Taiyang Zhang
Taiyang Zhang is a serial entrepreneur known for his work in cryptocurrency infrastructure and computational biotechnology. He co-founded Ren Protocol and served as its Chief Executive Officer (CEO) before moving to an advisory role, and he was a Venture Partner at Alameda Research and a founding member of KeeperDAO.[5][1] He also co-founded Virgil Capital, a quantitative cryptocurrency hedge fund that traded digital assets across global markets.[3][14]
Beyond crypto, Zhang co-founded Automera, a Singapore-based biotechnology startup developing Autophagy-Targeting Chimera (AUTAC) small molecules, which raised a $16 million early funding round, and QDX, a computational drug discovery company that uses quantum mechanics-based methods to model molecular interactions.[7][6][2][14]
Early Life & Education
Taiyang Zhang was born in Canberra, Australia. He studied Computer Science at the Australian National University for less than one year.[2]
“I used to program when I was around 14 or so, and at the time,
Career
In 2014, Taiyang Zhang founded Neucode, a software development agency alongside Loong Wang and Jaz Gulati.[3] He later co-founded Virgil Capital, a cryptocurrency hedge fund that used quantitative, data-driven strategies to trade digital assets across global markets.[3][14]
Ren Protocol
Originally called Republic Protocol and headquartered in Singapore, Ren was founded in July 2017 by Taiyang Zhang and Loong Wang. Zhang served as the company's CEO, Loong Wang as its Chief Technology Officer, and Jaz Gulati as its Lead Developer.[8]
Ren was launched in January 2018, with Zhang citing its primary use case as a "decentralized dark pool for cryptocurrency trading."[4]
Ren's main function is to act as a custodian for digital assets while they are moved between different blockchains. This involves securing the assets and generating corresponding tokens on the destination blockchain.[8]
In January 2019, Ren participated in the release of the whitepaper introducing Wrapped Bitcoin. The paper introduced the notion of "wrapped" tokens, utilizing Ethereum's ERC-20 token standard.[9]
"Dark pools were created out of a need and that need is when someone has a large volume order and wants to trade it in the best possible way. It also aids transparency. A decentralized dark pool is very important because the rule set on where everybody is trading is very transparent and there are no bribes in the system" - Taiyang Zhang explains in an interview
In February 2021, the Ren development team joined Alameda Research.[12] Taiyang Zhang and his co-founder Loong Wang, moved to advisory roles to guide the next phase of Ren Protocol.[13]
KeeperDAO
In 2019, Taiyang Zhang and Tiantian Kullander co-founded and jointly managed KeeperDAO. It was a collaborative effort between Kullander's Amber Group, a crypto trading and market-making firm, and Zhang's Talo Systems, a blockchain research firm.[1]
Automera
In 2022, Zhang co-founded Automera, a Singapore-based biotechnology startup focusing on the development of Autophagy-Targeting Chimera small molecules (AUTACs), which are designed to harness the cell’s autophagy machinery to remove selected proteins.[2][14] Automera raised $16 million in an early funding round co-led by ClavystBio, a Temasek-backed life-science venture builder, and Lightstone Ventures, positioning the company as an early-stage, venture-backed biotech firm as of 2025.[7]
QDX
In 2023, Zhang co-founded QDX, which describes itself as a computational drug discovery company that uses quantum mechanics-based simulations of molecular interactions to support small-molecule drug design.[6][2] Public profiles list QDX as a Singapore-based, privately held startup focused on applying quantum chemistry methods to identify potential drug candidates for biologically challenging targets as of June 2025.[6][14]
