A hoax circulated on online forums today that Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin had been killed in a car crash. It was later debunked, but not before the ether (ETH) price crashed from over $300 USD to $260.
The news appeared on 4chan’s /biz/ thread at 4:30PM EST on 25th June. The poster cited another post on a Slack channel. Although the header read “Vitalik Buterin confirmed dead” the post provided no link or evidence.
In true 4chan style, other commenters piled on to discuss the “news”, although none of them added any more detail.
Forum and social media posters became uneasy after several hours passed without any response or sign of life from Buterin. However the 4chan post appeared when it was still very early morning in Singapore, where Buterin currently lives.
One editor altered Buterin’s Wikipedia page to past tense.
Source: http://bitsonline.com/ethereum-vitalik-death-hoax/?utm_content=buffer08167