A college student caused a dorm-wide blackout mining Ethereum, then dropped out to build a blockchain backed by Mark Cuban. > Eric Chen was studying at NYU when he got into crypto. > He started mining Ethereum in his dorm room. > The mining consumed so much power that it caused a dorm-wide blackout. > Eric ended up facing NYU's disciplinary board. > But the incident didn't push him away from crypto. It pulled him deeper into blockchain research. > He also worked at a trading firm, studying financial markets. > He noticed a problem with decentralized exchanges. They were vulnerable to front-running, where traders could exploit pending transactions. > Eric wanted to fix that. > In 2018, he teamed up with Albert Chon to build Injective. > They wanted to make decentralized trading fairer and more efficient. > But building the technology proved harder than expected. > The team explored ways to solve front-running without making trading slower or more expensive. > Then they heard about Binance's first-ever incubation program. > They were traveling when they learned applications were open. > They canceled the rest of their trip and focused on getting accepted. > Binance Labs selected them, giving Injective an early breakthrough. > In 2021, they cold-emailed Mark Cuban, connecting Injective's vision to the GameStop trading controversy. > Cuban replied, and eventually joined Injective's $10 MILLION Series A round. > Injective grew into a blockchain built specifically for financial applications. A student who once caused a blackout mining Ethereum went on to build financial infrastructure backed by Mark Cuban. Imagine if he'd decided crypto wasn't worth the trouble.