Authors: Maxwell, Jessy, Climber, LianGuai
“Who is Zhang Yufeng, the alumnus of others?”
On September 27, 2023, at the 40th anniversary celebration of Shenzhen University, Zhang Yufeng, a 2018 graduate of Shenzhen University, personally donated 50 million yuan to his alma mater.
As a recent undergraduate graduate only one year out of school, Zhang Yufeng’s “grand gesture” attracted attention.
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Social media began discussing who Zhang Yufeng is, what he does, where his wealth comes from, and how he invests.
Who is Zhang Yufeng?
According to media reports, Zhang Yufeng is a student in Class 2 of the International Economy and Trade major at the School of Economics of Shenzhen University, graduating in 2018.
On June 8, 2022, while still in his fourth year of college, Zhang Yufeng gave a lecture at the School of Economics titled “Teacher-Student Interview: The Innovative Entrepreneurship Journey of Zhang Yufeng, a Fourth-Year International Trade Major Student, Achieving Financial Freedom.” The lecture covered topics such as alternative asset trading, balancing coursework and extracurricular internship schedules, and obtaining internship offers from well-known companies.
According to the lecture announcement at the time, Zhang Yufeng was a partner at ABD Venture, a hedge fund in Singapore, primarily engaged in alternative asset investment and trading, with remarkable performance and substantial returns. Alternative assets refer to assets outside of traditional asset categories, such as private equity, hedge funds, collectibles, and virtual currencies.
There were rumors on the internet claiming that he is the son of Tencent co-founder Zhang Zhidong. However, Zhang Yufeng disclosed on his social media platform that his father is in the traditional printing industry. According to his mid-year sharing on social media, due to the difficulty of doing business in the traditional printing industry, he persuaded his father to borrow money and bought a UV printing machine to transform the business into high-end printing, targeting different markets in Vietnam and Cambodia. Finally, they received printing orders from a major sports card factory, successfully transforming the traditional printing factory.
Three sources of wealth: Solana, LUNA, FTT
Zhang Yufeng is extremely active on social media platforms such as Jike and X (formerly Twitter).
After reviewing the social media content he posted, LianGuai reporters found that Zhang Yufeng’s main source of wealth comes from cryptocurrencies, with Solana, LUNA, and FTT being the three main sources.
When Zhang Yufeng was a senior, he interned in a leading domestic Corporate Venture Capital (CVC) company and later became a full-time employee. He had initial exposure to crypto and rapidly grew in the field. While working in CVC, he also privately engaged in crypto trading and found that the returns and credibility of the crypto industry exceeded those of traditional VC investments. He then resigned and became a full-time crypto trader.
Bought Solana at $3 and held it until it reached a peak price of over $200: Solana is where Zhang Yufeng made a substantial profit from a six-figure income. Based on the congestion and overflow effects of Ethereum, he selected Solana after screening many public chains. He bought Solana at around $3 in early 2011 and held SOL until it reached a peak price of over $200.
Zhang Yufeng thus entered the top 100 list of FTX traders and got the opportunity to know FTX CEO SBF, which led to his entry into the FTX trading department.
Shorting LUNA, with profits hundreds of times: In March 2022, Zhang Yufeng entered FTX and has been paying attention to LUNA for a long time. At first, he went long on LUNA. During the period when LUNA rose from $50 to $90, he went long on the contract. But when LUNA was pegged to Bitcoin, he smelled blood. In May, Zhang Yufeng personally and the FTX trading department he was in charge of simultaneously shorted LUNA, shorting from $86 to several decimal points after 0, with profits reaching hundreds of times. The LUNA game helped Zhang Yufeng establish himself in FTX.
FTX collapse and FTT: According to Zhang Yufeng’s recollection, when Coindesk broke the news that Alameda Research was insolvent, Zhang Yufeng initially didn’t believe that FTX would have problems and thought it was just ordinary FUD. But later, after careful study of the mutual transfers between Alameda Research and FTX, he found that FTT was very similar to self-market making. After CZ announced the shorting of FTT on November 6th, FTX faced a run on its funds, and FTX staff couldn’t contact SBF. All FTX trading was suspended. Although Zhang Yufeng did not reveal in the interview whether he shorted FTT, given his style of both the company department he was responsible for and himself shorting LUNA at the same time during his time at FTX, the probability of Zhang Yufeng shorting FTT is very high.
Zhang Yufeng’s other investments
According to Zhang Yufeng’s personal disclosure on social media, in November 2022, he successfully bottomed out Bitcoin at a price of about $15,800. At the beginning of 2022, going long on Aptos also earned him ten times the profit.
According to information on his social media, Zhang Yufeng is not only involved in cryptocurrency trading, but also in investment and trading of some traditional collectibles. For example, he once spent tens of thousands of yuan to purchase a book from a series published by Mr. Lu Xun at his own expense in 1936 under the name “Sanxian Bookstore”. The current asking price according to Kongfuzi’s online listing is 390,000 RMB.
He also dabbles in stocks. According to his personal disclosure on social media, he built a position in Bilibili when its stock price was $15.8 in 2020, and began selling in batches when it reached a peak of $150, until it fell to $90 when he completed the final batch of selling.
In his daily life, Zhang Yufeng likes to watch car races, basketball games, and he likes pet dogs. He also invests in NFTs, such as holding BAYC, Azuki, etc.
However, Zhang Yufeng has also had failed investments. According to his disclosure on personal social media in March 2022, he lost over 1 million Hong Kong dollars in his investment in Hong Kong stocks.
According to Zhang Yufeng, in June 2022, he said that the biggest loss he suffered in the cryptocurrency circle was from a custodial private placement.
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