What will happen to the $2.6 billion worth of Bitcoin that Yevgeny Prigozhin had?

Ever since Yevgeny Prigozhin, the infamous leader of the Wagner mercenary army, passed away in a plane crash this week, the internet is wondering who will take control of his crypto wallet. After all, the man was (according to persistent rumors) the fifth largest Bitcoin hodler in the world. His wallet held some $2.6 billion in crypto.

#Wagner Group chief Yevgeny #Prigozhin had one of the largest #Bitcoin wallets in Russia

It is known that in 2017 there were more than 100,000 #BTC at the address pic.twitter.com/GyjY9nc4sS

— Multipolar Market (@MultiPolarMarkt) August 24, 2023

Plane crash

Earlier this week, just as the Republican presidential candidates were about to begin their debate, just as former President Trump was about to appear in court in Georgia for a legendary ‘mugshot’, something happened that simply blew away all other news stories.

From deep within Russia we were informed that the private jet of Yevgeny Prigozhin, boss of the Wagner mercenary army, had ‘crashed’ near Moscow. The conspiracy theories about who was behind it quickly spread, as did the question of what would happen to his Bitcoins.

A Bitcoin (BTC) wallet holding $2.6 billion has been identified as potentially belonging to Yevgeny Prigozhin. The sudden death of the owner of the Wagner, Yevgeny Prigozhin, stirred rumors that he significant Bitcoin (BTC) wallets.#Crypto#cryptocurrency #cryptocrash#BTC

— CryptoFan0001 (@CryptoFan0001) August 25, 2023

After all, internet savants have always claimed that Prigozhin started buying crypto right after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, because he expected a fall in the value of the Russian ruble.

According to data from Bitinfocharts, this is in line with the currently fifth largest crypto wallet, an anonymous wallet that started buying Bitcoin since February 1, 2022.

It’s worth noting that the infamous uprising involving the Wagner group in June 2023 saw a surge in stablecoin purchases among ordinary Russians who believed the ruble would collapse if Putin was ousted.

In the end, that did not happen, the Kremlin made a deal with Prigozhin, and two months later the man is dead. So who owns those Bitcoins now?