Crypto Gloss

Su Zhu

Su Zhu is a co-founder and former director of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), a cryptocurrency hedge fund he established with Kyle Davies in 2012. 3AC entered liquidation in the British Virgin Islands in June 2022. Zhu later faced Singapore court proceedings over compliance with orders made for the fund’s liquidation, as well as regulatory action from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This page distinguishes those court and regulatory records from claims made by the liquidators.

Three Arrows Capital

Three Arrows Capital traded and invested in cryptocurrencies and other digital assets. Singapore’s High Court records identify Zhu and Davies as its co-founders and directors, and state that the company was placed into liquidation by a British Virgin Islands court in June 2022. The liquidation was later recognized as a foreign main proceeding in Singapore.

The failure of a large crypto fund mattered beyond the company itself because counterparties and creditors had to work through claims and recovery proceedings across jurisdictions. A liquidation process gathers and examines records, identifies assets and claims, and distributes recoveries under the applicable legal process. It does not by itself establish that every allegation made by a liquidator has been proven.

Singapore court proceedings

In 2022, the Singapore High Court ordered Zhu and Davies to provide affidavits about their dealings with the fund and produce documents. After the directors failed to comply, the court issued committal orders on September 25, 2023, sentencing each to four months’ imprisonment for contempt of court. Zhu was arrested at Changi Airport and committed to prison on September 29, 2023.

These orders concerned disobedience of a court disclosure order in the liquidation process. They should not be described as a criminal conviction for causing 3AC’s collapse or for stealing customer assets; those are separate questions from the contempt proceedings.

In June 2025, Singapore’s Court of Appeal dismissed appeals seeking to set aside the disclosure and committal orders. It allowed a separate appeal in part and set aside a later examination order for Zhu, finding that the liquidators had not disclosed when seeking it that they had already decided to pursue BVI proceedings against him. The ruling also restricted use in those proceedings of information obtained through that examination. The distinction matters: the court upheld the earlier disclosure and committal orders while addressing a procedural fairness problem with the later examination.

MAS regulatory orders

Separately, MAS issued nine-year prohibition orders against Zhu and Davies, effective September 13, 2023. The orders prohibit them from conducting regulated activities or managing, directing, or becoming substantial shareholders of a capital-markets services firm under Singapore’s Securities and Futures Act. MAS said its investigation found regulatory contraventions at Three Arrows Capital, including failures to notify the regulator and inadequate risk management. These are regulatory findings about the firm and directors’ responsibilities, separate from the contempt sentence.

Why the record needs careful reading

Several different processes followed 3AC’s failure: liquidation and creditor claims, Singapore orders to obtain information, and regulatory action by MAS. A court’s description of a liquidator’s allegation is not the same as a final finding that the alleged debt or conduct has been proven. Likewise, the contempt sentence arose from failure to obey a disclosure order, while the later appeal dealt with a distinct examination order. Keeping those proceedings separate gives a clearer account of what the public records establish.

Related Terms

See Also

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