Members of the crypto community are circulating apparent “proof” that Zerebro developer Jeffy Yu faked his suicide as he promoted his new memecoin during a Pump.fun livestream on May 4. The belief appears to come from an unverified private letter supposedly sent by Yu to a Zerebro investor, trading activity linked to crypto wallets owned by Yu, and the removal of his obituary from Legacy.com. Others speculate that Yu used a tool to pass off a pre-edited video as if it were filmed in real-time during the Pump.fun livestream. Source: Hash The unverified letter from Yu to an early investor states that he deliberately created a livestream pretending to shoot himself as it was the only “viable exit” from persistent harassment, blackmail, threats and hate crimes. “Being fully doxxed has placed me under constant fear of robbery and physical harm. There have been numerous notable figures in the crypto community which have undergone armed robberies in their homes recently.” “With my address publicly known, I have not been able to comfortably reside in any of my family’s homes for months now.” The letter claimed he would “exit public life and fame” and shift his focus to music, conducted in anonymity. In addition to the unverified letter, Legacy.com removed Yu’s obituary, which initially described him as a Stanford “tech prodigy” who scaled the AI content-powered Zerebro protocol into an $800 million ecosystem at its peak. Source: Vee X user and crypto enthusiast “Vee” also claimed that after Yu’s supposed death, one of his wallets offloaded the Zerebro (ZEREBRO) token for USDC ( USDC ), which was then moved to the same address that created the Legacoin (LLJEFFY) token. Vee’s claims were later supported by blockchain analytics firm Bubblemaps, which estimated that $100,000 of ZEREBRO was sold and moved to LLJEFFY. Onchain transfers conducted by wallets confirmed or believed to be in Yu’s control. Source: Bubblemaps Meanwhile, one viewer of Yu’s livestream believes the gunshots were edited with brightness and sound effects, while another observer claimed that the flash didn’t come from the gun. Related: Strange, but true: 5 outlandish and weird crypto stories of 2024 The LLJEFFY token has fallen over 80% to a market cap of $5 million since the incident, DEX Screener data shows. Yu’s alleged suicide came a few hours after he published a manifesto explaining the concept of Legacoins — or legacy memecoin as he called it — which requires the creator to never sell the coin. Magazine: Memecoin degeneracy is funding groundbreaking anti-aging research
