Mircea Popescu, the controversial Romanian Bitcoin maximalist and founder of the MPEx bitcoin securities exchange, drowns off the coast of Costinera, Costa Rica at the age of 41. Popescu was one of Bitcoin's earliest and most polarizing figures, known for his abrasive online persona and claims of holding an enormous Bitcoin fortune estimated at over $2 billion. His death raised immediate questions about what happened to his coins, as it remains unknown whether anyone else had access to his private keys. The incident became one of Bitcoin's most dramatic examples of the "lost coins" phenomenon.
CoinDesk: Mircea Popescu Found Dead