Local news reports that Popescu drowned while swimming at Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica after going for an early morning swim. 

Once known as one of the biggest owners of Bitcoin on the planet, billionaire Mircea Popescu has died according to Costa Rican local news. According to the Judicial Investigation Agency (OIJ) of Costa Rica, a 41-year-old man going by the same name was found dead. The report did say that the deceased was Polish, but he is actually Romanian. While the original report did have a discrepancy about his country of origin, the death has been confirmed by a number of sources to whom Popescu was close. “The events occurred around 8:30 am when Popescu entered the sea to swim in the Tramonto sector, was swept away by the current and died on the spot,” the local report states.

The report also states that lifeguards remind tourists that the area is not a beach for swimming. “The current there can drag you out for miles and if you swim against it, you die of exhaustion.”

Popescu is a figure who will live on in infamy

The polarizing figure in the cryptocurrency industry leaves behind a checkered legacy along with a treasure chest of virtual currency. The Romanian-born Popescu founded Polimedia, an enterprise resource planning firm, in 2007. What he is really known for, however, is his life after beginning work as a Bitcoin blogger in 2012. This led him to be known as one of the pioneers and early adopters of digital assets. 

Since getting in early in cryptocurrency, it was reported that Popescu was at one point one of the largest single-holders of Bitcoin, with assets in excess of $1 billion. When bitcoin peaked earlier this year, Popescu’s holdings would have been north of $2 billion. 

Popescu is also known for being behind MPEx, a bitcoin securities exchange he started back in 2012. It became a hub for bitcoin IPOs and brought him a lot of negative attention from the SEC among others. He went on to loudly criticized Ripple and Bitcoin Savings and Trust because he viewed them as scams. The latter turned out to be right about. But his behavior as much as his views made him so well known in the industry. Popescu was loud, brash, and as unapologetic as one can be. It became his signature and grew him a large fan base despite documented cases of sexism and racism.

One such example would be an essay that revolved around what a woman’s job “should be,” in the world in which we live. One of those few jobs, he believed, would be to write a man’s eulogy. Oddly enough, the three confirmed sources linked above were women he knew well and their separate posts eulogizing Popescu. 

So far no word on where his massive crypto assets will end up as nobody knows of any descendants or the state of his current digital holdings.