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(Kitco News) - Bob Lee, the chief product officer for MobileCoin, former chief technology officer for Square and the creator of the popular mobile payment service Cash App, has died following a stabbing in San Francisco on Tuesday.
According to a report from the San Francisco police department, the 43-year-old crypto executive was “found at 2.35 a.m. on the 300 block of Main Street in San Francisco, near the entrance to the Oakland Bay Bridge, on April 4, after police responded to a report of a stabbing.”
Despite the efforts of first responders and medical personnel, Bob succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
No arrests have been made at this time and the police have said the incident is under active investigation as a homicide. They have called for any witnesses to come forward to assist with their investigation.
Crypto Twitter responded to the news with shock, as Bob Lee was well-liked within the community and was instrumental in helping push innovation within the industry.
He rose in prominence after being named the first CTO for Jack Dorsey’s Square payments platform, which has since been renamed Block, and for creating Cash App in 2013. In 2021, Lee became the CPO at MobileCoin, the issuer of a privacy-oriented cryptocurrency of the same name.
“It’s real. Getting calls. Heartbreaking,” wrote Jack Dorsey, the founder of Twitter and Block, in a post on Nostr. “Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App.”
“Bob was a dad, the former CTO of Square where he created Cash App & CTO of Mobile Coin,” tweeted Bill Barhydt, CEO of mobile crypto wallet company Abra. “He was a generous decent human being who didn’t deserve to be killed.”
Former UFC fighter Jake Shield tweeted that his “good friend” was killed while walking in the “good” part of San Francisco and “appeared to have been targeted in a random mugging/attack.”
Muggings and violent crime have become a more common occurrence in San Francisco in recent years, and many said they hope that such a high-profile killing may result in the will to address the situation. “Bob Lee is an extremely high profile tech guy so hopefully this will at least bring attention to these problems,” Shield tweeted. “RIP Brother.”
