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Cryptocurrency billionaire Matthew Mellon has died at the age of 54 after struggling with drug addiction.
- Mr Mellon had struggled with drug addiction and was reportedly receiving treatment in Mexico
- He was most recently and adviser for the digital currency company Ripple Labs
- He had previously spoken to the New York Post about his addiction to OxyContin
His cousin Peter Stephaich confirmed Mr Mellon's death but declined to provide any details.
Reports said he died at a rehabilitation centre in Cancun, Mexico.
A scion of New York's Mellon and Drexel banking families, Mr Mellon made his fortune in digital currencies.
In a statement published in the New York Post, his family said he "made his fortune in cryptocurrency, turning a $2m investment into $1b. He is survived by his three children, Force, Olympia and Minty".
Mr Mellon had earlier told the publication about an addiction to the prescription painkiller OxyContin.
"OxyContin is like legal heroin. And it needs to be addressed," he told The Post in 2016.
According to Mr Mellon's LinkedIn account and documents of the Securities and Exchange Commission, he attended the Wharton School and later worked in fashion, telecommunications and finance, most recently as an adviser for the digital currency company Ripple Labs.
Mr Mellon also served for a time as the chairman of the finance committee of the Republican Party in New York.
He is survived by his first wife, fashion designer Tamara, his second wife, fashion designer Nicole Hanley, and three children.
Testifying at a trial where Mr Mellon was acquitted of hiring a private detective to snoop into Tamara Mellon's finances, the co-founder of Jimmy Choo shoes said she and her husband had met at a meeting of Narcotics Anonymous when both were recovering from addiction.
The two married in 1999 at Blenheim Palace, one of England's grandest homes, with friends Elizabeth Hurley and actor Hugh Grant among the guests. They divorced several years later.
AP/ABC
Topics: death, drugs-and-substance-abuse, banking, united-states, mexico