Mark Zhang, also known as Yihao Zhang, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the decentralized derivatives protocol, MYX Finance. He has a professional background in derivatives and trading systems from his time in leadership roles at centralized cryptocurrency exchanges Huobi and OKEx. ^{[1] [2]}

Education

Mark Zhang earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from the University of Oregon’s Lundquist College of Business, where he studied from 2013 to 2016. ^[13]

Career

Mark Zhang's career in the digital asset industry includes leadership positions at prominent centralized exchanges (CEXs) such as Huobi (now HTX) and OKEx. At Huobi, he served as the head of futures products, gaining expertise in trading system architecture, liquidity design, and derivative product strategy. This experience informed his subsequent work in the decentralized finance (DeFi) sector. ^{[3] [4] [1]}

In 2023, Zhang founded MYX Finance, a decentralized exchange specializing in perpetual contracts, and assumed the role of CEO. The project was incubated by D11-Labs and officially launched its platform in February 2024. Under his leadership, MYX Finance secured significant venture capital funding to support its development. In November 2023, the company announced a $5 million seed round led by HongShan (formerly Sequoia China) at a $50 million valuation. This was followed by an additional $5 million strategic round in February 2024, bringing the total capital raised to $10 million. Other notable investors across both rounds included Consensys, Hack VC, OKX Ventures, HashKey Capital, and GSR Markets. Zhang stated that the capital would be used for user education and the development of the platform's trading tools. ^{[3] [4] [5]}

As CEO, Zhang has publicly articulated the company's vision, emphasizing a commitment to improving user experience and community engagement. In a July 2024 statement, he said, "MYX Finance is at the forefront of third-generation DDEX innovation, and the MYX Finance team is committed to refining it for an optimized user trading experience. We highly value the support of our users and community members." By July 2024, the platform reported having over 33,000 users and a daily trading volume exceeding $200 million. ^[6]

Controversies

During his tenure as CEO of MYX Finance, Zhang has publicly addressed several controversies related to the project's tokens and operations.

BMYX Token Incident

Between December 2023 and August 2024, MYX Finance faced significant community backlash regarding its BMYX token, which Zhang described as "an attempt for our EVM ecosystem project to enter the BTC network." The issues began in December 2023 with community concerns about the fairness of the BRC-20 token's initial deployment. The situation escalated in March 2024 when a member of the MYX operations team made "inappropriate remarks" toward a key opinion leader (KOL), prompting a formal public apology from Zhang.

In May 2024, Zhang issued another apology, acknowledging that the company had failed to properly communicate its compensation plan to the Chinese-speaking community, leading to sustained negative sentiment. To address the issues, MYX Finance initiated a three-phase compensation plan for BMYX holders. The first installment involved an airdrop of 6,000,000 MYX tokens. The process concluded in August 2024 with the third and final phase of compensation, which was settled in USDT. Throughout the incident, Zhang maintained that the team had not sold any of its BMYX tokens. ^[7]

MYX Protocol Concerns

The MYX Finance protocol and its native token have also been the subject of external criticism. Some market analysts raised concerns about potential market manipulation and wash trading activities on the platform. Following a significant price increase for the MYX token in September 2025, some critics suggested the rally was not supported by fundamentals, pointing to a high valuation and what they described as low developer activity and weak community engagement. Concerns were also noted regarding the token's supply, with a large portion scheduled to be unlocked in subsequent years, posing a potential risk of price dilution. ^{[8] [1]}