A Chinese crypto entrepreneur has committed suicide after losing clients’ 2,000 BTC by using 100x leverage trading, his former partner revealed on June 10.

Hui Yi, the 42-year old CEO and co-founder of BTE.TOP, a data analysis and service provider for the crypto market, has reportedly passed away on June 5. According to information circulated on the Internet, Hui was suspected of embezzling 2,000 BTC (roughly $14.5 million calculated by the recent bitcoin price) from users of the firm to short bitcoin with 100x leverage and lost all the funds.

What does 100 times leverage mean? If bitcoin price goes up by 1%, the account will be wiped out and all the money will go to zero. On the morning of May 31, Hui was still active in WeChat group chatting, predicting that the bitcoin price would plunge within an hour and its futures price would go to an intraday low of $7,000. His later death indicated the market was not on his side in his final days.

According to public information, Hui Yi was a serial entrepreneur, prior to it, he served IBM China research center as a senior researcher and later a senior product manager with Microsoft during 2003-2008. Over these years, he established a reputation as a crypto futures trader with lots of followers after several accurate predictions about the market trends.

His high-profile crypto startup BTE.Top was alleged to be the first Chinese blockchain project invested by VC giant Softbank China Venture Capital (SBCVC). While SBCVC told 8btc that “BTE.Top is not an SBCVC-funded project. It was a project SBCVC approached last year, but we have decided to give up the investment at the end of 2018. ”

Hui’s sudden death has roiled the crypto community in the country and left its clients at loss. People are wondering why this professional and seasoned trader acted so crazy and irrational with 100x leverage this time. Some observers even suggest that Hui faked his own death to abscond with the 2,000BTC, as they believe the seasoned market trader must have earned a lot before it and there would have been no need for him to give up his life for losses like this.

As of press time, the company and Hui’s family have not published the obituary of his death. The cause of Hui’s death is still unclear, and how to repay the 2,000 BTC to clients is another pressing problem the firm has to face. While some posted a picture saying the firm had shut down its office a month ago.

Leverage trading in cryptocurrency allows users to earn huge profits while exposing them to higher risks at the same time for its volatile nature. Most leverage traders are so addicted to the illusion of high profits that they absolutely forget the risks in it. Some even risk mortgaging their real estate to trade cryptos with leverage, dreaming of getting rich overnight, but most end up with debt instead.