- Three Arrows Capital cofounder Su Zhu says prison was a great experience.
- He was imprisoned for three months in Singapore after not cooperating with liquidators for 3AC.
Prison is awesome, says disgraced crypto star Su Zhu.
Zhu, the cofounder of cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, served three months in prison in Singapore for failing to cooperate with a liquidation order when his firm couldn't meet margin calls.
He was released in December, and is now giving his incarceration a stellar review.
"No one wants to go to prison, but I think it's actually a really enjoyable experience overall," Zhu said in a clip of a forthcoming podcast episode he shared on Monday on X. Zhu said the comments are part of the first episode of a new podcast, but did not name the podcast.
"Not to the point of highly recommending it per se, but I would say it's something that if everyone got to experience once, I think it's definitely good for you," he added about spending time in prison.
Zhu said he enjoyed the spartan lifestyle afforded to inmates, getting access to "the things that in ancient days would still be considered entertainment."
Books, that is.
"You have an insane amount of time to read," Zhu said. "Basically you can do all the pushups you want." Zhu wrote on January 12 that he read "Jack Reacher" novels while incarcerated.
Another prison plus, Zhu said, is that the facility lights are shut off from 9:30 p.m. to 5:30 a.m., allowing for the "best sleep in my life."
"But because you have no internet time, you have no alcohol, no caffeine, or whatever, you just going to fall asleep immediately and then you wake up right when the light comes on," he said.
Sleeping on the floor with no mattress was also great for "decompressing your spine," Zhu said.
Zhu said that once he adjusted to prison life, he experienced a "magical feeling."
"Because you feel a kinship with your ancestors," he said. "Like, this is actually how I was supposed to live."
Zhu's firm, Three Arrows Capital, collapsed in July 2022 as it defaulted on a $667 million loan from Voyager Digital.
As the hedge fund was liquidated, Zhu and his cofounder, Kyle Davies, left their Singapore headquarters and traveled the world, surfing in Bali, attending a Formula 1 event in Bahrain, and visiting a zoo in Dubai, The New York Times reported.
Their creditors, meanwhile, were owed $3.3 billion at the time. Liquidators said they weren't cooperating with identifying the fund's assets.
Zhu was arrested in Singapore in September while attempting to travel out of the island nation, where he owns a $35 million home.
Since leaving prison, Zhu has been posting AI-generated photos of oxen and buffalo on X, in an attempt to promote a new crypto project called Ox.Fun. It aims to engage users by giving them trading quests.