Bitcoin Star Autumn Radtke Found Dead: Suicide Suspected As Cause Of Death For 28-Year-Old CEO Of First Meta Bitcoin Exchange

Autumn Radtke, the 28-year-old American chief executive officer of bitcoin exchange First Meta, was found dead in her Singapore apartment on Feb. 26. Police have ruled out foul play as the cause of her death, but suspect suicide.

Singapore officials are waiting for the results of a toxicology report before making a statement on Radtke’s cause of death.

Radtke, a Milwaukee native, worked for Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) and other Silicon Valley tech companies on developing digital payment systems. She has been called a “rising star” in the bitcoin community and was a featured speaker at a conference in Asia two years ago, where she talked about investing in virtual currencies.

“The First Meta team is shocked and saddened by the tragic loss of our friend and CEO Autumn Radtke,” First Meta said on its website. “Our deepest condolences go out to her family, friends and loved ones. Autumn was an inspiration to all of us and she will be sorely missed.”

First Meta is a platform that allows users to trade different forms of digital currencies, such as bitcoin, and convert them into cash.

Radtke’s death is the latest blow to the bitcoin community, which has had its share of setbacks in recent weeks.

The world’s largest bitcoin exchange, Mt. Gox, filed for bankruptcy just two days after Radtke’s death, taking with it nearly 7 percent of the total bitcoins in circulation, a value of about $467 million.

Flexcoin, a Canadian bitcoin exchange, closed down on Wednesday. Thursday morning, Newsweek published a story that claimed to identify the mysterious creator of bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Radtke’s death is also the latest in a string of deaths related to the financial sector. While the deaths have not been officially connected, nine people who worked in finance died in the past six weeks.

Most of those deaths have been suicides, and three of the people had been employees at JPMorgan.