Just saw this and honestly didn't expect it. Plume Network, the RWA public chain, announced that Eugene Shen, their co-founder and CTO, passed away earlier this week. The whole community seems shocked - lots of projects that worked with them expressing condolences.

Eugene Shen had quite a background. He graduated from University of British Columbia with a degree in Engineering Physics, then worked at Robinhood as an engineer during their crypto expansion phase, and later became a senior software engineer at dydx before joining Plume as co-founder and CTO in January 2024. His former supervisor at Robinhood, Johann Kerbrat, actually praised him as one of the core members of their crypto engineering team - someone who could handle high-pressure environments and helped bring other engineers up to speed.

The Plume team released a statement saying they're in mourning right now, but they're committed to continuing Eugene Shen's vision and the innovation he helped build. They said Eugene was deeply passionate about the project and devoted himself completely to it. The community clearly meant a lot to him, and the team is focused on supporting each other through this.

It's a tough loss for the team. Eugene Shen's work and passion for what they're building at Plume will definitely be remembered.