Caixin: Texas Hold'em pro Hu Zhewen has sued Jump Trading and Chinese professor Zhang Yongfeng, suffering consecutive losses after heavy investments in the crypto space.

Poker pro and crypto investor Hu Zhewen made heavy bets in three crypto booms, including algorithmic stablecoins and AI tokens, but suffered a string of losses. Between May 2021 and May 2022, he poured around $80 million into algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and its sister token LUNA. At its peak, his holdings were worth over $800 million, but LUNA’s price later plummeted to near zero. Hu claimed he once invested in blockchain project Stratis, earning a return of “over 1,000 times”. Hu has filed a lawsuit in Chicago, U.S., against global quantitative trading giant Jump Trading, its crypto-related affiliates and executives, seeking at least $500 million in damages. Separately, Hu bet on a new project by Chinese computer professor Zhang Yongfeng last January. Zhang joined Tsinghua University’s Department of Computer Science in 2007 and currently serves as a tenured associate professor in the Department of Computer Science at Rutgers University in the U.S. He has been sued by Hu on multiple charges including “securities fraud”. The token issued by Zhang’s institution, in which Hu invested millions of dollars, has fallen more than 99.6% from its 2025 peak, according to reports. Public records show Hu is a world-class Texas Hold’em poker player: the World Series of Poker (WSOP) website currently lists 58 money finishes, 5 final table appearances and total tournament earnings of around $1.67 million for him. Four years ago, in the $10,000 buy-in SuperMILLION$ high-stakes tournament, Hu reached heads-up against a New Zealand professional player, finishing second and taking home nearly $760,000 — the largest single-event prize of his documented poker career. (Caixin)