A journalist went 'undercover' in the world of cryptocurrency to reveal the shocking scale of suspected murders and faked deaths among the new crypto elite.
After spending three years in the industry, something he described as the "Wild West", Ian Halperin has said it is littered with 'kid millionaires' who were likely murdered or faked their own deaths.
The 58-year-old undercover journalist donned "baseball caps with crazy logos" to fit in with the industry's elite to research his new book - 'Crypto Boy: Inside The Success, Sex, Dirty Money, Murder & Wild World of The Blockchain'.
After being accepted into the inner circles of the industry he even managed to sell a photograph of two dogs sleeping as an NFT for $20k to a crypto investor.
Murder and mayhem
The author said that fears many young millionaires making vast sums of money in crypto could have been murdered or faked their own deaths estimating there have been 100s of mysterious deaths linked to the industry.
He told the Mirror: "It’s the one thing that spooked me out about my investigation, how many young millionaires ended up murdered."
Citing prominent cases including the 'deaths' of Gerald Cotten, Mircea Popescu, Nikolai Mushegian and Autumn Radtke, Ian reveals in his latest book, there are "very mysterious circumstances surrounding all their deaths".
He added: "The number could be a lot greater. Absolutely. From my research, we know of two dozen but if we go really deep there are probably 100s who have been murdered in the last 10 years."
In the past year, cryptocurrencies and connected industries such as NFTs have been plunged into crisis following a string of scandals with businesses collapsing. Ian compared the secretive industry to the dot-com bubble of the late 1990s.
Despite the murder and mayhem, Ian still thinks cryptocurrencies are the "way of the future" and that the US is "behind the times" in accepting crypto as legitimate currency.
He also revealed the volatility of the wealth gained through crypto saying: "Crypto gurus and the lifestyles they’re leading is ridiculous. One month they’re flying high, driving Rolls Royces, six months later they’re practically homeless."
Going undercover
Ian is a bestselling author and award-winning film director who has a long history of going undercover. After one undercover 'mission', he famously predicted Michael Jackson's death to the day six months in advance despite the singer's team rejecting the idea as they finalised multi-million dollar deals to get him performing.
He explained how he dressed up to fit in with the young crypto gurus: "I started to wear baseball caps with crazy logos and cool Adidas running shoes to start looking like a kid because the industry is dominated by kids. I met kids who started at 18 and were billionaires by 19 or 20."
He also set himself up as an NFT artist. NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, are used to digitally verify the owner of a piece of digital art on a blockchain similar to that used for cryptocurrencies.
While in Georgia researching how countries are adopting crypto, he spotted two dogs sleeping by the peaceful shores of the Black Sea and took the photo he eventually sold for $20k as an NFT.
Fears crypto millionaires are faking their own deaths
The journalist said that he believed a number of crypto billionaires faked their own deaths after fearing for their lives. He said: "There are at least two dozen who disappeared or faked their deaths.
"A lot of this doesn’t make sense, because if it was one or two okay. But it’s dozens. And that’s the scary thing.
"People seem to want to take these rich crypto kids out for some reason. There are all kinds of theories why. Because a lot of them affect the markets, and drive the markets. And sometimes it's not in a way that those who threaten them want."
One such mysterious case was the death of Gerald Cotten, owner of one of Canada's largest cryptocurrency exchanges, in 2018
In 2019 his business Quadriga Fintech Solutions ceased operations and the company filed for bankruptcy with hundreds of millions of dollars in liabilities.
Ian said: "His company was on track to lose it all at the time of his death. He had over $200m US in debt. There’s been a lot of speculation as to whether he died or did he fake his own death to throw off the securities commission investigation.
"One of his former friends said he could have got plastic surgery and is now living in a foreign country."
One of the most prominent criminal cases connected to crypto is that of Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), the billionaire founder of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, who currently faces multiple charges of fraud. Insiders told Ian FTX was a "complete scam operation"
He said: "SBF is probably safer in jail than he is in the free world. When you get into crypto and everything starts to deteriorate you get angry investors and they want revenge."
A number of celebrities also were caught up in the FTX scandal. Ian said: "People like Gisele (Bündchen), Tom Brady and Shaquille O'Neal were caught up in it. I conclude unwaveringly they were duped so badly.
"They should have done more due diligence. The fact they put their names to FTX influenced hundreds of thousands of people to get involved and eventually get ripped off. I feel bad for the celebrities but they only have themselves to blame."
Despite everything, he's optimistic about the future of the industry, especially as regulation is coming.
He said: "Now it is the wild west. Then again if you look at the dot.com bubble back in 1998/99 it was called the wild west. It’s the same thing.
"I knew nothing about crypto before going undercover. But after three years of research, I do predict it’s the way of the future. I really believe five years from now most people will have crypto wallets in the Western World."
Ian Halperin's latest book reveals everything he learned going undercover, titled 'Crypto Boy: Inside The Success, Sex, Dirty Money, Murder & Wild World of The Blockchain'. It's available exclusively on all Amazon sites
