After seven years in crypto, I was ready to walk. Not a break. I was fully out. The dream felt dead. But something pulled me back in again. Not a bull run or a dopamine spike. Something deeper. If you’ve ever felt lost inside something that used to feel like home, keep reading. You’re not alone. I found crypto in 2017 for all the right reasons. I came to build, to connect, to learn and to create value with other misfits. But somewhere along the way, I lost that. I blamed the shady founders, bad actors, and the negativity. Everything piled up and I was pointing fingers. These midwits ran it into the ground. It took one honest conversation with a friend to see something I couldn’t see on my own. I wasn’t mad at the space. I was lost in it. I’d lost sight of why I fell in love with crypto in the first place: Building communities, innovating growth and marketing, creating value, growing with people. Truth? I hadn’t built or meaningfully participated in a community for nearly a year. I stopped creating value. I stopped seeking growth. The problem wasn’t “them”. It was me. Why? Because a family tragedy shattered me. I was lost and trying to find my way through grief. Everything I cared about faded: community, purpose, creativity. The only thing I clung to was hitting my portfolio target. I told myself that once I got there, I’d finally have the space to heal. But as I grew closer, nothing improved. No peace. No clarity. Just silence and a growing sense of isolation. Attaching my purpose to a number didn’t just distract me, it drained everything that made this meaningful. I stopped building, disconnected from people, and walked away from the community that shaped me. Yes, some parts of crypto have gotten really messy. The negativity will wear you down if you’re not rooted in something real. And I wasn’t. So somewhere in the chaos, I let a handful of bad experiences cloud my perspective. The worst parts of crypto were now overshadowing everything else, and I started building walls I never meant to. And little by little, I changed. That moment of clarity was my wake-up call. It was time to step back, lean into the discomfort, and get back to what I came for. Not numbers. Not noise. Just real connection and growth. The first step was reaching out to @kirbyongeo. Kirby's always been my go-to in this space when I need perspective and grounding. One of the few OGs still focused on what matters: building with intention, creating value, and lifting up others. That’s the version of crypto I believe in. That’s the path I’m getting back to. I’ve also been making the time to reconnect with all the people I’d lost touch with. The ones who have quietly inspired me through how they build, show up, and carry themselves. In the middle of all this reflection, I stumbled across @jkey_eth and the work happening at @Safaryclub. Finally, someone bringing real clarity to the chaotic world of crypto growth. I joined Cohort 1 of their certification course to tap into that energy, and it’s been a refreshing shift. I’ve been in marketing and growth since 2012 (Web2 roots), but Web3 moves too fast to get comfy. I want to be at the forefront again, the same way I helped shape the blueprint for crypto community building back in 2018–2020. And on a more personal level, I’ve been doing the deep, uncomfortable work of processing my grief and everything it’s affected along the way. And now? For the first time in years, I feel like I’m back. Not the same as before. Better. Clearer. Calmer. Sharper. More hopeful for the future. Not saying I’ve got it all figured out, but this chapter feels like the right one. I’m here to rebuild with purpose, grow alongside others who care, and help shape the kind of community this space deserves. If you’re walking a similar path, let's connect. My DMs are always open to the real ones.

1/ Today I’m releasing an open-source book in collaboration with @FrankResearcher that I wish existed when I started in crypto. It’s split into 15 chapters covering everything that matters - from BTC to DeFi, MEV, Hyperliquid, quantum resistance, etc. github.com/lawmaster10/howcr…

Thinking about assembling a private community of builders and power users to give early-stage projects direct access to pitch deck reviews and MVP testing. I’m already getting pinged daily for feedback in my DMs and tbh I enjoy helping. Because the alternative is hiring suits. I hate seeing early projects go to Big 4 consultants who charge a fortune but don’t actually understand crypto. I still remember a big crypto game last cycle that hired McKinsey. Tokenomics were a disaster. High FDV, predatory unlocks. Literally any anon on the timeline could’ve told you it wouldn't fly. Product feedback should come from the trenches, but it has to be structured and scalable. What do you think about a small circle of vetted members that gets early access to projects in exchange for providing high-impact feedback during the war room phase? If you enjoy the process and want in on that mission, DM me.

