Latest news with #JeffyYu
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Crypto Founder Found Alive After Faking Death To Pump A Memecoin
Benzinga and Yahoo Finance LLC may earn commission or revenue on some items through the links below. Zerebro developer Jeffy Yu has been found alive and well. On-chain transactions had first cast doubt on Yu's suicide. The stunt pulled by Yu is not new in the world of memecoins. 'A Martyr of Imagination and Creativity,' those were the words used to describe Jeffy Yu, the 22-year-old creator of a little-known, supposedly AI-related cryptocurrency project called Zerebro, in an obituary that made the rounds on X and sparked condolence messages last week. Before this, many users had reported seeing a video of Yu taking his own life on a livestream, seemingly in response to online harassment. A supposedly automated message announcing a final act in the form of a legacy memecoin, LLJEFFY, followed. Don't Miss: — no wallets, just price speculation and free paper trading to practice different strategies. Grow your IRA or 401(k) with Crypto – . There is just one problem: Yu appears to be alive and well in San Francisco. Yu was found at his parents' home in the Crocker-Amazon neighborhood by a reporter from The San Francisco Standard, the outlet reported on May 8. 'I've been doxxed. I've been harassed. If you can find me, other people can find me,' a visibly shocked and agitated Yu reportedly told the Standard. 'Now I have to move my parents out of here this week.' Doubts about Yu's death first arose when on-chain sleuths flagged transactions tied to him from Zerebro and his 'legacoin.' 'Despite rumors of suicide, addresses linked to Jeffy Yu sold over $100k of ZEREBRO and traded LLJEFFY days after his alleged passing,' prominent crypto data provider Bubblemaps wrote on May 6. On May 7, Bubblemaps reported that another $1.4 million in ZEREBRO tokens had been sold. Around the same time, disgraced DeFi founder Daniele Sestagalli also claimed that Yu had faked his suicide. He cited a supposed letter from Yu to an early Zerebro investor. Trending: New to crypto? on Coinbase. The letter describes Yu's actions as his 'only viable exit from persistent harassment, blackmail, and threats.' 'Crypto just witnessed its first pseudocide exit strategy,' Sestagalli wrote in the thread containing the letter. 'Meanwhile, real developers in this space are getting doxxed, harassed, targeted they keep showing up. They keep building. They don't fake death to dodge red candles.' Yu refused to comment on the reports of his suicide and how he may have financially benefited from it, according to The Standard. 'You can see the PTSD in my eyes, right?' he reportedly said before urging the reporter to leave. The stunt pulled by Yu is not new in the world of memecoins. The space took a dark turn in May 2024 when Solana memecoin generator launched a streaming feature to allow creators to promote their tokens. One developer set himself on fire, one sexually exploited his mother and another faked an overdose. The platform was forced to deprecate the feature after one particular creator faked his hanging, or at least it did till April. 'Pump fun livestreaming has been rolled out to 5% of users with industry standard moderation systems in place and transparent guidelines,' co-founder Alon Cohen wrote on April 4. Bubblemaps claimed that Yu's faked suicide occurred on livestream, but the firm has vehemently denied it in a statement to The San Francisco Standard. Benzinga reached out to Yu for comment but has yet to receive feedback. He has since deleted his personal X account and that of Zerebro. Despite recent events, ZEREBRO is trading 1.4% higher on the day at the time of writing. Yu's legacy coin, however, has not fared so favorably. As of last look, LLJEFFY's market capitalization sits at $4 million, a 90% decline from a peak of over $100 million. Read Next: A must-have for all crypto enthusiasts: . 'Scrolling To UBI' — Deloitte's #1 fastest-growing software company allows users to earn money on their phones. Image: Shutterstock Send To MSN: 0 This article Crypto Founder Found Alive After Faking Death To Pump A Memecoin originally appeared on
Gizmodo
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Gizmodo
Crypto Founder Jeffy Yu Faked His Own Death on a Live Stream
The man is alive, residing in Arizona, and unhappy to have been found. On Sunday, May 4, Jeffy Yu took his own life on a live stream. On Wednesday, he was hanging out at his parents' house, alive and well. The San Francisco Chronicle tracked down Yu, the founder of cryptocurrency token Zerebro, who had apparently faked his own death in dramatic fashion and fled in an apparent attempt to both get out of the crypto space and cash in on the attention that the story brought to his crypto projects. Yu's staged death was captured on video, which appeared to show him holding a gun to his chin and seemingly pulling the trigger, causing the phone to fall. While it was reported by CryptoSlate that the video was a part of a live stream on the memecoin site the site denied that such an event occurred on its platform. Shortly after his apparent death, an obituary for Yu appeared on calling him a 'Martyr of Imagination and Creativity,' and describing his life as being 'lived with intensity, brilliance, and a devotion to creation that he hoped would inspire others for eternity.' The obituary quickly disappeared from the site and is no longer available. In addition to the glowing, likely self-authored obituary, Yu also released another self-tribute: a memecoin dedicated to himself that was supposedly launched as a result of his apparent death. 'If you're reading this, it's because my 72 hour deadman's switch triggered so i'm not here, at least physically,' the message read. It accompanied the launch of $LLJEFFY, which Yu referred to in his launch message as 'an eternal grave in cyberspace.' The coin quickly climbed in value as crypto buyers jumped in. And then the suspicions started. There was a lot of oddness surrounding Yu's death from the start, and some started calling into question whether the whole thing was an elaborate stunt. One X user noted that Yu appeared to buy ads on X for the memecoin to get more attention. Blockchain analysis organization BubbleMaps spotted money moving from wallets associated with Yu—first $100,000 moved from his coin Zerebro to LLJEFFY, then another sell-off of $1.4 million worth of Zerebro as the value of the coin started to climb from the attention brought by his death. Per Decrypt, LLJEFFY surged 2,115% after release, reaching a market cap of around $105 million. By Wednesday, the jig was fully up. The San Francisco Standard found Yu at his parents' home in the city, and he freaked out. 'I've been doxxed. I've been harassed. If you can find me, other people can find me,' he told the paper. 'Now I have to move my parents out of here this week.' Given how much he seemed to have cashed out during his brief time as a ghost, it seems like he should be able to find them someplace nice.
