After disgraced crypto entrepreneur’s ‘enjoyable’ Singapore prison experience, focus turns to exchange in Hong Kong

Although he is “not to the point of highly recommending it per se … it’s something that if everyone got to experience once, I think it’s definitely good for you,” Zhu said.

Among the benefits of his jail time were improved sleep, he added, owing to the mandatory lights-off time from 9.30pm to 5.30am and no access to the internet, alcohol or caffeine.

“I had the best sleep of my life in prison,” he said.

Sleeping on a mat on the floor took some getting used to, he said, but it gave him a “magical feeling”.

“You feel a kinship with your ancestors,” Zhu said. “Because it’s like, this is how I was supposed to live.”

While some commenters on X cheered Zhu’s comments as inspirational, some also poked fun at the founder, with one user calling it “the craziest level of coping I have ever in my life seen”.

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Three Arrows Capital, once one of the largest crypto hedge funds in the world, imploded in June 2022 after a series of leveraged investments blew up, leading to a number of other crypto firm collapses and fuelling a US$2 trillion crypto market rout.

Zhu was arrested as he was attempting to leave Singapore at Changi Airport last September for failing to cooperate with liquidation investigations.

The founder swapped prison for home detention at the end of November and his sentence ended on December 20, Zhu said in an interview on X Spaces. In that interview, he said he had turned the page on Three Arrows and is focusing on his new project, a crypto exchange named OPNX.

Zhu co-founded OPNX in April last year with Kyle Davies, another Three Arrows co-founder, among others. The founding team also includes Mark Lamb, the former CEO of collapsed crypto derivatives exchange CoinFlex.

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FTX crypto exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried convicted by US court on fraud charges

The company told crypto news outlet The Block last April that it had relocated to Hong Kong, a decision supported by OPNX investors.

OPNX did not immediately respond to a request for comment about its presence in Hong Kong or plans to comply with the city’s new crypto regulations.

Hong Kong introduced the regulation last year to offer greater regulatory clarity to the crypto industry as it seeks to become a global virtual asset hub. The new scheme requires all centralised crypto trading platforms that either conduct business in Hong Kong or actively market to investors in the city to be licensed by the Securities and Futures Commission.