While everyone's focused on perpetual DEXs, something interesting has been happening in DeFi options. Just found a protocol that's been around since 2022 but only now starting to gain attention. They're bringing simplicity to options trading by stripping away the overly complex parts that usually alienate the average crypto user. It's not traditional options trading, but that's kind of the point. They don't even call themselves an options platform. Instead, they're positioning as a yield product built on options principles. And their points program started at the end of August is still way under the radar. Here's the breakdown: For years, people have said that options trading would be the next big thing in crypto, but no one’s really managed to make it stick. As of October, the TVL across DeFi options protocols is around $86m, while open interest on options on CEXs has reached an all-time high of $53b, that’s roughly 616x larger. Options are inherently complex, and fragmented liquidity hasn’t helped DeFi protocols catch up with CEXs. But what if a platform could leverage the principles of options trading without actually being full-fledged options trading, but letting users lock in option-like premiums instead? It’s almost like a blend between betting platforms and options, as I see it. Check out @ryskfinance Their TVL jumped from almost nothing in July to $26M by October and they are generating real revenue. They have a 6,475 @getmoni_io score, showing solid social proof. The team’s been around for about three years, with good connections and visibility in the space. Rysk operates in the HyperEVM ecosystem, supporting a small set of tokens with capped liquidity to limit risk for now and will gradually expand over time. The platform runs on an RFQ (Request-for-Quote) model, where anyone integrated can be a counterparty. When you select a strike for a covered call, it triggers an on-chain auction. Buyers bid, the UI shows the best offer, and if you like the premium, you execute. Everything’s on-chain, collateral locked, buyers receive ERC20 call options, and the protocol handles settlement at expiry. Side note: crypto and options trading are Robinhood’s biggest revenue streams. Imagine when DeFi figures out how to make that work on-chain. Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the team. I’m simply intrigued by what they’re building.

Incase you're too slow to realize, this is a true 0 to 1 moment for Global Finance. There is no other venue in the world where you can trade equities onchain, on a CLOB, permissionlessly, 24/7. This is the only relevant equity market in the world open through the weekend. There are hundreds of millions of households around the world that would like access to equities but cannot, and this will be the only way they can get exposure. Given that this is included in the native front end, we should see a massive rerating of both buy backs and fees over the rest of the year. I've rebought back all my exposure. I suggest you do the same.

Being a "reply guy" is a common mistake among emerging content creators on CT. Everyone advises it because every comment you leave boosts THEIR content. Here's more: if you consistently engage with the same profiles – but get no engagement from the author, your internal X ranking drops, and your new posts get less visibility. Engage when you WANT to engage. When there's something meaningful to say or debate. Not just because someone told you to be a "reply guy."

Managing a Portfolio at Drastically Different Sizes I've led the DeFi Dojo community for nearly half a decade now. We have family offices, hedge funds, trade shops, founders, and VCs in there. We also have real estate investors, software engineers, and investment managers in there. We also have blue-collar workers, graduate students, and office workers in there. I've seen people of every size, and I can, with a degree of confidence, give an overview of what has been most profitable for each. SO, let's get into it: $1-$100K: These portfolios tend to have delta exposure. Feverishly airdrop farming without losing capital (delta neutral, ETH lending, etc) is a great way to stack here quickly. Getting big wins from airdrops while getting small wins from being early on good projects can go a long way. This is really the level where you need to be OBSESSED with defi in order to grow, because at this level, there is real edge in putting in hours of effort into farming the first incentives, getting airdrops, finding outsized returns on strategic LPs, etc. and holding some runners with conviction. Funding Rate Arbitrage games to farm Perp Dex airdrops, high FRs on volatile assets with low OI, etc is another good strategy in this range. $100K-$1M: This is where you need to start diversifying, protecting capital, get obsessed with opsec, have a dedicated laptop just for transacting, etc. PTs on Pendle will be an obvious go-to for idle capital that you don't need immediately. Lend aggregation is another great source of consistent but fully liquid yields. Airdrop farming larger campaigns (HL, Lighter, Monad, Eigen, Ethena, etc) makes a lot of sense, again you want to do this in a principal protected way. You will likely have or want to have 10-40% of your portfolio in blue chips like BTC/ETH/SOL etc because you can afford to have "forever hold" positions that you don't really intend to sell for the forseeable future. NO DIRECTIONALLY EXPOSED LEVERAGE. FR Arb here can be great with large mcap assets, but you really don't want to play with leveraged betting, since you'll do better YoY just growing through holding and yielding. Maybe you have a small high-conviction alt bag, but it's likely <5% of your portfolio. You might start to dabble in seed round investments via Echo or Legion, but that should not be your main strategy. $1M-$10M: Here you are likely starting to consider hiring people to help with the portfolio, to run algorithmic market making bots, to do more advanced basis trading. You are also likely participating in private liquidity deals. I would warn against private liquidity deals that have TGE at some indefinite future, and prefer the deals that get 15-35% APR in liquid tokens or from established teams. Seed round investments are probably 5-10% of your investments, but you might also be outsourcing this to a hedge fund allocation, and diligence funds should be something you do actively, or outsource to a family office. PTs are still pretty good here as are a lend agg vaults, but you're probably not doing too much funding rate arbitrage ON CHAIN. Rather, doing the basis trade with CME futures against onchain longs is much better and can still do 10-20% APR pretty consistently. You likely have a better idea of how to use margin, and may be trading through your Roth IRA with personal funds, or have some tax-setup that's favorable to you for longterm investments. $10M-$100M: Here, you're probably working directly with teams, perhaps you have your own VC firm, you're an SLP "strategic liquidity provider," and it is unlikely you are the sole manager of your own funds / portfolio. You should be spending most of your "work" time in the telegram trenches, on calls with investable teams or teams you want to deploy capital towards, and possible also be involved with either a family office or fund that you either own or are working with. You may also outsource these tasks to a trusted partner. Finding talent to help manage the funds so that you don't have to is important here, since you're probably either retired or partially retired. You can have a variety of "forever hold" positions, likely in cold storage, that you don't really care about price action on, since you can, if you need to, borrow against them for income. Surprisingly, PTs and Lend agg can still be good here, but you'll want to have alerts for large arbitrage opportunities, for automated exit strategies, you should probably invest in a risk team or auditor to help with diligence. CME Basis still also works here, and you may be doing fewer and fewer things on chain, though still having exposure to crypto as a whole. OTC buying and OTC basis may become an important part of your portfolio as well, being able to buy in size without meaningful price impact, potentially hedging your exposure for an arbitrage to your purchase price.

