Su Zhu is the co-founder, CEO and chief investment officer of Three Arrows Capital, a cryptocurrency-based hedge fund headquartered in Singapore. Zhu founded the company in 2012 with Kyle Davies, a former high-school classmate. The two co-founders, who are now among the world’s largest crypto holders, began their partnership at the kitchen table of their shared apartment in Singapore. Three Arrows Capital, the company they founded, is now worth billions of dollars.
Zhu obtained a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Columbia University in New York and graduated with high distinction. Before setting out on their own, Zhu and Davies worked as traders for Credit Suisse. Zhu also had a brief stint as a trader for Hong Kong-based Deutsche Bank in 2012. In one of his first jobs, he worked for over two years at Flow Traders in Singapore.
Zhu rocked the boat in late 2021 when he abandoned Ethereum due to high gas fees, stating: “I have abandoned Ethereum despite supporting it in the past.” Ethereum’s high transaction fees have long been an issue among its users, and this was something that Zhu publicly called out: “Ethereum has abandoned its users despite supporting them in the past.” He added that Ethereum is suffering from a “founder’s dilemma” and has forgotten its purpose within the crypto community. Zhu has since backtracked on his harsh remarks.
Three Arrows closed the year with the purchase of $400 million worth of ETH, something unexpected given Zhu’s previously announced distaste for Ethereum’s gas fees. Zhu confirmed as much, saying that although the platform’s layer 1 remains “unusable for newcomers,” he was still willing to “bid hard on any panic dump.”
Meanwhile, Zhu and his Three Arrows co-founder, Davies, launched another project in mid-2021 — a new NFT fund called “Starry Night Capital.” The two plan to invest exclusively in “the most desired” NFTs in the market, joining pseudonymous NFT collector VincentVanDough.
Zhu has issued a prediction on the adoption of Bitcoin in 2022, tweeting: “I’m only going to make one prediction for 2022 and it’s that at least 10 nation-states will make BTC legal tender.” He hasn’t mentioned much about Ethereum, probably because as he outlined in late 2021, he believes the platform leaves much to be desired in terms of improving fees. As for crypto in general, Zhu remains bullish on the space, saying “It is the most important mega-trend of our times.”
Much to the entertainment of crypto enthusiasts following Zhu on social media, he’s been tweeting a lot about mosquitoes this year, giving advice on how to eliminate them efficiently. Fans were quick to point out Zhu’s recent preoccupation and have thrown around jokes about “mosquito” being code for some unknown crypto concept.
Overall, Zhu is expected to continue throwing his weight behind innovative projects and initiatives. In early 2022, Three Arrows Capital announced it had led a private token sale for Ethereum competitor Near Protocol. The funding round raised $150 million to advance Web3 adoption and included the participation of major crypto-focused funds such as Dragonfly Capital, Jump, Alameda and others. Given his previous misgivings about Ethereum, it is highly likely that Zhu will continue to seek out and support alternatives that address Ethereum’s biggest issues.
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