Many blamed the deaths on the billionaires’ past, while others suspected some form of foul play and even execution.
Collect this article as an NFT
The death of four crypto billionaires within a month has caught the crypto community’s attention. The deaths occurred under suspicious circumstances, and some of these billionaires had even raised alarms about being in danger.
4 crypto billionaires dead in the span of a month. Just before, and during the FTX collapse.
Too strange
sound … pic.twitter.com/ubtpweiJcw
The spiral started toward the end of October 2022 when Nikolai Mushegian, co-founder of MakerDAO, was found dead on a Puerto Rican beach just hours after tweeting that intelligence agencies were after him. The next billionaire to perish was broker Javier Biosca, who was found dead on Nov. 22 in Estepona, Spain. At the time, Biosca was being investigated for the biggest cryptocurrency fraud in Spain.
On Nov. 23, Amber Group co-founder Tiantian Kullander died mysteriously in his sleep. Just two days later, Russian crypto billionaire Vyacheslav Taran died in a helicopter crash.
Apart from these four suspicious deaths, another death made headlines on Dec. 30 when Park Mo, vice president of Vidente — the largest shareholder of South Korean cryptocurrency exchange Bithumb — was found dead in front of his house in the early morning.
Related: Logan Paul backflips on defamation lawsuit against Coffeezilla, apologizes
The four crypto billionaire deaths within a month gave fuel to several conspiracy theories among the crypto community. One user associated the string of deaths with a mafia-style hit job and said that the “crypto world is taking a page from the mafia handbook.”
Another user associated the death spiral with the “central banking hierarchy,” sarcastically saying, “I would definitely not put money on it being connected to the central banking hierarchy. There is no way. They are very trustworthy. 100% no chance.”
One user questioned the information sources but acknowledged that seeing four deaths in less than a month is suspicious. On the other hand, several Redditors speculated that they may not have actually died at all, with one writing, “I wonder how many of these are people faking their own deaths.” Another speculated that the billionaires might be living under fake names and are using their “deaths” to start a new chapter of their life.
The deaths may be a cause of concern, but the crypto ecosystem is also known for its fascination with conspiracy theories. A similar saga erupted in May 2020 when the CEO of defunct crypto exchange QuadrigaCX mysteriously died during a visit to India.
