Conspiracy Theories Around McAfee’s Death

Software mogul and cryptocurrency influencer John McAfee died on Wednesday by suicide in a Barcelona prison. However, conspiracy theories, along with the “WHACKD” crypto token, are surrounding McAfee’s death. 

McAfee’s lawyer, Javier Villalba, told Reuters that McAfee died by hanging in the prison. This came after the Spanish high court authorised his extradition to the United States on tax evasion and fraud charges.

McAfee was a prolific user of Twitter and actively involved in the cryptocurrency community. Since the news of his suicide broke yesterday, conspiracies and theories surrounding his death have intensified. 

McAfee’s tweets have been reposted including one from December 2019. In the post, McAfee showed a tattoo promoting his “$WHACKD” token. In a tweet in October 2020, McAfee also reinstated he has no intention of killing himself.

Additionally, McAfee’s official Instagram account on Wednesday shared an image of the letter “Q,” igniting excitement among QAnon conspiracy theorists. At the time of writing, McAfee’s account seemed to have been taken down. 

$3.6B in Bitcoin Disappears with Africrypt Founders

The founders of South Africa’s largest crypto exchange, Africrypt, have disappeared, along with an estimated $3.6 billion in Bitcoin. 

This came after two-year-old exchange warned clients of a hack in April. At that time, Africrypt asked clients not to alert law enforcement authorities about the loss in crypto assets as it could slow the recovery of their funds.

About 69,000 Bitcoins are missing from the exchange due to the hack. This would represent the biggest-ever dollar loss in a cryptocurrency scam. With recent drops, the value of the lost Bitcoins fell to about $2.4 billion. 

A law firm hired by affected investors says they can’t locate Africrypt’s founders – 20-year-old Ameer Cajee and 17-year-old Raees Cajee. According to CoinDesk, the brothers allegedly transferred the pooled investor funds from an account at Johannesburg-based First National Bank (FNB) and disappeared to the U.K.