Big Questions: What’s with all the crypto deaths?
Last month, Bulgarian plumbers were called to clear a blocked drain at an apartment block in the capital of Sofia.
The blockage turned out to be the decomposing remains of 41-year-old United States crypto mogul Christian Peev — suspected to have been battered to death with a dumbbell by a friend out of jealousy.
Weeks earlier, a group of children stumbled across the body of missing cryptocurrency millionaire Fernando Pérez Algaba in a river in the Buenos Aries province. Police say he was shot three times before being stuffed into a suitcase, pointing the finger at organized crime.
It’s only the two most recent cases in a 10-month-long stretch of crypto-related deaths — including a helicopter crash in France, a fatal stabbing in the U.S., and a suspected suicide in South Korea, to name a few.
So, what’s connecting all of these grizzly deaths around the world?
Organized crime to blame
Ken Gamble, the co-founder and executive chairman of financial crime intelligence firm IFW Global, tells Magazine that many of these kinds of deaths are likely linked to the rise of organized crime and money laundering using crypto.
“Crypto-related crime has become bigger than ever before. And money laundering using cryptocurrency is now the number one way for every organized crime group on the planet.”
In May, Gamble’s organization took down a billion-dollar call center scam syndicate in Malaysia. His firm has investigated a number of criminal organizations across Asia and Europe over the years.
“What’s happening is that these organized crime groups, particularly the Chinese, have suddenly come into masses of money. They have had more money now than they’ve ever had traditionally,” said Gamble.
“They’re making so much money that it’s become extremely dangerous now […] they have to now reach out to more groups and more people to try and move the money — broadening their money laundering capabilities,” he added.
Gamble argues this has inevitably led to crypto holders getting mixed up with the wrong crowds.
Retribution for deals gone south
Matt Hussey, former editorial director of Near Protocol and a founder of crypto media firm Decrypt, has also been trying to make sense of the murders.
In a May 19 blog on LinkedIn, Hussey argued that some of the killings are the result of disgruntled investors simply taking matters into their own hands and blamed the “fuzzy area crypto continues to operate.”
“Because crypto straddles the legal and illegal worlds, it is regarded by many as a place where law enforcement does not tread. As a result, retribution and revenge are, for some, the only recourse they have,” he said.
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In April, a 48-year-old woman was abducted and murdered in the affluent Gangnam District in Seoul, with her assailants suspected of trying to get revenge over a failed crypto investment scheme.
In March, a self-proclaimed Candian “crypto king” was kidnapped and beaten over three days after he reportedly scammed investors out of millions of dollars. At least one of his alleged captors was one of the dozens of investors who lost money to the alleged scam. Fortunately, the man survived.
“There are people being targeted because they hold crypto or they’ve been involved in some shady deals […] There are robberies, there are people that are getting murdered because they hold crypto,” added Gamble.
Crypto holders are easy targets
Some of the deaths could simply be because rich crypto millionaires are seen as easy targets amid a time when the cost of living continues to drive upward.
“Crypto is easy to move and easy to steal. Try walking into a bank and taking some money. Yeah, good luck with that. But beat the crap out of someone and drill holes in them? You’ve got a chance of getting away with it,” wrote Hussey.
Gamble said there is “no doubt” that organizations out there are targeting and issuing hits on people who hold a lot of crypto.
“Organized crime figures are going after crypto because it’s not money in the bank; it’s crypto that you can take off someone — like cash.”
“You can steal their credentials and pack their laptop, and if you’ve got their passphrase, you’ve actually got their money.”
Or, it has nothing to do with crypto
Of course, there is also a good chance that most of the deaths have nothing to do with crypto or nefarious people at all.
Out of the 10 reported deaths since November 2022, only the Gangnam woman’s murder in Seoul was seen as the direct result of her connection to crypto. None of the reports have mentioned any cryptocurrency being stolen by their suspected assailants either.
Not to mention, three of the deaths aren’t even being treated as potential homicide.
At the same time, one could also argue that the rise in reported deaths is simply a result of more mainstream coverage of crypto.
The number of crypto deaths reported by mainstream media went from less than one a year to at least 10 since November 2022, when the crypto industry witnessed the collapse of crypto exchange FTX.
Data compiled by public relations firm Vuelio shows that the total number of crypto stories pushed by traditional media outlets surged after the collapse of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange, sometimes even beating out the number of stories written by crypto media outlets.
It stands to reason that news desks have become more aware of cryptocurrencies over the past year. Someone dying or being murdered somewhere in the world isn’t likely to make a headline, but someone dying due to their connection to a purportedly shady world of crypto? You bet it’ll make a headline.
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Politics
Chancellor insists Labour rebels ‘know the welfare system needs reform’ as they push for change
Taiwanese lawmaker Ko Ju-Chun has called on the government to consider adding Bitcoin to its national reserves, suggesting it could serve as a hedge against global economic uncertainty.
Ko, a legislator at-large in Taiwan’s legislative body, the Legislative Yuan, took to X on Friday to report that he had advocated Bitcoin (BTC) investment by the Taiwanese government at the National Conference on May 9.
