Tangent Co-founder’s Open Letter: Becoming Eugene is to prove.

Original source: Wangarian X account

Author: Wangarian

Compiled by: Golem, Odaily Planet Daily

On January 15, well-known trader Eugene Ng Ah Sio was exposed on the X platform by user @MiyaHedge, revealing his true identity as Darryl Wang (@0x Wangarian), co-founder of Tangent Ventures and a seed round investor in the ENA token. Previously, the Eugene account had publicly "called out" ENA and several other tokens multiple times. Given his true identity as a VC, Darryl Wang has been accused of various illegal activities, including fraud and insider trading.

In response to the numerous accusations, Darryl Wang published a lengthy article today, confirming that Eugene Ng Ah Sio (@0x ENAS) is indeed his personal account, while also refuting the allegations regarding selling undisclosed VC allocations, manipulating prices, charging for promotions, and fabricating trading records.

Odaily Planet Daily summarizes the key points of his response below for readers to quickly understand.

Opening an Anonymous Account for Security Reasons

Darryl Wang stated that the original intention of creating the Eugene Ng Ah Sio (@0x ENAS) account was to achieve personal challenges and make his trading gains and losses transparent, so he could avoid being influenced by preconceived notions and elitist judgments.

However, like many others, Darryl Wang decided not to disclose his identity for personal safety reasons, as he is well aware of the risks of publicly exposing large transactions and himself to public scrutiny, especially regarding safety concerns. Therefore, as his follower count grew, he set the initially public API to private and shifted the content to share trading strategies and monthly summaries.

Now, due to being "doxxed" and facing some false but provocative accusations, which have threatened his personal privacy and the safety of those around him, Darryl Wang stated that he can no longer operate the account anonymously and has decided to directly address the community's accusations, namely:

• Selling undisclosed VC allocations and leveraging the influence of the Eugene account to promote to fans;
• Using the Eugene account to manipulate prices through fan engagement;
• Charging for the promotion of certain tokens through the Eugene account;
• Fabricating Eugene's trading records, with trading funds sourced from behind VC and family.

Clarification on Secretly Selling VC Token Allocations

Only 2 Tokens from Personal Trades Overlap with Tangent

Darryl Wang stated that the Eugene account is managed solely by him and is unrelated to Tangent's angel investments. The partner responsible for angel investments, Jason, cannot control his trades or the tweets he posts.

Since the account's establishment, among the more than 100 tokens traded by Eugene, only 2 happen to overlap with Tangent's angel investments, but he remains extremely cautious to ensure that any information published on the Eugene account regarding token market conditions does not influence any angel investments.

Ethena Team Also Unaware of Eugene's True Identity

Regarding recent accusations that he exited an undisclosed VC angel investment and disguised it as a liquidity position that Eugene did not actually establish, Darryl Wang stated that neither he nor Tangent has exited any part of these investments. Tangent's partner Jason met with the founders of Ethena in mid-2023, and Tangent's angel investment department invested in Ethena in July 2023, followed by another investment in February 2024. These investments come with multi-year lock-up periods and are publicly verifiable. Given that all private equity investments are locked, Tangent cannot sell any angel round allocations, so Darryl Wang stated that any accusations of token dumping are not only fabricated but also functionally impossible.

In the third quarter of 2024, the Eugene account published an article about the liquidity advantages of ENA, where Darryl Wang stated that it clearly indicated he had gone long on ENA, but to avoid exposing his identity, he did not express any opinions or statements regarding Tangent's angel investments in the article.

Excerpt from Ethena article, Darryl Wang disclosing his finances

The Ethena team is also unaware of Eugene's true identity and did not participate in the creation of the article. All information provided in the article is publicly verifiable, and anyone can validate it. Darryl Wang stated that this article clearly illustrates how he thinks about issues from a liquidity perspective and even outlines the major risks Ethena faces from VC unlocks starting in April 2025.

Excerpt from Ethena article, emphasizing the risks posed by VC unlocks to ENA

Tangent Has Not Exited Any Angel Investments in Ethena

Darryl Wang stated that he has established a position approximately 100 times the amount Tangent invested during the angel investment phase. At the time of the article's publication, the price of ENA was $0.28, and today it has risen to $0.90, about three times the price at the time of publication.

At the same time, Darryl Wang stated that the entire article discusses the liquidity position he independently established. From the publication of the article to today, Tangent has not exited any angel investments in Ethena.

