CRYPTO BROS BABYLON: Death, debauchery accompany meltdown

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The spectacular billion-dollar implosion of cryptocurrency hedge fund FTX has been accompanied by a slew of lurid headlines on its insider’s hedonistic antics.

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But so far, CEO Sam Bankwell-Fried and gal pal Caroline Ellison still walk among us.

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That has been the case for other crypto bros who have met mysterious ends as their ride to riches slams headfirst into the brick wall called economic reality. Here are some of the 2022 Masters of the Universe who have died under mysterious circumstances.

WHO: GERALD COTTEN

WHAT: QuadrigaCX

411: Canadian Cotten’s death remains the most mysterious, so controversial that Netflix gave it the docu treatment in Trust No One. When Cotten “died” while on honeymoon in India with his wife, Jennifer Robertson, he took with him the keys to access hundreds of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Some believed he faked his own death on Dec. 9, 2018.

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The 30-year-old so-called “Crypto King” wrote his will just days before his death and more than $169 million remains missing. Some of his burned investors want his body exhumed to prove the corpse’s identity. His wife (who inherited millions) insists he’s quite dead but oddly, no autopsy was performed on Cotten.

WHO: TIANTIAN KULLANDER

WHAT: CRYPTO ENTREPRENEUR

411: Kullander, 30, died mysteriously “in his sleep” on Nov. 23. The co-founder of the Amber Group — a crypto trading platform recently pegged as worth $3 billion — died “unexpectedly”. So far, there have been few details about where he died or the cause of death. The former Goldman Sachs trader was poised to ink a $100 million investment deal.

The Hong Kong native was reportedly married with a son and was a devout family man. He was named to Forbes’ 30-under-30 list in 2019.

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WHO: NIKOLAI MUSHEGIAN

WHAT: CRYPTO ENTREPRENEUR

411: Mushegian’s body was found floating off a Puerto Rican beach on Oct. 29. He was fully-clothed and carrying his wallet. But in the hours and days before his death, the 29-year-old was tweeting up a storm that he feared the CIA and Mossad had targeted him for death. Cops and his family don’t believe foul play was involved but his sudden demise triggered an avalanche of online conspiracy theories.

He tweeted hours before he died: “CIA and Mossad and pedo elite are running some kind of sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring out of Puerto Rico and Caribbean islands. They are going to frame me with a laptop planted by my ex [girlfriend] who was a spy. They will torture me to death.”

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His family said he had a history of mental health issues.

WHO: MATTHEW MELLON

WHAT: CRYPTO ENTREPRENEUR

411: The husband of Jimmy Choo co-founder, Tamara Mellon,  the banking heir allegedly suffered a heart attack just as he was about to be admitted to a drug rehab clinic in Mexico. It’s been reported he held XRP coins valued at more than $200 million. Like Cotten, he was the only person who could access the dough. At its peak, Mellon’s initial $2 million investment was worth around $1 billion.

But despite of his riches — inherited and earned — Mellon was hopelessly addicted to OxyContin and spending more than $100,000 per month on his 80 pills a-day problem. His crypto-currency fortune has “disappeared”.

One friend told the Daily Mail: “Something weird has happened to all his crypto money and his family can’t find it.”

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@HunterTOSun