baby da bull is back
March 10th, 2025

Been Two Years… But Who’s Counting?

Two years ago, I hit "submit" on my first crypto-related post with so much excitement and dopamine flowing through my veins. My goal was to get into the rhythm of publishing consistently—maybe even start a newsletter. I even talked with my boy Miggy about ad revenue streams, token-based subscriptions, and making writing in this space a long-term play.

So much for all that bullshit I was talkin’.

Life got messy. I didn’t even have the courage to post again, and I let that momentum slip away. Crypto moved fast, and I moved on—at least for a while.

Now, I’m back, but with a different perspective. One shaped by real experiences, open-source feedback, and insights from people I genuinely respect—ranging from retail traders who turned $50K into $1M to crypto-native founders who had to rethink their business models just to survive when VC money dried up.

I’ve had time to reflect on what crypto is—right now, not in some idealized version of the future. It’s an innovative technology, an emerging industry, a growing asset class, and a cult-like movement all rolled into one. Nothing else on Al Gore’s innerwebs quite compares.

So, I’m curious—how do you see crypto today? A money-laundering Ponzi scheme? A revolutionary tool shifting the global economy? Something in between?

2021 Me Thought I Was a Crypto Genius

Back in 2021, I was fully locked in. DeFi and DAOs had my attention, and I watched TVL numbers explode month after month. I earned my first staking rewards and had that classic “Oh shit, this changes everything” moment.

It made sense. DeFi meant financial sovereignty—self-custody, borderless transactions, no middlemen taking a cut. No more incompetent bankers making six figures just to "approve" or decline transactions through systems built in the 1970s. Just me, my research, and the protocols.

Except… I was dumb.

For a while, I was doing the absolute most—smashing the buy button, recklessly aping into protocols, making duplicate orders, messing with gas fees thinking I was outsmarting the system. I even fell for a rug or two. And impermanent loss? Brother. That shit was permanent.

But I kept going. Started listening to people who actually knew what they were doing. Some from Boulder Blockchain meetups, some from random YouTube rabbitholes, and some from straight-up trial and error.

At the time, I saw crypto as my ticket out of traditional work—a way to escape the 9-5 hustle. I thought I could just trade, farm yield, avoid annoying clients, and never deal with another stupid Slack message again.

I was wrong.

You can’t replace human coordination. No matter how decentralized or trustless a system claims to be, at some point, you still have to work with people. And often, that’s the hardest part.

Left Crypto for a Bit… Came Back and It’s Somehow Even Dumber

I never fully left crypto, but my focus shifted. I worked on projects related to homeownership access, M&A for worker-owned businesses (basically v1 of DAOs), and capital flow models for community finance initiatives.

These experiences forced me to zoom out—crypto isn’t the only financial revolution happening. The way capital moves in traditional markets overlaps a lot with what we experiment with in token-based economies.

Then, I spent time in Africa, Asia, and briefly South America, and that shifted my perspective entirely.

When you're outside the U.S., crypto’s purpose is crystal clear. It’s not just some speculative casino—it’s a financial lifeline.

Meanwhile, the average U.S. crypto user’s biggest financial inconvenience is texting "I’ll Venmo you" after conveniently forgetting to split the bar tab.

Let’s be real—if you get banned from Cash App in the U.S., you just recreate the username, slap a 420 or 69 at the end, and boom—you’re back in business.

In other parts of the world, that’s not an option. If your local banking system is broken, crypto isn’t just some side hustle—it’s how you protect your wealth from collapsing overnight.

That contrast is why I stopped trying to follow everything happening in crypto. Hacks, Solana pump cycles, Bitcoin being used by nation-states, random memecoins coming out of nowhere—it was exhausting trying to keep up.

Not every new trend matters long-term.

How I See Crypto Differently Now

Crypto, to me, is an ongoing experiment in how we move value and organize economies.

I used to care about BTC vs. ETH dominance, but these days, interoperability feels far more important. If the ETF approvals taught me anything, it’s this:

Institutions are here—and they are not playing the same game as retail.

That shift doesn’t just impact BTC—it affects everything in this space, from established layer-1s to new experimental protocols.

I’ve also refined my research approach. I don’t just ape into hype anymore—I look for actual revenue models, on-chain activity, and long-term roadmaps.

And… I’ve finally accepted something I resisted for a long time: Memes are a legitimate sector.

Seriously.

When a convicted felon who Eurostepped his way around multiple assassination attempts returns to the Oval Office and drops a meme coin on Solana that outperforms entire DeFi projects—you have to admit that culture and speculation drive markets as much (if not more) than fundamentals.

Beyond price action, I see risk differently now—not just in trades, but in governance structures and incentives.

Learning from places like Metarize, BitLift, and DeFi Education, I’ve completely changed how I manage risk and size my positions. I know when I’ll take profit, what I’ll convert to stables, and what stays in BTC, ETH, and SOL for the long haul.

It's not just about avoiding liquidation—it’s about long-term conviction.

So… What Now? (Honestly, I’m Figuring That Out Too.)

So why start writing again now?

Because crypto is still one of the most exciting corners of the internet—and I have thoughts.

I don’t fully know where this writing will take me. I took a long-ass break, and maybe this is just me rebuilding momentum.

What I do know is that I want to explore where ownership is heading, where DeFi goes next, and what the broader experiment around crypto leads to.

Let's see where it takes me.

Maybe crypto is the future of finance. Maybe it’s just an excuse to throw parties at conferences and get wrecked by leverage.

Probably both.

I’ll be doing my best to write more regularly—if any of this resonated, hit me up. Let’s talk.

Thanks for reading - we’ll try to do better next time.

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