Cash App Creator Bob Lee Killed in San Francisco Stabbing

The tech executive was reportedly stabbed in the early hours of Tuesday in Rincon Hill, San Francisco

article-image

Cash App creator Bob Lee | Image from Joshua Goldbard, CEO at MobileCoin, modified by Blockworks

share

Bob Lee, a former chief technology officer of Square and founder of Cash App, has reportedly died after a stabbing in San Francisco. 

The San Francisco Police Department announced Tuesday that a 43-year-old male suffering from stab wounds passed away, but officials didn’t name the victim. However, local media and the CEO of MobileCoin confirmed the news.

Lee was most recently the chief product officer of crypto company MobileCoin, where he supervised the firm’s entire product portfolio. 

Joshua Goldbard, MobileCoin’s CEO, sent the following statement to Blockworks: “Bob was a force of nature. Helped to birth Android and CashApp into our world. Moby was his dream: a privacy protecting wallet for the 21st Century. I will miss him every day.” 

The news was confirmed by his friends and colleagues on Twitter, including Bill Barhydt, CEO at trading platform Abra, and Jack Dorsey, CEO at Square, who eulogized the tech executive.

“It’s real. Getting calls. Heartbreaking. Bob was instrumental to Square and Cash App. STL guy,” Dorsey wrote on decentralized social media platform Nostr.

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter Jake Shields, who says he was a friend, wrote on Twitter that Lee was in the “good” part of the city and appears to have been targeted in a mugging attack.

Loading Tweet..

No arrest has been made in the case as of press time, and the San Francisco police have not revealed further details on the suspect or motive.

“Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene. The victim was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries. Despite efforts by first responders and medical personnel, the victim succumbed to his injuries,” police said.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

morpho 2 graphic.png

Research

Utilizing a ‘DeFi Mullet’ approach, Coinbase’s Bitcoin-backed loans integration with Morpho demonstrates a powerful blueprint for CEXs to monetize dormant assets by expanding adoption of wrapped products (cbBTC, USDC) while also supporting native and/or preferred DeFi ecosystems (Base) which can further lead to downstream growth in onchain liquidity and increased utilization of the related assets.

article-image

The network is at a “pivotal juncture,” Blockworks Research’s Marc-Thomas Arjoon said

article-image

Altcoin trade volume has returned to pre-FTX levels, but with a shrinking pool of market leaders

article-image

Solana Foundation’s former head of strategy proposes increasing the disinflation rate

article-image

With much of the bitcoin mining supply chain based in Asia, US-based operations now face higher equipment prices

article-image

Anticipating an economic downturn, venture firms may be less likely to invest

article-image

Trump’s tariffs may have potentially significant impacts on GDP, household spending and food prices — if they hold