In his remarks, Ko cited Bitcoin’s potential to become a hedge amid global economic risks and urged Taiwan to recognize the cryptocurrency alongside gold and foreign exchange reserves to boost its financial resilience.
Ko’s announcement came shortly after the legislator held talks with Samson Mow, who advocates for Bitcoin adoption by states like El Salvador at his BTC tech firm Jan3.
Taiwan is an export-oriented economy
Ko highlighted that Taiwan is an export-driven economy that has experienced significant fluctuations in its national currency, the New Taiwan dollar, amid global inflation and intensifying geopolitical risks.
“We currently have a gold reserve of 423 metric tons, and our foreign exchange reserves amount to $577 billion, including investments in US Treasury bonds,” the lawmaker stated.
In a scenario of more intense currency volatility or potential regional conflicts, Taiwan may “very likely be unable to ensure the security and liquidity,” Ko continued, adding that Bitcoin could be a great addition to Taiwan’s reserves for several reasons.
“Bitcoin has been operating for over 15 years. It has a fixed total supply, is decentralized, and is resistant to censorship. Many countries are focusing on its hedging attributes. At the same time, in intense situations, it may not face the risk of embargo,” he said.
Bitcoin is not the only solution
Referring to many global initiatives considering Bitcoin adoption as a reserve asset, Ko stressed that he’s not advocating for Bitcoin as the “only solution” to rising economic challenges.
Instead, the legislator suggested adding a “small proportion of Bitcoin” into the diversified assets as tools for sovereign asset allocation and risk hedging, and backup capacity of Taiwan’s financial system.
Related: Trump tricked into pushing XRP for crypto reserve: Report
He previously suggested that Taiwan could allocate a maximum of 5% of its $50 billion reserve to Bitcoin in an X post on May 6.
“When exchange rate risk and regional uncertainty increase, it is time to introduce new tools to construct a more flexible financial strategy framework,” Ko said, adding:
“As former Dean Chen Chong said, Bitcoin is the gun of the digital era. It may also be the gold of the digital era, the silver of the digital era. Or it could be gunpowder. A wise nation will not let weapons be in others’ hands.”
The news comes as Taiwan is emerging as a crypto-friendly jurisdiction, with the Financial Supervisory Commission pushing institutional trials of crypto custody services in late 2024.
Mainland China continues to maintain its hostile stance on cryptocurrency after imposing a ban on multiple crypto activities, including mining, in 2021.
Magazine: Adam Back says Bitcoin price cycle ’10x bigger’ but will still decisively break above $100K
German law enforcement seized 34 million euros ($38 million) in cryptocurrency from eXch, a cryptocurrency platform allegedly used to launder funds stolen after Bybit’s record-breaking $1.4 billion hack.
The seizure, announced on May 9 by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA) and Frankfurt’s main prosecutor’s office, involved multiple crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Litecoin (LTC) and Dash (DASH). The move marks the third-largest crypto confiscation in the BKA’s history.
The authorities also seized eXch’s German server infrastructure with over eight terabytes of data and shut down the platform, the announcement added.
eXch exchanged crypto without AML
In the statement, the BKA described eXch as a “swapping” service that allowed users to exchange various crypto assets without implementing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) measures.
The platform had operated since 2014 and reportedly facilitated about $1.9 billion in crypto transfers, some of which were believed to be of “criminal origin,” including assets laundered during the Bybit hack.
“Among other things, a portion of the $1.5 billion stolen from the Bybit crypto exchange, which was hacked on Feb. 21, 2025, is said to have been exchanged via eXch,” the authorities wrote.
Multisig, FixedFloat among laundering cases
According to a post by crypto sleuth ZachXBT, eXch was also involved in laundering millions of funds from other crypto thefts and exploits, including Multisig, FixedFloat and the $243 million Genesis creditor theft.
Those were in addition to “countless phishing drainer services over the past few years with refusal to block addresses and freeze orders,” ZachXBT said.
ZachXBT was among the first security analysts to report on eXch’s links to laundering $35 million of crypto assets stolen from Bybit soon after the hack was confirmed.
Related: Hacken CEO sees ‘no shift’ in crypto security as April hacks hit $357M
“Lazarus Group transferred 5K ETH from the Bybit Hack to a new address and began laundering funds via eXch (a centralized mixer) and bridging funds to Bitcoin via Chainflip,” ZachXBT wrote in a Telegram post on Feb. 22.
eXch announced termination of services by May 1
After initially denying involvement in laundering funds from the Bybit hack, eXch eventually announced it would cease operations by May 1 in a Bitcoin Talk post published in mid-April.
“Even though we have been able to operate despite some failed attempts to shut down our infrastructure […], we don’t see any point in operating in a hostile environment where we are the target of SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] simply because some people misinterpret our goals,” it wrote.
Addressing the seizure, senior public prosecutor Benjamin Krause stressed the importance of action against “quick and anonymous opportunities for money laundering for any amount.”
“Crypto swapping is an essential component of the underground economy, used to conceal incriminated funds from illegal activities such as hacking or trading in stolen payment card data, thus making them available to perpetrators,” he said.
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