A 24-year old man was brutally murdered shortly after completing in-person cash for bitcoin exchange, according to the Norwegian local news organisation TV 2.

The stabbing occurred on Monday morning, the 15th of October, at the man’s apartment in Majorstuen. The police told TV 2 that the man made the withdrawal before he got stabbed to death in his apartment. This, withdrawal is the key clue according to the police. However, even before the withdrawal, the 24-year hold had cash stacked away in the apartment, and the police are looking into the matter, and many friends knew about the withdrawal.

Grete LIen Metlid, the leader of the Oslo police department’s head of intelligence and investigations unit, said to the news site that investigators knew about a tip of a connection between the bitcoin withdrawal and the murder but declined to elaborate further.

“We are familiar with a tip about Bitcoin, but at this time we will not provide more information about the investigation,” said Metlid, according to a rough translation, adding that the department investigates “widely” and that “economic motives” are always a primary area of interest for investigators.

The victim lived together with a group of friends, and they were out having fun during the Sunday evening. The 24-year old was last seen around midnight by his friends, and during the morning, the friends went to school and work. The victim should have come to work around 9 am but did not show up, and a friend found him dead around noon on Monday. The police are now trying to find out what happened during 07:50 am and 12.15pm, from when the friends left the house until when the 24year-old were found.

Metlid added that the police department is looking at many different aspects and what motives that could be behind the tragic incident. They have been interviewing many witnesses but would not comment on the outcome of these. However, As of yet, the police do not have any suspects, and the investigation is still underway.

It is not the first time we have seen tragedies associated with cryptocurrencies. A few months back a crypto blogger was discovered dead in his apartment in St Petersburg. The death of the 23-year old self-made crypto millionaire follows an incident in which he was assaulted during a robbery of his home in Leningrad Oblast at the beginning of the year. The home invaders tied up and beat Nyashin and stole a safe containing around 24 million Rubles ($425,000) as well as ‘essential documents’.

Photo by kat wilcox from Pexels