Author: George Kelly
Compiled by: Shen Chao TechFlow
Image caption: Jeffy Yu, provided by (The Standard)
Jeffy Yu 'seemingly' ended his life on Sunday with a livestream video just before his 23rd birthday.
A glowing obituary soon appeared, calling the aspiring cryptocurrency mogul 'a visionary artist, tech expert, and cultural force', and stating he had been a tech genius since childhood. Meanwhile, a meme coin named after Yu also began its sale.
However, in the following days, online detectives questioned the authenticity of the video. The obituary then disappeared.
No matter what deception was being played behind the scenes, it came to a halt the moment Yu was found by (The Standard) on Wednesday. At the time, he was holed up in his parents' home in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood.
Standing outside the two-story house, this so-called gifted tech developer appeared anxious and shocked as he was pinpointed by some routine online searches.
“I have been doxxed, I have been harassed. If you can find me, others can find me too,” he said. “Now I have to get my parents out of here within the week.”
Yu is the developer of Zerebro, a niche cryptocurrency token valued at $44 million. (In contrast, Bitcoin has a market cap of $2 trillion.) Zerebro only became known after Yu 'seemingly' shot himself during a livestream on the cryptocurrency platform pump.fun.
Although the full video is no longer available, some clips continue to circulate. His obituary once referred to him as 'a martyr of imagination and creativity', but it has since disappeared from Legacy.com.
The obituary stated, 'His life was short but filled with passion, talent, and a dedication to creation; he hoped these would inspire others forever.'
Whether other life details about Jeffy Yu are credible remains unclear. The online memorial mentioned that he studied computer science at Stanford University and also attended Northeastern University and Arizona State University. Reports indicated that he worked full-time as a software engineer in Santa Cruz, and his LinkedIn profile reflected the same information.
Dressed in a T-shirt, shorts, flip-flops, and wearing thin-framed glasses, Yu refused to discuss the false reports about his faked death and any potential financial benefits he might have gained from it.
He simply said, 'You can see the PTSD in my eyes, right?' and then requested the reporters to leave.
Despite the obituary's grandiose claims of his supposed success, the more striking 'self-homage' was a meme coin he launched on Sunday.
The cryptocurrency promoted as an 'automated message' on his social media accounts is called $LLJEFFY, with the message stating, 'If you are reading this, it is because my 72-hour dead man's switch has been triggered, so I am no longer here, at least not physically.' He described this new coin as 'my final artwork' and 'an eternal grave in cyberspace.'
As events unfolded, doubts quickly arose, including claims from industry insiders, including Daniele Sestagalli, CEO of the cryptocurrency platform Wonderland, that Yu had faked his own death. Sestagalli also released a purported private letter from Yu which mentioned, 'Suicide is the only viable way for me to escape ongoing harassment, extortion, and threats,' and stated that he needed to 'completely and permanently disconnect.' However, Sestagalli did not respond to interview requests.
According to on-chain analysis data shared on social media by the cryptocurrency analysis platform Bubblemaps, accounts associated with Yu transferred up to $1.4 million in cryptocurrency after his 'death'. Many accounts accused Yu of orchestrating a meticulously designed 'pseudocide exit strategy' to cash out his holdings.
Before his 'faked death', Yu had released a statement introducing a concept called 'legacoins'. This token was described as an 'evolutionary form of digital assets (commonly known as meme coins)', functioning like 'a vault or storage device for indefinitely securing and preserving value.'
New information about Yu continues to emerge. Earlier on Thursday, an X (formerly Twitter) account named @eiuge74698713 announced it would hold 'a unique blockchain funeral event' for Yu.
The account stated, 'He was a true believer and builder in blockchain, adhering to his life's beliefs even in death. He deserves to be commemorated in a unique blockchain way.'
If you or someone you know is experiencing suicidal thoughts, please call or text '988', the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline, or chat online for help.
