Who he is
Brian Fu is a Web3 entrepreneur based in Hong Kong, who came to DeFi after more than fifteen years in traditional finance: Bloomberg, Standard Chartered (FX structuring and commercial real estate), Silk Road Finance and China Merchants Capital, where he was vice president until early 2022. A graduate in engineering physics from the University of British Columbia, with a minor in commerce, he developed an interest in computational finance during his university years. In 2021-2022 he co-founded zkLend, a money market protocol built on Starknet (an Ethereum Layer 2), of which he was co-project lead together with Jane Ma. The project, backed among others by Three Arrows Capital in its early rounds, was one of the flagship protocols of the Starknet ecosystem until the 2025 exploit.
Current role
- zkLend has ceased operations: on 25 June 2025 the team announced the protocol's definitive shutdown, allocating the roughly 200,000 dollars remaining in the treasury to reimbursing users rather than to a relaunch (Verified: September 2026).
- Brian Fu's occupation after the shutdown is not publicly documented: as at September 2026 there are no announcements of new roles or projects.
Career path
1. 2009-2022, traditional finance — from Bloomberg to Standard Chartered, up to the vice presidency at Silk Road Finance and China Merchants Capital. 2. 2021-2022 — co-founds zkLend, among the first lending protocols native to Starknet. 3. 2025 — after the February hack and the delistings of the ZEND token, leads the orderly shutdown of the protocol with the residual treasury allocated to users.
Recent developments and controversies
- February 2025 hack: an attacker exploited a decimal precision vulnerability in zkLend's smart contracts, taking around 9.6 million dollars of user funds. In April 2025 the hacker stated via Etherscan that he had in turn lost 2,930 ETH on a phishing site imitating Tornado Cash.
- Shutdown (25 June 2025): the team explained that the hack had "deeply eroded user trust" and that the delistings of ZEND from exchanges such as Bybit and KuCoin had choked the token's liquidity. Outcome: definitive shutdown, residual treasury (~$200,000) allocated to reimbursements. There are no allegations of wrongdoing against the founders (Verified: September 2026).
FAQ
Is zkLend still active? No. The protocol shut down definitively on 25 June 2025, four months after a hack of around 9.6 million dollars; the residual treasury was allocated to reimbursing users.
Who is Brian Fu? A Web3 entrepreneur with fifteen years of career in traditional finance (Bloomberg, Standard Chartered, China Merchants Capital), known as the co-founder of the lending protocol zkLend on Starknet.
See also
Verified sources
- https://thedefiant.io/news/defi/starknet-based-zklend-shuts-down-amid-fallout-from-usd10-m
- https://cryptobriefing.com/zklend-shutdown-zend-delisting/
- https://www.halborn.com/blog/post/explained-the-zklend-hack-february-2025
