These five crypto figures vanished, died or fooled us all
Jeffy Yu, developer of Zerebro, was found alive at his parents' home in San Francisco after faking his suicide during a livestream, which led to the launch of a memecoin that reached a market cap of nearly $105 million. Blockchain activity linked to him continued post-stunt, and he declined to comment on the incident. The crypto industry has a history of ambiguous deaths and disappearances, including: 1. Hu Lezhi, a whistleblower who burned and donated large sums of Ether while alleging mind control by a hedge fund, has not been heard from since early 2025. 2. Nikolai Mushegian, a DeFi developer, tweeted about threats before being found dead in Puerto Rico, with his death ruled accidental drowning amid conspiracy theories. 3. Gerald Cotten, founder of QuadrigaCX, reportedly died in India, leaving investors locked out of $190 million in crypto, leading to suspicions of a Ponzi scheme. 4. Ruja Ignatova, the "Cryptoqueen" of OneCoin, disappeared in 2017, with rumors of her death and sightings persisting; she remains on the FBI's Most Wanted list.
