Omar Zaki is a crypto entrepreneur and DeFi infrastructure executive known online as 0xbrainjar. He has been associated with the leadership of Composable Finance, a project focused on cross-chain interoperability, and he is also a co-founder and CEO of Mantis, an intent-based execution and settlement initiative built around chain abstraction. Zaki’s profile in crypto is shaped by his work on interoperability tooling across ecosystems such as Ethereum and Solana, alongside ongoing scrutiny tied to a prior U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) administrative settlement connected to his pre-crypto activities.
Overview
Zaki became widely discussed in crypto during the 2020s as Composable Finance pursued an infrastructure-first approach to DeFi, aiming to reduce liquidity fragmentation and make cross-chain activity feel closer to a single user flow. Under the 0xbrainjar identity, he published technical and strategic commentary on interoperability, messaging, and execution across heterogeneous networks. His more recent work has emphasized intent-centric design, where users express an outcome and a network of solvers competes to execute it across chains.
History and Background
Before entering crypto, Zaki operated in traditional finance. In April 2019, the SEC announced a settled administrative proceeding involving allegations that he ran an unregistered investment adviser and misled investors about a hedge fund’s assets, performance, and management. The settlement included a cease-and-desist order, a civil penalty, and time-limited industry bars with a right to reapply, and he neither admitted nor denied the findings. This episode remains a prominent part of his public background and is frequently referenced in discussions of governance and trust in founder-led DeFi projects.
Zaki later shifted toward crypto and DeFi and initially used the 0xbrainjar pseudonym. Anonymous and pseudonymous leadership is common in DeFi, but it can also create disclosure and accountability challenges for users, investors, and contributors. In 2022, Zaki publicly acknowledged that he had been operating as 0xbrainjar after external reporting and community investigations linked the identities.
Composable Finance and Interoperability Focus
Composable Finance developed during a period when cross-chain bridges and interoperability layers became essential to multi-chain DeFi, and also emerged as one of the sector’s most exploited surfaces. Composable’s approach has been framed around programmable interoperability, including efforts to support cross-chain execution, liquidity routing, and application composability across ecosystems with different security assumptions and execution models.
A key part of the Composable stack has been tied to IBC-style connectivity and restaking concepts, alongside experimentation via canary deployments. Within this context, Zaki’s leadership has been associated with shaping architecture, roadmap priorities, and the public narrative around chain abstraction as a way to reduce user friction in cross-chain DeFi.
Mantis Venture
Mantis is Zaki’s latest major venture and is positioned as an intent execution and settlement framework designed to abstract away cross-chain complexity for end users. The project has described itself as a Solana-based rollup or Layer 2 environment that houses the Mantis protocol, with security and interoperability components connected to the broader Composable stack. In public materials, Mantis is presented as “Multi-chain Agnostic Normalized Trust-minimized Intent Settlement,” reflecting a focus on intent expression, solver-based execution, and settlement across multiple domains.
Mantis’ stated design emphasizes three technical themes: intent-centric execution, IBC-enabled interoperability, and a restaking-based security model linked to Picasso-related infrastructure. The project has also highlighted best-execution style routing, where competing solvers can select paths and venues to fulfill user intents across chains.
- Intent-centric architecture: Users specify desired outcomes, while solvers compete to execute and settle across supported networks.
- Solana-centric execution: The protocol is described as operating on Solana infrastructure, with a rollup or L2 style environment used to coordinate intents.
- Cross-chain connectivity: Messaging and interoperability are framed around IBC-style integrations to reach external ecosystems.
Mantis also introduced a native token, $M, described as the protocol’s governance and utility asset. Public documentation states that $M is minted on Solana with a genesis supply of 100,000,000 tokens. The token has been presented as supporting governance processes and solver accountability mechanisms, including solver bonds and potential slashing for execution failures. Mantis’ documentation also outlines plans to use $M in areas such as AI agent onboarding, reflecting the project’s public emphasis on automated strategy execution and agent-driven interfaces.
Public Scrutiny, Governance, and Operational Debates
Zaki’s career illustrates a recurring DeFi tension, rapid product iteration versus the governance and disclosure norms expected by a broader market. Following the disclosure of his identity, parts of the community raised questions about transparency and internal controls. In 2023, public statements from departing contributors and executives amplified these debates, including claims about reporting and operational practices. Project representatives and affiliated parties have disputed wrongdoing in public responses, and many of the claims have been framed as allegations rather than adjudicated findings. Even so, these events increased attention on how founder-led infrastructure projects manage oversight, treasury practices, and accountability.
Risks and Considerations
Composable and Mantis operate in a high-risk domain where smart contract failures, bridge exploits, and operational misconfigurations have historically produced large losses. Interoperability layers compound complexity by spanning multiple networks, each with different finality, upgrade paths, and security assumptions. Users and integrators typically assess audit scope, upgrade and admin controls, solver incentives and penalties, custody and bridging design, and the transparency of treasury management and governance processes.
For market participants evaluating projects associated with Zaki, leadership history and disclosure practices can materially affect perceived risk. His role in shaping Composable’s interoperability stack and Mantis’ intent-based framework, alongside continued attention to his pre-crypto SEC settlement and project governance disputes, makes him a notable figure in debates about trust, accountability, and operational standards in cross-chain DeFi infrastructure.
