Jason Choi Profile picture
May 7 2 tweets 4 min read Read on X
I read some of the VC blogs about memecoins.

There are some interesting takes and genuine respect to all writers.

But imho the existence of these blog posts is EXACTLY why people trade meme coins.

No, memecoins are not a trojan horse for culture (yet), and I would argue they are not even a particularly effective GTM strategy.

I understand the need to frame memecoins in these lights to make them palatable to LPs - I had LPs once too.

But let's be real.

You and I trade memecoins for one thing:

Because "Fuck it"

Let me explain.

This is merely continuation of a bigger trend you see across the world in developed countries: the future that was promised to older generations is no longer available to the young.

My parents' generation's dream was to have a good stable job, buy a house, raise 2 kids.

The most common dream when I was a college student?Be a billionaire tech founder.

Why?

Well, one because everyone watched The Social Network, missed the entire fucking point of the movie, and idolized Zuck. (Just like they did with the Wolf of Wall Street, but that's for another rant)

But also maybe because median home price since 1985 is up 80% after adjusting for inflation, and household price-to-income is more than 2x compared to our grandparents'?

Or maybe because 50% of people make less than their parents did at 30 today, compare to 90%+ in 1940.

Or maybe because the world seems richer than it's ever been, but somehow the young is inheriting less than half of what they did before.

Or maybe because simply working hard and being a good employee no longer offers you the same opportunities that were offered to your parents.

So if there's no way to ascend the social ladder and it's going to be a lifetime of wage-cucking anyway, why not flip the coin and see if you can be the next college dropout billionaire entrepreneur?

Then along came crypto as an extension of this on Trenbolone.

Today, nearly 2/3 of young adults believe the stock market is a great way to build wealth...

But 90% of young people are too broke paying for rising living costs to invest their capital at 7% average returns a year.

So, crypto's massive volatility, where you hear stories of people magically becoming millionaires overnight, emerged as an unsolved game - where if you're early and smart, maybe a bit ballsy, you could have a shot at a good life.

To the outside world, it's *slightly* more respectable than the casino, and infinitely more intellectually stimulating for the smart boys and girls among us.

You may say , "well acktually...since the Dutch tulip bulb peddlers in the 1600s humans have been enticed by "make money fast" speculative games! You should read 'Devil Takes the Hindmost!'"

Yes - but the point I'm making is that what has been historically driven by greed is now more and more driven by desperation.

Want to get a whiff of this? Talk to anyone in their 20s in Hong Kong, in Korea, in the US etc. etc.

For a shot at a comfortable life, young people must make life decisions further and further out the risk curve.

And they think - correction - they KNOW that much of this was due to the financial decisions made by the past generation.

And now the boomers also want to take the crypto game away from them through regulatory labyrinths.

They took away ICOs for your protection, so you get to buy coins at 500x the seed price when they finally get listed.

They call it "rat poison", while pocketing fat fees from clients who are buying crypto from them.

Oh and these clients? Yup, same cabal - pumping billions into VC funds that seek to privatize more and more of the game.

THIS why people are trading meme coins.

Yes it's greed, it's "buy coins with no massive supply overhang from VCs", its craps for the ADHD generation that grew up with brain rot from smart phones.

But it's also a "fuck it - nothing else works"

But more importantly, it's a "fuck you" - to the generation they feel has failed them.

The same generation that now seeks to take away the one thing that seems to offer them a way out - through incomprehensible regulations and increasingly privatized opportunities.

Or maybe I'm wrong.

Maybe meme coins really are the next great GTM strategy for startups.

GM.Image
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As always @GwartyGwart , my spiritual guiding light/ what’s left of my conscience, paints a picture of what the status quo is like

My thread is about the why

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More from @mrjasonchoi

Jul 19, 2023
Few thoughts on $MNT and why I'm long

TLDR 🧵
1/ Yesterday, @BitDAO_Official successfully migrated its token to @0xMantle, a new Layer 2.

Mid-curvers saw this as a "sell the news" event but objectively the migration represented a significant event that is now derisked. Image
2/ I've stood by my view that tech is necessary but not sufficient; distribution is king.

Despite the rebranding of $BIT to $MNT, @0xMantle is effectively @Bybit_Official's attempt at creating their BSC, but one that is more in line with Ethereum's L2-vision.
Read 7 tweets
Jul 15, 2023
After my interview with @ArkhamIntel released today on @theblockcrunch, I dug into some of the claims made on the show.

Here's a short follow-up thread to address one of the comments made.

1/ On the episode, I asked @RealMiguelMorel why it took so long for @ArkhamIntel to rectify the issues regarding user's emails being publicized. Specifically, I brought up @NFTherder's claim about being able to tie emails to wallet addresses.

2/ Miguel cites that the claim has "never been verified", that images may be doctored and that "it is impossible to do so", "on Arkham and elsewhere on the Internet".

Given the responses I've gotten for this statement, I decided to fact check this.

Read 10 tweets
May 5, 2023
After months of work...

Finally dropping our 30-page report on $FIL on @theBlockcrunch, commissioned by @protocollabs!

This is the one read you need to be completely caught up with @Filecoin's past traction and future plans.

A few highlights: Image
1/ Over the past 2 years, @Filecoin has quietly exploded in growth since the launch of its FIL+ campaign

Year over year, this represents a 1800% growth in usage - in a time when most charts in crypto went the opposite way.

bit.ly/3LYteO5 Image
2/ Filecoin's dominance against other "storage networks" is almost comical.

No single Web 3 storage network provides *remotely* as much capacity as Filecoin has in the 2.5 years since its launch.

bit.ly/3LYteO5 Image
Read 7 tweets
Apr 21, 2023
DVTs is one of the most overlooked narratives for $ETH.

One of the leading projects just raised $12.5M from VCs.

Only one token is tradable today (see below) 👇 Image
1/ Now that the Merge + Shapella are completed, Ethereum's vision as a PoS network is realized.

To recap, there's 4 main ways holders can stake their $ETH today: Image
2/ Currently, Staking-as-a-Service, Pooled Staking and CEX's control majority of stake.

While some of these services are more decentralized than others (e.g. @Rocket_Pool vs. @LidoFinance ), client diversity remains a concern. Image
Read 9 tweets
Apr 20, 2023
How one of the first NFT trading funds makes money 👇

- via @theBlockcrunch Image
1/ Most NFT funds in crypto focus on picks-and-shovels (@opensea), exchanges (@blur_io) and companies (@yugalabs).

@sgsand1 raised a $4.5M fund to ONLY do NFTs

Here are the highlights in a 50-min interview on @theBlockcrunch where I tried to pick his brain
2/ "The most common mistake NFT traders make is trying to seek index exposure"

i.e. diversification into poor quality assets in a correlated sub-asset class is not smart diversification
Read 7 tweets
Apr 5, 2023
Starting a thread to keep track of books I read in 2023 and the main takeaways in one sentence.

Feel free to suggest books in the comments 👇
1/ Jan 2023: Hope is the most potent force in adversity Image
2/ Feb 2023: The average human needs a lot to suspect others. Things break when you attempt to override this default to truth Image
Read 4 tweets

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