Sanju Kurian

Co-founderCo-Founder of Defx Labs

Singapore· Active

Name note: Sanju Kurian is also identified in some first-party Defx materials as "Sanju Sony Kurian." The preferred professional name form should be verified from his current direct professional profile before editorial use.

About Sanju Kurian

Sanju Kurian — Co-Founder of Defx Labs; Former CTO of Vauld

Sanju Kurian (also referred to professionally as Sanju Sony Kurian in some first-party materials — verify preferred name from direct professional sources) is a Co-Founder of Defx Labs, a company building a purpose-built Layer 1 blockchain for perpetual futures trading with encrypted order flow. Defx Labs was founded in 2025 by Darshan Bathija, Sanju Sony Kurian, and Soumyadeep Das. Sanju's current formal title at Defx should be verified directly; first-party materials confirm his co-founder status.

Sanju previously co-founded Vauld with Darshan Bathija in 2018 and served as CTO during Vauld's operating period. Vauld suspended all withdrawals, trading, and deposits in July 2022 and entered a restructuring process in Singapore. Both founders reportedly stepped down from Vauld management in September 2023. "CTO of Vauld" is a historical title; it should not be presented as a current role.

Historical Vauld PR materials reference Nanyang Technological University as Sanju's alma mater for Computer Engineering. This should be verified from institutional or direct professional records before treating it as confirmed.

Information last checked: August 19, 2026

Projects Founded

Vauld
Defx Labs

Career Timeline

Education

Historical Vauld PR materials reference Computer Engineering at Nanyang Technological University (NTU). Verify exact degree and graduation year from institutional/direct professional records.

Pre-Vauld

Early engineering/product roles. Verify exact employers, titles, and dates from direct professional profile.

2018 — Vauld Co-Founded

Co-founded Vauld with Darshan Bathija. Served as CTO, overseeing technical architecture of the crypto lending and trading platform.

2021 — Vauld Peak Operations

Vauld reported growth to approximately 1 million users. These are historical figures from company materials and cannot be independently verified by Bitnxt.

July 2022 — Vauld Suspension

Vauld suspended all withdrawals, trading, and deposits and entered a restructuring process. Sanju's CTO role at Vauld ended with the management transition.

September 2023 — Management Exit

Both Vauld co-founders stepped down from management per reporting by The CapTable (October 2023); a new board assumed restructuring responsibilities.

2025 — Defx Labs Founded

Co-founded Defx Labs with Darshan Bathija and Soumyadeep Das. Defx raised $2.5M seed funding in June 2025 to build a Layer 1 dark pool DEX for perpetual futures.

Key Contributions

Defx Labs Co-Founder

Co-founded Defx Labs (2025) with Darshan Bathija and Soumyadeep Das, bringing engineering and product experience from Vauld to a new privacy-first, onchain perpetuals protocol.

Vauld CTO: Crypto Lending Tech

Served as CTO of Vauld from founding until the platform's suspension in July 2022, overseeing technical infrastructure for one of Southeast Asia's larger crypto lending and trading platforms.

Encrypted Order Flow Architecture

Defx's technical architecture includes zero-knowledge-based encrypted trade intents, hiding position size, leverage, and liquidation thresholds from public view while maintaining onchain verifiability.

Layer 1 Perpetuals Infrastructure

Defx is building a sovereign Layer 1 with a native CLOB matching engine, multi-collateral margining, and direct cross-chain onboarding from Ethereum, Solana, Arbitrum, and other networks.

Vault Liquidity System

Defx introduces vault-based liquidity infrastructure allowing passive capital providers to stake assets (BTC, ETH, stablecoins) and earn protocol fees and rewards from trading activity.