Gary Liu is a media and technology executive with a career spanning operations, product strategy, and executive leadership roles at companies including Google, Spotify, Digg, and the South China Morning Post. He is the co-founder and chief executive officer of Terminal 3, a Web3 platform focused on data privacy and identity.

Education

Liu attended Harvard University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics. ^{[1] [2]}

Career

Gary Liu began his professional career in 2006 at Cru, an international Christian organization, where he worked in an operations capacity supporting music students in Boston. In 2007, he transitioned into the technology sector by joining Google, serving as a senior operations associate and analyst for the inside sales division. During his time there, he was involved in the development of internal reporting systems and contributed to the launch of a new call center. Following Google, Liu joined the advertising technology company Clickable in 2009 as its senior director of business operations. In this role, he was responsible for a wide range of functions, including enhancing sales efficiency, managing reporting and analytics, and overseeing strategic partnerships until 2011. That year, he briefly took on the role of director of sales operations and strategy at AOL, where he managed a large team of over 60 personnel responsible for sales operations, customer support, marketing, training, and analytics for the company's local division. ^[3]

Later in 2011, Liu joined the music streaming service Spotify as its global director of ad product strategy. He was tasked with leading the development and international expansion of the company's advertising products. His role later evolved when he was appointed head of labs, a position that focused on exploring new platforms, emerging technologies, and strategic partnerships, and he also contributed to the company's acquisition strategy. In 2015, Liu moved to the news aggregation platform Digg, initially joining as chief operating officer. He was promoted to chief executive officer later that same year and led the company until 2016. In 2017, Liu relocated to Hong Kong to assume the role of chief executive officer of the South China Morning Post, a major English-language newspaper. He led the media organization through a period of digital transformation until his departure in 2022. ^[2]

Liu's career focus shifted toward Web3 technologies in the following years. In 2021, he founded Artifact Labs, a blockchain-based company, and served as its CEO until 2023. He subsequently transitioned to a position on the company's board of directors, a role he is expected to hold until 2025. In 2023, Liu co-founded Terminal 3, a Web3 platform designed to address data privacy and identity using zero-knowledge cryptography. As CEO, he leads the company's mission to create a user data oracle that enables secure data composability across applications in sectors like finance, healthcare, and gaming without compromising user privacy. Concurrently in 2023, he became the founding chair of Web3 Harbour, a non-profit industry association based in Hong Kong dedicated to advancing the Web3 sector. ^[4]

Awards and Recognition

In 2019, the World Economic Forum named Gary Liu a Young Global Leader, recognizing him as part of its community of influential global leaders. ^[1]

Views and Commentary

As the host of the SMART CONTACT podcast, produced by Web3 Harbour, Liu has engaged in discussions with various industry leaders about the evolution of blockchain technology, digital assets, and the broader Web3 ecosystem.

On a Multichain Future

In a December 2024 podcast episode with Lily Liu, President of the Solana Foundation, Gary Liu discussed the future of blockchain ecosystems and the concept of a multichain world. The conversation began by reflecting on the challenges the Solana network faced, particularly in the wake of the collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which had been a major supporter of its ecosystem. They examined Solana's subsequent resilience and evolution as a case study in ecosystem recovery. A central theme of their discussion was the critical importance of building a diversified blockchain infrastructure to avoid the systemic risks associated with over-reliance on a single provider or technology stack. The dialogue also highlighted the Asia-Pacific region as a crucial area for future blockchain development, noting that its unique economic landscape, characterized by currency fragmentation and a high degree of digital adoption, is particularly well-suited for the implementation of open finance solutions. While both agreed that a future with multiple interoperable blockchains is likely, Lily Liu posited that this "multichain" future would probably be dominated by a few major, highly scalable chains rather than a large and fragmented field of competitors. They concluded that achieving a truly decentralized and open financial system requires not only technological innovation but also significant cultural shifts in how individuals and institutions perceive and interact with digital assets. ^[1]

On Cryptocurrency Exchanges

During a May 2025 episode, Liu and Michael Lau of the cryptocurrency exchange Bullish explored the state of the crypto exchange market and whether it had become overly saturated. Lau provided a historical perspective on the market's maturation, noting that in early 2020, crypto trading was almost entirely driven by retail investors, who accounted for an estimated 99% of the volume. By 2025, the market had shifted significantly, with institutional trading growing to represent between 20% and 30% of the total volume. Lau argued that this shift exposed a gap in the market, as many existing exchanges were not built to meet the stringent requirements of large institutional players concerning trust, regulatory compliance, and operational scale. He explained that this gap was the motivation behind the creation of Bullish, which was designed to cater to institutional clients by integrating principles from traditional finance, such as a focus on compliance and a unique dual liquidity-provision system. The conversation also covered the evolving relationship between centralized finance (CeFi) and decentralized finance (DeFi), the ongoing development of global crypto regulations, and the strategic rationale behind Bullish's acquisition of the media outlet CoinDesk, which was intended to operate with editorial independence while contributing to the broader ecosystem. ^[2]

On Digital Assets and Regulation

In a December 2024 conversation with Mathias Imbach, co-founder and CEO of the Swiss digital asset bank Signum, Liu discussed the growth of digital assets within regulated financial frameworks. Imbach recounted the origins of Signum, which was founded in 2017 in direct response to the unregulated initial coin offering (ICO) boom. The bank's mission was to create a trusted, regulated platform for digital assets. He highlighted the pivotal role of Switzerland's clear and proactive regulatory environment, which enabled Signum to become the first licensed digital asset bank in the world. The discussion also addressed the broader trajectory of the crypto industry, reflecting on the important lessons learned from the market downturns and high-profile scandals of 2022 and 2023. Imbach emphasized that these events instilled a sense of humility within the industry and underscored the need for a long-term perspective focused on rebuilding credibility and trust. He argued that for the digital asset industry to thrive, traditional finance must begin to adopt blockchain technology to improve its own efficiency, transparency, and trust mechanisms. The conversation concluded with a shared view on the importance of demonstrating blockchain's practical, real-world value beyond speculative trading. ^[3]