Puerto Rico

MakerDAO co-founder Nikolai Mushegian dies at 29 in Puerto Rico

Mushegian was an important figure in the crypto community, contributing to multiple projects, including MakerDAO, BitShares and Balancer.

Nikolai Mushegian, co-founder of the cryptocurrency lending platform MakerDAO and the decentralized Dai (DAI) stablecoin, was found dead in Puerto Rico last week.

Mushegian died due to drowning after being dragged by sea currents on the Condado beach in San Juan, the local newspaper El Nuevo Día reported. Mushegian had no vital signs by the time his body was rescued.

The Condado beach is considered one of the world’s most dangerous places for swimmers, reportedly taking the lives of at least eight people in 2021.

The unfortunate event was reported to local authorities on the morning on Oct. 28. According to a police report, Mushegian was a resident of San Juan. The scene was reportedly investigated by the San Juan Homicide Division and a local prosecutor.

Mushegian was an important figure in the cryptocurrency community, contributing to multiple industry projects, with some referring to him as a “Dai architect.” The 29-year-old crypto developer is known for his work with MakerDAO forks Rico and Rai, as well as the proof-of-stake blockchain network BitShares. Mushegian is also a co-founder of the automated market maker Balancer.

MakerDAO founder and CEO Rune Christensen took to Twitter on Oct. 31 to say that Mushegian contributed important inputs to Maker’s development and has done some crucial work since the early days of Ethereum.

Nikolai was one of the only people in the early days of Ethereum and smart contracts who was able to predict the possibility of smart contract hacks and invented the security-oriented approach to smart contract design we know today. Maker would have been toast without him

— Rune (@RuneKek) October 31, 2022

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson wrote on Twitter that he knew Mushegian from back in the BitShares days. “He was a very young and extremely bright man who had a very wide array of interests from game theory to Urbit,” Hoskinson said, adding that the coder had a deep understanding of technology.

Tether co-creator Craig Sellars noted that Mushegian’s death came just a few days after the MakerDAO community voted to approve custody of $1.6 billion in USD Coin (USDC) with the Coinbase crypto exchange.

Mushegian was an active community member on social media. His Twitter account, Delete_shitcoin, has about 5,500 followers at the time of writing. His last tweet was published just a few hours before his death, referring to suggestions of alleged blackmail from the United States Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad. Mushegian previously made similar statements on Twitter, hinting at a potential “suicide” by the CIA as one of his possible futures.

Peter Schiff’s bank closure strengthens Bitcoin case for financial freedom

Puerto Rico regulators closed down Schiff’s bank for not maintaining the net minimum capital requirements. As a result, customers lost access to their accounts following a subsequent freeze.

Prominent economist Peter Schiff, who is well-known in the community for his anti-crypto sentiments, had his bank shut down by Puerto Rico regulators. The revelation, however, led to Crypto Twitter pointing out the “irony” as Schiff’s prediction for Bitcoin (BTC) came true for his own traditional bank.

Puerto Rico regulators closed down Schiff’s bank for not maintaining the net minimum capital requirements, which further impacted the customers as they lost access to their accounts following a subsequent freeze.

Despite no evidence of crimes, Puerto Rico regulators closed my bank anyway for net capital issues, rather than allow a sale to a highly qualified buyer promising to inject capital far in excess of regulatory minimums. As a result accounts are frozen and customers may lose money.

— Peter Schiff (@PeterSchiff) July 3, 2022

While acknowledging that “customers may lose money,” Schiff stated that he was unaware of the regulatory minimums and was not presented with any form of legal notice prior to the abrupt closure. He added:

“It costs a fortune to run a small bank. That’s why I never really made any money. The compliance costs are outrageous.”

As a witness to what many consider an epic plot twist, the crypto community took the opportunity to explain the importance of Bitcoin in reinventing the core of traditional finance.

The irony of this is so hilarious!@PeterSchiff you do realize that if you had been using Bitcoin this would not have been possible!

You should be loving decentralization https://t.co/cDCOWdMowL

— Coach K (30% Crypto, 70% USDC) (@Coachkcrypto) July 4, 2022

Bitcoin podcaster Stephan Livera, too, chimed in on the development as he said, “He’s [Schiff] been a #bitcoin skeptic since $17.50.” The sudden closure of Schiff’s bank in Puerto Rico reignited the discussions around Bitcoin’s resistance to judicial supremacy.

“The irony here is priceless,” added @HodlMagoo, while others rhetorically helped Schiff find a promising alternative to traditional finance, asking “Do you understand why you need bitcoin now?”

On the other end of the spectrum, Puerto Rico has been receptive to crypto acceptance in the region. On April 20, Puerto Rico authorities became the fourth jurisdiction in America to award a money transmitter license to Binance.US, a United States-based subsidiary of crypto exchange Binance.

While the crypto community empathizes with Schiff and the bank’s customers for their losses, the episode further cements Bitcoin’s position as the ultimate replacement of traditional finance.

Analysts from Deutsche Bank forecasted BTC prices to rebound back to $28,000 by the end of the year despite an ongoing bear market.

Analysts Marion Laboure and Galina Pozdnyakova envisioned the Standard and Poor (S&P) to rebound back to its January levels, which in turn, could result in a 30% increase in Bitcoin’s value from current levels midway through 2022 — bringing up its price to the $28,000 mark.