imagine QuadrigaCX founder’s demise
In December 2018, Gerald Cotten, the 30-year-old founding father of Canadian crypto alternate QuadrigaCX, reportedly died in India from Crohn’s illness.
However there was one huge drawback: He was the one particular person with entry to $190 million in crypto.
As information of his demise unfold, so did the questions. There was no public post-mortem, his demise certificates misspelled his identify (spelling Cotten as Cottan), the casket was sealed, and a rising military of buyers needed his physique exhumed for DNA testing.
Quadriga formally declared chapter in 2019. 1000’s of purchasers had been locked out of their funds. Finally, investigators found the chilly wallets had been empty, prompting auditor EY to start restoration efforts.
Some suspected Cotten had run a Ponzi scheme for years and used his demise as the last word escape plan. The rumors haven’t been confirmed, however the official story stays that he died a tragic demise, as confirmed by Indian authorities.
5. Studies of Cryptoqueen’s demise are drastically exaggerated
Self-styled “Cryptoqueen” Ruja Ignatova, co-founder of the $4-billion OneCoin rip-off, hasn’t been seen since she boarded a Ryanair flight from Sofia to Athens in October 2017.
Cotten left no entry. Ignatova left no hint.
Since then, rumors have swirled. Some say that she underwent cosmetic surgery and lives below a brand new id or that she’s being protected by the Bulgarian mafia.
A Bulgarian investigative outlet claims Ignatova was allegedly murdered in November 2018 on a yacht within the Ionian Sea and that her physique was dismembered and dumped overboard below the orders of Bulgarian crime boss Christophoros Amanatidis to cowl his ties to OneCoin.
Extra not too long ago, German officers reportedly assumed that Ignatova is in a South African suburb dwelling with personal safety.
Ignatova has been on the US FBI’s 10 Most Wished record since 2022.
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