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Where to begin with Mircea Popescu?
A Romanian by residency, provocateur by occupation and the "world's greatest erotica writer" by proclamation, Popescu leaves behind a legacy strewn across so many blogs and forums it was difficult even during his life to separate the man from the myth. Let's start then, with what we think we know.
Popescu, rumored to be one of the largest individual bitcoin holders – he has claimed to hold 1 million coins, though more conservative estimates place his holdings in the tens of thousands[1] — is believed to have died at the age of 41, according to a story first surfacing[2] in a Costa Rican news report this week.
While unconvincing on its own – the article mentions only his name – the news has since been affirmed by three different women with whom he was known to have had long-standing, reportedly consensual master-slave relationships[3]. (More on that later).
But if much of the early Twitter rumblings have focused on the size of his rumored holdings (and questions about whether they will wind up for sale), the remainder of this article will focus on Popescu's controversial legacy in Bitcoin.
One of the technology's earliest and most ambitious entrepreneurs, Popescu is known for starting MPEx, a self-styled "Bitcoin securities exchange." Founded in 2012, the website was once an early breeding ground for early Bitcoin IPOs, a practice that earned him the ire of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, an agency whose power he took no shortage of joy in openly undermining[4].
From there, Popescu would gain notoriety for being among the first to combat scams in
