36.1447° NNASHVILLE, TN86.8027° W

Austin
Liu.

Economics & Political Science at Vanderbilt. Researching crypto markets, DeFi risk, and the policy that will shape both.

VANDERBILT '28 INCOMING @ COINBASE AUSTIN@AUSTINPLIU.COM LINKEDIN MEDIUM
Sheet 01 · Profile

About

I'm a junior at Vanderbilt studying Economics and Political Science with a minor in Data Science. My work sits where markets, technology, and regulation meet: how decentralized finance actually behaves under stress, how digital assets get custodied and secured, and how U.S. legislation is redrawing the lines around all of it.

I write research for crypto firms, help build the communities around them, and organize students on digital asset policy.

SchoolVanderbilt University
DegreesB.S. Economics
B.A. Political Science
MinorData Science
GraduatingMay 2028
LanguagesEnglish, Mandarin
01
Sheet 02 · Work

Experience

01Summer 2027
New York, NY

Coinbase

Incoming Intern, Sales, Trading & Prime

  • Joining the Sales, Trading & Prime team in New York for summer 2027.
  • Earned the offer through the Coinbase Institutional Client Strategy Challenge, placing in the top 20 of hundreds of entrants.
02Jan 2026 – Present
Remote

Mangrove AI

Research & Product Analyst

  • Publish four to six research pieces a month on DeFi yields, stablecoin adoption, and crypto market structure.
  • Built a Python tool to beta test the trading API, surfacing 26 findings for engineering, including a security issue.
  • Built the company's community platform from an empty Discord server, with onboarding, spam filtering, and a bug-report channel routed to the dev team.
03May 2026 – Present
Remote

Cipher Chain Capital

Research Writer (Contract)

  • Write long-form research on operational security and self-custody, from multisig design to the $1.5B Bybit breach.
  • Analyzed how shared collateral, oracles, and stablecoins turned isolated DeFi exploits into ecosystem-wide losses.
  • Researched the CLARITY Act's SEC/CFTC jurisdictional split and what it means for custody and listing standards.
04Jun – Jul 2025
Fontana, CA

GEODIS Logistics

Operations Intern

  • Analyzed throughput across three shifts and identified two bottlenecks, cutting labor costs by $34,000 a year.
02
Sheet 03 · Campus

Leadership

01Sep 2024 – Present

Vanderbilt Blockchain

Head of Marketing

  • Secured partnerships with Coinbase, Gemini, Jupiter, and Bitcoin Park for career events drawing 400+ attendees.
  • Write a weekly newsletter on digital asset policy and markets for 450+ students and alumni.
02Sep 2024 – Present

AnchorDAO

Research Analyst · DormDAO Vanderbilt Chapter

  • Ranked first of 17 university chapters for 2025–26, with a roughly 52% ETH-denominated return on a 40 ETH allocation.
03Nov 2025 – Present

Stand With Crypto Alliance

College Representative

  • Vanderbilt's liaison to the national network; organized four policy events reaching 160+ students.
03
Sheet 04 · Writing & Contact

Writing

I've published 20+ independent articles on the Coinmonks publication on Medium, read more than 1,500 times.

Real-world asset tokenizationCustody designOracle concentrationPrivacy protocolsPrediction marketsBitcoin drawdown cycles

Get in touch

Emailaustin@austinpliu.com LinkedInin/austinpliu Medium@austinpliu
04