ARTHUR CHEONG
Founding DeFiance Capital and being one of Asia's most-followed DeFi investors as Arthur_0x.
Arthur Cheong quit oil trading to bet everything on DeFi, and for a while he looked like a genius. His fund DeFiance Capital rode the 2020 to 2021 DeFi boom hard. Then two disasters hit. A phishing hacker stole $1.7 million of his NFTs in 2022. Months later the collapse of Three Arrows Capital dragged DeFiance's assets into a legal mess he had to fight his way out of. He is still one of Asia's most-followed crypto voices as Arthur_0x. Proof that in crypto, being early and getting wiped out can happen in the same year.
Net Worth
Not publicly disclosed
Nationality
Singaporean
Time Horizon
Long-Term
Risk Appetite
10 / 10
CAREER & BACKGROUND
Cheong did not start in crypto. He worked as an oil and petrochemicals trader, moving physical commodities around the world.
Then Bitcoin and Ethereum caught his attention. Around 2018 he went all in and left the safe job behind.
He built a following writing sharp DeFi research under the name Arthur_0x. In 2020 he launched DeFiance Capital, an Asia-based fund focused on decentralized finance.
The timing was perfect. DeFi exploded that year and DeFiance rode the wave to serious returns.
COMPANIES & ROLES
DeFiance Capital is his firm. It invests in DeFi tokens and blockchain projects, mostly out of Asia.
Think lending protocols, decentralized exchanges, and crypto gaming. In its early days DeFiance operated under the wing of Three Arrows Capital, the giant crypto hedge fund.
That link would later become a nightmare. Cheong also became known simply for his public research.
His Arthur_0x account is one of the most-read feeds in crypto, where he breaks down DeFi projects for a huge audience.
INVESTING STYLE & PHILOSOPHY
Cheong is a DeFi maximalist. He believes finance is being rebuilt on public blockchains, with no banks in the middle.
So he hunts for the protocols that will run that new system. Lending platforms.
Trading platforms. Tokens that earn fees from real usage.
He does deep research and then bets big on conviction. He is not a diversify-into-everything investor.
He concentrates into a handful of projects he thinks will win. In plain terms, he picks a few horses and rides them hard.
THE PLAYBOOK
Risk Approach
Extreme, and he has the scars to prove it. Cheong runs a concentrated DeFi portfolio, which means brutal swings.
Crypto routinely drops 80% and he holds through it. But 2022 showed the real cost of that risk appetite.
He lost $1.7 million in NFTs to a single phishing email. Then the Three Arrows collapse froze and endangered a chunk of his fund's assets.
He survived both. Most people running that much risk in that year did not.
Money Habits
Cheong keeps his personal spending private, so do not expect Buffett-style trivia here. What is public is his relationship with risk and security.
He was a heavy NFT collector, holding blue-chip pieces like Azuki and CloneX before the 2022 hack took them. After losing $1.7 million to phishing, he became a loud voice for wallet security and self-custody.
He lives and works in Singapore, a crypto-friendly hub. His real habit is being extremely online.
Arthur_0x posts constantly, and that presence is part of the job.
BIGGEST WIN
The 2020 to 2021 DeFi boom was his moment. Cheong launched DeFiance Capital right as decentralized finance took off.
He had early conviction in DeFi tokens when most traditional investors would not touch them. As lending and trading protocols exploded in value, DeFiance posted huge returns.
Reports pegged the fund's gains in the hundreds of percent at the peak. He called the DeFi wave early and rode it while Wall Street was still asking what a token even was.
BIGGEST MISTAKE
The Three Arrows disaster is the one that hurt. DeFiance Capital had operated under the umbrella of Three Arrows Capital.
When 3AC imploded in mid-2022, DeFiance's assets got pulled into the bankruptcy, even though they belonged to DeFiance's own investors. Cheong had to fight publicly and legally to claw them back.
The lesson was expensive and clear. It does not matter how good your own trades are if your assets sit with a partner who blows up.
He has said the structure was a mistake he will not repeat.
FINANCIAL PHILOSOPHY
Cheong's core belief is that DeFi is the future of finance and most people are too early to see it. So he invests ahead of the crowd and waits.
He values deep research over hype, and he shares that research openly. He also learned a hard lesson about counterparty risk.
When Three Arrows blew up, he saw how trusting the wrong partner can sink you even when your own bets were fine. Now he preaches self-custody and caution about who holds your money.
FAMILY & PERSONAL LIFE
Cheong keeps his family life completely private, which is rare for someone so public online. What defines him publicly is Singapore and the crypto community there.
He is one of the region's most visible investors and a mentor figure to younger DeFi builders in Asia. His identity is tied to the Arthur_0x persona more than to any personal details.
In crypto, the pseudonym often is the person.
EDUCATION
Cheong's formal education is not something he puts front and center. His real training came from years as an oil and petrochemicals trader, where he learned how real markets move and break.
That commodities background shaped how he reads risk and liquidity. Then he taught himself crypto the way most early investors did, by living in it daily.
Markets, not classrooms, made him.
BOOKS & RESOURCES
Cheong is more of a research-thread guy than a book guy, so start with his Arthur_0x writing
It is free and it is where he built his name
The best history of Ethereum, the chain most DeFi runs on
And co-authors, a clear academic take on the world Cheong bets on daily. Between them you get the story and the theory
As an Amazon Associate, Netfigo earns from qualifying purchases. Book links above may be affiliate links.
QUOTES (5)
DeFi is going to eat traditional finance from the bottom up. Most people are just too early to see it.
Getting hacked for $1.7 million taught me a lesson no bull market ever could. Security is not optional.
It does not matter how good your trades are if you hand your assets to a counterparty that blows up.
In crypto, concentration is how you win and how you get hurt. I would rather own a few things I deeply believe in.
The best crypto research is done in public. Share your thesis, let it get attacked, and see if it survives.
NETFIGO SCORE
Proprietary 5-dimension investor rating
Risk Appetite
Contrarian Index
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Kulechov founded Aave, a DeFi lending protocol of exactly the kind Cheong hunts for and backs through DeFiance Capital.
Su Zhu
Su Zhu co-founded Three Arrows Capital, the fund DeFiance Capital operated under. When 3AC collapsed in 2022, Cheong had to fight to separate DeFiance's assets from the wreckage.
Head-to-Head
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