When Jason referenced Eugene's tweets, he fully disclosed Tangent's position in Ethena, but for privacy protection, Darryl Wang requested that his true identity not be disclosed. At the same time, Darryl Wang expressed that in hindsight, this was a misjudgment, and he deeply apologizes for any views that intentionally distort the facts.

In Eugene's tweet about the SEI token, Darryl Wang stated that the last mention was in December 2023 during the LTF trading setup, while the earliest VC unlock occurs nine months later in August 2024.

Only Posting Token Tweets Following Personal Principles

As the Eugene account's follower count grew, Darryl Wang stated that he adhered to two principles when posting tweets about tokens through this account:

• They must be listed on Binance perpetual contracts to ensure sufficient liquidity;
• Never use immediate bot-related price pressure as liquidity for sales.

Darryl Wang stated that he has violated the first rule before, attempting to share investment ideas about a certain on-chain token, but the results were not ideal. Since then, he has avoided sharing views on on-chain tokens.

At the same time, Darryl Wang candidly stated that due to his high trading frequency and short trading durations, if someone follows his trades, they may find that he has already closed his position before they can exit, which is why he often reminds people of the risks involved in following his trades and has always maintained transparency regarding the scale of his losses.

Never Participated in "KOL Trading"

Darryl Wang stated that he has never used the Eugene account to accept any funds or tokens to promote cryptocurrency trades or structures. During this period, many so-called "KOL trades" emerged, which offered very short and predatory unlock periods, clearly different from the venture capital trades Tangent participates in, which typically require tokens to have at least a 3 to 4-year lock-up period, with equity requiring even longer.

To clarify, Darryl Wang stated that since the establishment of the Eugene account, neither Tangent, Jason, nor himself have participated in any "KOL trades." Tangent's angel investment department has supported multiple startups, all of which have been publicly announced. When Eugene mentions certain tokens on Twitter, it is entirely due to the attractiveness of the trade itself, not to generate interest in angel investments, especially since over 80% of Tangent's venture capital does not involve tokens.

At the same time, Darryl Wang clarified that he has never personally or instructed Jason to exit any angel investments in Tangent after sharing any related content; these implications are entirely fabricated for the purpose of defamation.

Personal Success Story

Whistleblower May Have Other Motives

Darryl Wang disclosed that in the past 12 hours, photos of his family have been circulated to support threats based on false accusations, causing significant distress to his family. He emphasized that exposing his personal information is one thing, but endangering his family and using deliberately inaccurate and provocative language is another.

Therefore, during the preparation of this response, he also obtained information about the identities of the original poster and another related party, suspecting they may have ulterior motives, but he does not wish to share this information for ethical reasons.

Made a Fortune Through DeFi

In response to accusations that the trading funds behind the Eugene account are financed by his family, Darryl Wang shared his success story:

Darryl Wang was introduced to cryptocurrency during the summer of DeFi in 2020. In October 2020, he quit his investment banking job and invested $100,000 of his savings into cryptocurrency, joining DeFiance Capital as a junior analyst.

During the bull market of 2020-2021, Darryl Wang accumulated capital through trading and "shitcoining" (high-risk token trading) alongside other degens, and he ended this period profitably during the FTX collapse, having enough funds to provide initial capital for Tangent without needing external investors.

It was also at that time that Darryl Wang created the Eugene account as a personal account, initially without the involvement or assistance of the Tangent team, and the subsequent events are now well known.

Darryl Wang stated that whether the public believes it or not, the fact is that Eugene manages a fund pool financed by his personal resources (not external funds) and has not received any external services or solicited any capital.

Eugene's historical trading performance from January 2023 to January 2025 (Source: https://app.coinmarketman.com/dashboard/leaderboard)

Conclusion: Once Wanted to Be an Anonymous Legend

Darryl Wang co-founded Tangent with Jason, believing in leveraging his trading talents and Jason's skills in angel investing to become long-term supporters of the industry. Eugene is his personal creation, intended for trading with personal capital and independent decision-making, free from any constraints.

Darryl Wang expressed that he once hoped to give back like many anonymous legends, sharing his thoughts and processes.

Although he has always maintained transparency regarding profits and losses, some people still choose to target and tarnish his reputation. Ironically, Darryl Wang stated that part of the reason he created the Eugene account was to prove that a person's background does not matter; what matters is your process and trading discipline. However, now his background has become the main attack point for those attempting to defame him.

At the same time, Darryl Wang stated that this will be his first and last response to these accusations, and if the other party believes they have legal grounds, he is fully prepared to respond accordingly.