Nikolai Mushegian Drowning

Overview

Nikolai Mushegian Drowning, also known as Nikolai Muchgian, refers to the circumstances surrounding the death of crypto contributor Nikolai Mushegian in October 2022, which some online found to be suspicious. Mushegian was the cofounder of Balancer Labs and a MakerDAO developer, who tweeted in late October about the "CIA and Mossad and pedo elite" supposedly running a "sex trafficking entrapment blackmail ring" out of Puerto Rico and how these actors were supposedly about to torture him to death. Mushegian was found drowned in Puerto Rican waters the next day, leading to speculation and conspiracy theories about the cause of his death spreading online shortly after.

Background

Prior to his death in 2022, Nikolai Mushegian was an important figure in the cryptocurrency community who co-founded Balancer Labs (a trading platform for Ethereum) and helped develop MakerDAO (a stablecoin cryptocurrency).^[1]

In late October 2022, the 29-year-old posted a series of cryptic tweets from his personal Twitter account, @delete_shitcoin, alleging the existence of a sex trafficking racket on Puerto Rican lands and insinuating that his life may be in danger. Earlier on August 5th, 2022, Mushegian's Twitter account^[2] tweeted a message alluding to his potential death via assassination, gathering 50 likes in over two months (seen below, left). On September 4th, Mushegian tweeted another statement theorizing his possible murder, tweeting, "3 possible futures for me 1) suicided by CIA 2) CIA brain damage slave asset 3) worst nightmare of people who fucked with me up until now, I am sure these are the only options."^[3] The post gathered over 900 likes in nearly two months (seen below, right).

On October 28th, Mushegian then from his @delete_shitcoin^[4] account posted his final tweet with the message, "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 gf who was a spy. They will torture me to death." The tweet gathered over 13,000 likes in nearly a week (seen below).

On October 29th, 2022, Craig Sellars, co-founder of Tether.to, posted news of Mushegian's death in a tweet^[5] that gathered over 1,000 likes in three days, though no reference to Mushegian's cryptic posts was mentioned (seen below).

Developments

In the following days, word of Mushegian's death spread online, with some theorizing that it might've had something to do with his earlier tweets. For example, on October 31st, 2022, Twitter^[6] user @DylanLeClair_ posted about the circumstances surrounding Mushegian's death, suggesting they were suspicious and gathering over 39,000 likes in two days (seen below).

On November 1st, 2022, Redditor^[7] ultimatefighting then posted about Nikolai's death to the subreddit /r/ethereum, gathering nearly 500 upvotes in a day (seen below). The post included a translation of the Puerto Rican article shared by Craig Sellars. The excerpt read, "According to a police report, the incident was reported at 9:15 a.m. when authorities were alerted that the man, identified as Nicolai Arcadie Muchgian, had been dragged." Redditors in the replies to the post both agreed with the conspiratorial tones surrounding his death and argued against the speculations, some suggesting it was related to mental illness, a drug-related accidental drowning or many other possibilities.

The aforementioned Reddit thread contained numerous discussions bout Mushegian's mental health, with Redditor^[8] LukyanTheGreat commenting on how Mushegian seemed to have devolved into believing conspiracy theories in the days leading up to his death (seen below).

Other internet users discussed the suspicious circumstances around Mushegian's death elsewhere online, including Twitter^[9] user EthereumJesus who posted a tweet on October 31st commenting on how often people in the crypto community drown at sea under suspicious circumstances, gathering over 100 likes in two days (seen below).

I guess it’s just pure coincidence that a lot of Crypto people like to go for early morning swims and die by being “swept out to sea.” pic.twitter.com/vvYdVrpf3U

— EthereumJesus.eth⟠🙌🏻🦇🔊 (@EthereumJesus) October 31, 2022

Search Interest

External References