Hong Gyu Yea is a South Korean entrepreneur and former investment bank trader. He is Co-Founder and CEO of GRVT (Gravity), a hybrid decentralized derivatives exchange built on ZKsync. He previously worked at Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. He graduated from Yonsei University.^[2]​

Education

Hong Gyu Yea attended Yonsei University, where he earned a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in Business Administration and Management, General, from 2006 to 2013.^[2]​

Career Prior to GRVT

Hong Gyu Yea began his career at Credit Suisse in Hong Kong, where he worked as an Associate from June 2013 to October 2018.^[2] He then joined Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong as an Executive Director from November 2018 to July 2022. His formal title at Goldman Sachs is confirmed by LinkedIn and by RootData; his X profile separately describes him informally as "ex-trader" at Goldman Sachs.^{[2] [1] [3]}​

Co-Founding of GRVT

In July 2022, Hong Gyu Yea co-founded GRVT alongside Aaron Ong and Matthew Quek and became Co-Founder and CEO, based in Hong Kong, per his LinkedIn profile.^[2] Under his leadership, GRVT launched its mainnet alpha in late 2024 on ZKsync, expanded into spot and options trading in 2026, and closed a $19 million Series A funding round in September 2025.

Public Commentary / Thought Leadership

He has published opinion pieces on GRVT's blog, and GRVT's channels have linked to or been featured in industry outlets (for example, CCN) on topics including DeFi liquidity fragmentation and crypto compliance. Public comments about GRVT's Series A raise emphasized privacy as an important element for on-chain trading and investing.