Nikolai Mushegian was found dead in the ocean of Puerto Rico on Friday after tweeting that he was being set up by the CIA and Mossad. Mushegian was a long-time crypto developer and the co-founder of Balancer Labs a cryptocurrency investment portfolio company.


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The 29-year-old died as a result of drowning at Condado beach in San Juan which is known for having dangerous currents. Eight people died at the beach in 2021.


Mushegian was an important figure in the crypto world and a talented "Dia architect", best known for his work with MakerDAO and proof-of-stakes blockchain network BitShares. Many people who knew the young developer say that he did important work with Maker and played a crucial role in the early days of Ethereum.


After a hack in the market that resulted in the loss of tens of millions of dollars worth of Ethereum, Nikolai was able to set up a defense in the MakerDAO system that prevented the same hack later that year. 


Mushagian was quoted saying, "The DappHub team discovered the same recursive withdrawal flaw a few weeks prior to the infamous breach of DAO. The issue was fixed, preventing an impending catastrophe. Because to our clean code and logical interfaces, which reduced the attack surface we had to secure, we were able to do this. Since that time, no active contracts made for MakerDAO have caused us any problems."


Just a few days before his death, Mushegian posted a disturbing tweet accusing the CIA and Mossad of conspiring to frame and torture him to death, which caused a stir in the community.




He also made a tweet back in September speculating his own future as a "CIA brain damage slave asset".



While he didn't have a large social media presence, he was well-known among the crypto community. This led the community to speculate on his sudden death after his chilling final tweet.