If you like what Pendle did for yield, you’ll probably love what @MetaDAOProject is doing for DAO voting. No oracles, just pure DEX trading based on DAO proposals. Traders and communities bet on whether a proposal will make the current spot price of a project overvalued or undervalued. It’s basically a prediction market without losers. The losing side just misses out on potential profits. Since spot and proposal markets trade side by side for a limited window, MetaDao could be a magnet for serious trading volume and nonstop fee generation. Traders will likely try to influence both sides by moving spot and proposal prices to sway the outcome. Oh, and they just closed @UmbraPrivacy's raise 20,000% oversubscribed at $154 million My take on why it wasn’t more popular up until now, is probably because it’s not easy to grasp it for the average degen, same as Pendle. But if this idea of market-driven governance takes off, it could make founders a lot more accountable than they are today.

Funny how fast things move. Back in July, I flagged that CoinGecko didn’t even have a robotics category yet. Hopefully that heads-up put some of you in front of these moves. To be honest, some of these ‘robotics’ tokens still feel a bit more like hype than projects with real utility. But the long-term upside is why it pays to track them early. Here’s the updated table of the projects I mentioned on July 23, showing price changes through Sept 16 along with @getmoni_io scores, market caps, and FDMCs.

“If AI can discover cures for every cancer, those people should get rich. But the whole world should also get a cheap cure.” — @sama What if it’s not a traditional company that does this, but a DeSci community? Democratizing compute, funding, and discovery so breakthroughs in biotech aren’t locked away, but shared with the world.

Computer use is the next step towards true agentic coworkers. Models that can click, type, and reason across the existing software humans use will work like magic. Computer-using agents will actually provide end-to-end automation across legacy and modern tools alike: navigating UIs, logging in, and sending files. The agents that win will slot in where a human can today, without IT overhauls or custom integrations. Excellent deep dive from @zephratic, @stuffyokodraws, @seema_amble, and @JenniferHli:

0/ Exploring how tokenization on Ethereum can reach its full potential. A guest thread by @carlosdomingo of @Securitize. 2025 will likely be remembered as the year of tokenization. Today, we’re looking at why that is and how we can accelerate that future.

Almanak is right in the mix of the next great liquidity war. @iamsage said it best: the game is shifting to agent-routed capital. Protocols can now bribe AI agents to steer flow toward their pools, a new primitive for bootstrapping liquidity. The synergy with platforms like Uniswap, Morpho, Curve is obvious. What few are paying attention to is the effect on risk curators and yield providers. Maple Finance, Re7 Capital, @gauntlet_xyz are seeing serious inflows as capital rotates from the 2024 meme frenzy into sustainable yield. These firms are constantly seeking efficiency. At institutional scale, even a 5% edge moves millions. Take @Re7Capital's partnership with @gizatechxyz: over four months of back-testing, Giza’s tailored Agents delivered 67% higher yield on stablecoins and 18.5% higher yield on ETH versus static allocation strategies. That's game-changing at institutional scale. Two approaches to agentic capital management are emerging: - Giza: pre-built "plug-and-play" strategies - Almanak: AI swarm tech you can bend however you want Think of it this way: Giza is like the first-gen launchpads, offering ready-made strategies for quick deployment. Almanak is closer to being the pump fun of strategies, not in the casino sense, but in the way it gives anyone permissionless tools to build, experiment, and spin up at will. Different vibes, same end goal of making advanced quant tools accessible. But that flexibility is why I see @almanak having more room to grow. And the timing lines up almost too well. Institutional capital is seeking yield optimization just as AI agents mature enough for production use, while protocols desperately compete for TVL in an increasingly crowded landscape. If there’s one thing crypto has taught me over the cycles, it's this... As @maplefinance demonstrated, sustainable yield requires scaling TVL. Small pools with high returns don't last long. They fill and compress to equilibrium in no time. Anyone who's farmed knows the drill. Institutions onboard millions at once. Maple struck gold curating institutional risk while letting retail access those yields. Now imagine that dynamic supercharged by AI, with capital routing optimized in real time. Trust is the thing holding it back at the moment. Almanak has $32M TVL today, but every protocol needs time to be battle-tested before larger funds rush in. Feels like we’re literally watching the rails for $1T+ in AI-managed capital get laid down in real time. At least that’s how I see it. It is still early: pre-token, retail-driven, proof-of-concept for Almanak. But I don’t think it stays that way for long.