Cryptoheads are remembering John McAfee after the software creator and “The Dickening” legend turned s..tcoin shill was found dead in a Spanish prison cell.
The self-proclaimed “lover of women, adventure and mystery” apparently hung himself after a Spanish court ruled he could be extradited to the United States to stand trial on tax evasion charges.
“This is the result of a cruel system that had no reason to keep this man in jail for so long,” his lawyer, Javier Villalba, told Reuters.
McAfee, 75, had been imprisoned for nine months in Spain and said at a hearing last month he feared spending the rest of his life in prison if extradited.
But he had also tweeted last October that he was “content” in prison and that the food was good. “Know that if I hang myself, a la [Jeffrey] Epstein, it will be no fault of mine.”
Bitcoin pioneer and podcaster Max Keiser remembered McAfee as “a swashbuckling adventurer. A Joseph Conrad character. A man from our past who lived large and raised hell. A living legend. He will haunt our dreams, I suspect. And his legend will grow bigger. ”
Last October the US Securities and Exchange Commission accused McAfee of making $23.2 million for unlawfully promoting seven initial coin offerings from November 2017 to February 2018, without disclosing he was being paid to do so.
He charged projects $105,000 per tweet to shill for them.
McAfee also infamously promised in 2017 to eat his manhood on national television if Bitcoin didn’t hit $1 million by the end of 2020 … a possibility that became known as “the Dickening”.
Alas, McAfee didn’t keep his word.
The two-time Libertarian US presidential candidate topped that for sheer weirdness in 2018, by claiming to have attempted sexual congress with whales and ostriches.
McAfee was also a “person of interest” in the 2012 slaying of his former neighbour in Belize, Gregory Faull. Faull’s daughter contended McAfee had paid $5,000 to have her father killed.
Crypto market down 2.3%
Meanwhile, yesterday’s relief rally seems to have run out of steam, with Bitcoin and Ethereum both edging lower and one Aussie analyst warning of a move to the downside.
BTC was trading at US$33,000, down 2.4 per cent in the last 24 hours, while Ethereum was changing hands for US$1,920, down 2.5 per cent.
The overall market down 2.3 per cent to US$1.36 trillion, according to Coingecko, although a handful of altcoins had posted double-digit gains.
Among top 10 coins, Dogecoin had risen 14.7 per cent to US22.9c, clawing back some of Tuesday’s selloff, while XRP was up 7.8 per cent to 63c.
The biggest gainer in the top 100 was Ankr, the No. 100 coin, which had gained 30.3 per cent. THORChain was the biggest loser, declining 9.0 per cent.
Go Markets analyst Lachlan Meakin told Ausbiz TV this morning that each crypto bounce had seemed to be weaker and weaker.
“It’s a very important level, that $30,000, and I can’t really see any major catalyst to the upside at the moment. I think any surprise is going to come to the downside, the way the narrative is going with Bitcoin — and all cryptos to be honest; I mean, Eth is down just as much.”