Zerebro’s Jeffy Yu Allegedly Found Alive at Parents’ House After Apparent Staged Death Sparked $100M Memecoin Surge

Jeffy Yu, co-founder of the relatively obscure AI-driven memecoin project Zerebro, was reportedly found alive at his parents’ house just days after his apparently staged death, according to The San Francisco Standard. Standing outside a two-story home in the San Francisco neighborhood of Crocker-Amazon, Yu appeared agitated and stunned that routine internet searches had led one of the local news outlets’ reporters to his discovery, it said. “I’ve been doxxed. I’ve been harassed. If you can find me, other people can find me,” he reportedly said. “Now I have to move my parents out of here this week.”

The 22-year-old Yu appeared to commit suicide in a widely-shared video last weekend. A glowing obituary then appeared online in the San Francisco Chronicle, submitted via the partially automated publishing platform Legacy.com. It described Yu as “a visionary artist, technologist, and cultural force,” and praised him as “a tech prodigy from an early age.” A supposedly automated message was released the same day, stating, “If you’re reading this, it’s because my 72 hour deadman’s switch triggered so I’m not here, at least physically.” 

Yu went on to describe his “final art piece,” and “an eternal grave in cyberspace” — a “legacoin” (legacy coin) called LLJEFFY. “Not an investment. Not a security. No promises, no returns, no management efforts. No advertising, no speculation. Nothing but voluntary action. It’s the opposite of a security,” he wrote.

“It’s where I took money I made, bought tokens, and burned them (relatives are sent instructions and funds when DMS is activated).” Yu had previously written a manifesto on the concept of “legacoins.” The Solana-based LLJEFFY memecoin surged to a market cap of around $105 million at one point on Tuesday, according to DEX Screener.