Hsin-Ju Chuang, who spent nine years in the crypto industry and most recently worked as a partner at Hack VC, was found dead in California’s Mojave Desert on August 24. She was 37.
The cause of her death has not been determined. Weeks earlier she had published a detailed account of a dispute with the firm and said she was refusing a settlement that required her silence. Investigators have not connected the two, and the San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office is still awaiting autopsy results.
California Highway Patrol officers responded to the southbound Interstate 15 Fields Road off-ramp in Newberry Springs at 9:48 p.m. that evening and entered a vehicle during a welfare check. Authorities have not indicated any suspicion of foul play.
What Investigators Have Said
The California Highway Patrol’s Barstow office is investigating. That office covers 130 miles of Interstate 15 between Apple Valley and the Nevada state line, the second-largest CHP patrol area in the state by geography.
Daytime temperatures in Newberry Springs reached 108°F on the day she was found, with overnight lows in the 80s. It remains unknown whether heat exposure, a medical emergency, mechanical failure, or another factor played a role.
The San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department, which operates the coroner division, states that death investigations requiring toxicology and histology testing take an average of six months to a year to finalize. No timetable has been given in this case.
Nine Years in Crypto
Chuang worked across several parts of the industry. According to her own account, she was head of growth at the Stellar Development Foundation in 2017, joined Solana in 2018 when the company had around ten people, and worked at Fhenix in 2024. She ran ETH events through Dystopia Labs from 2019 onward. She joined Hack VC part-time in 2021 and full-time more recently as a partner and head of platform.
Jordy, a crypto industry figure who posted a tribute on X, described her as one of the nicest people he had met and said she made the industry feel inclusive.
A Public Dispute With Her Former Employer
Weeks before her death, Chuang published a detailed account on X of her time at Hack VC and of a legal dispute with the firm.
In the thread, she said she had rejected a settlement that would have required her to stay silent, had dismissed her lawyers, and intended to publish evidence from her time at the firm. She alleged that two partners had pressured her to keep working through a serious health crisis by threatening to blacklist her in the industry, that she had a documented thyroid condition and severe insomnia at the time, and that the firm had mishandled her health insurance after she left. She said she had attempted suicide during that period.
The allegations have not been tested in court or established by any independent process, and no lawsuit was filed. No connection has been established between the dispute and her death. The coroner has not determined a cause, and investigators have not linked the two.
