Like a lot of people, I first looked at Bitcoin years before I actually did anything about it. In 2014, I evaluated BTC for an international remittance payments startup—turns out, there wasn’t enough volume back then to support even smaller corridors like US → PHL. I wrote it off. Big mistake.

Fast forward to 2017—I was still skeptical. I remember saying, "Ethereum... it's 'Ethereal'—it’ll never last." That aged well. Watching the ICO mania unfold was something else. I’ll never forget the $BAT sale—$35M sold in under a minute. Eventually, I stopped watching from the sidelines and put money in. I didn’t trust myself to trade individual tokens, so I opted for the Bitwise 10 Index. Since I wasn’t an accredited investor, I had a family member purchase on my behalf. We bought January 3rd, 2018... pretty much the local top. My first experience investing in crypto? Crashing out 80%. Years later, we sold at a nice premium when the fund began trading OTC, but the lesson had already been learned.

2018-2019 was when I truly got redpilled. Using MetaMask, playing with early dApps something clicked. Having built startups in healthcare and social networking, I quickly saw the power of crypto: I control my own identity, data, and money. Ethereum wasn’t just some altcoin—it was a paradigm shift. A Turing-complete blockchain meant anything was possible. I was hooked.

Then came 2020-2021. Nothing prepared me for the madness. I formalized Codex Venture Partners, buying ETH at $212. Should’ve slurped under $100, but hindsight’s 20/20. From there, I raised two funds in 2021. The first focused on BTC/ETH accumulation—not just holding but actively putting assets to work through staking and liquidity provisioning. We staked heavily into the Beacon Chain, convinced ETH was better locked away than tempting us to trade it.

The second fund? A full degen YOLO fund. Timing wasn’t great. We deployed too late in the cycle and took a massive haircut. We’ve slowly recovered, but it took years of grinding to claw back.

2022-2023 was a crash course in survival. This wasn’t just another bear crypto was under literal siege. The U.S. government came after the industry, while FTX, Voyager, Celsius, and others collapsed, shattering trust. Some of my roundtripped bags Tokemak, Redacted, KlimaDAO got obliterated. Ironically, I profited on OHM (July buy, December sell), but the rest? Pain. I learned firsthand what happens when liquidity dries up and token incentives break down. But through it all, I stayed deep in the trenches participating in DeFi, governance, staking, and liquidity provisioning. The infinite garden kept growing, and I kept exploring.

At one point, Codex’s AUM grew from six figures to seven, only to roundtrip back to six. Now, there’s a clear line of sight on eight. No shortcuts, just lessons stacked on lessons.

Today, in 2025, I'm stepping forward. I’ve always been a lurker on Crypto Twitter—just liking and reposting projects I respect. But after 8 years, I have some thoughts of my own.

Welcome to the blog.