Peak InfoFi was people just posting about things they liked and getting rewards without expecting anything.
Berachain perfect example, posted about it a couple times before TGE, we even hosted a big space around Berachain NFTs because my community and I were genuinely interested.
Then on the day of TGE, without expecting anything, I received five figures in $BERA.
Initial Animecoin listing was similar.
Unfortunately we can't go back to this.
Kaito listings are now synonymous with rewards.
The ideal (but unrealistic) scenario is that everyone posts about what they are really interested in and the rewards are just a side effect.
"I wish the timeline would go back to the time before InfoFi".
Okay bro, but what timeline are you talking about?
The late 2024 timeline when everyone was posting about some useless coins that the insider cabal told us were valuable that week (while extracting millions)?
The early 2024 timeline when everyone was glazing celebrities for dropping coins and posting all day about how goated Iggy Azalea is?
The timeline in 2023 when nothing was really happening and everyone was talking about the same two weekly announcements we were getting?
Or the late 2022 timeline when CT was in doomsday mode and all we did was saying gm?
CT sucks, get over it.
If you think it sucks now during InfoFi and you honestly believe it will get better when it's over and a new meta comes around, just delete your account, it will save you the pain
Sometimes it only takes one killer product to completely change the crypto landscape.
Whether for better or for worse, that's for you to decide.
But you can't deny that Pumpfun and Kaito for example have created entirely new metas that have changed CT completely and made people millions of dollars - all from nothing.
That's why I always like to hop on product calls (if the idea is interesting) because if you catch one of them early, just one, you're set
Arbitrum is one of the few established players that are really leaning in on InfoFi, love to see it.
They are distributing 400,000 $ARB over 3 months (the first month ends next week).
And they are also supporting projects that are building on Kaito tech such as yapyo, which kinda uses the loudio model but with buybacks (leaderboard went live today, I'm not on it rip).
I wouldn't be surprised to see more established blockchains going in a similar direction in the future,
It's paying off for Arbitrum so far, it's near the global top 10 in 7-day mindshare (as one of the few post-TGE projects), plus a big spike in user-generated content.
The changes in the Kaito algo for leaderboard mindshare also improved content quality recently which is bullish
It's fun to look back at all the people who started around the same time as me and what they are doing now.
Some have made life-changing money and retired.
Some blew all the money they made and went back to their 9-5 job.
Some became top traders.
Some are now top creators.
Some became builders or now work with the best brands in the industry.
Some ruined their reputations or became scammers.
Most of the time the difference between all their journeys were just small decisions they made along the way that, over time, got them to where they are today
In terms of attention and hopium/expectations, I think it's impossible to beat loud*o.
70% mindshare will never be achieved again by a similar InfoFi product.
From an idea, tech and launch perspective, I think what @useBackroom and Seedify are doing is also interesting.
Both took the Initial Attention Offering (IAO) concept and embedded it into what they're doing.
The only question is whether that’s enough to generate interest beyond the leaderboard accounts waiting dump (especially long term).
The problem for loud*o was that 99% of CT lost interest as soon as the leaderboard incentives ended, the only people who kept talking about it were those fighting for the top 25 (week 1 fee share), and with diminishing returns that becomes significantly less interesting for them as well.
Gonna be interesting to see how the other two play out this week, I'm sidelined on both (ready to fud your bags)
I had quite a few meetings with established Web2 brands last week.
Entertainment companies in particular are looking to expand into Web3 this year.
Wether it's about integrating blockchain elements into the way they engage with their existing fan base or taking more control of their ecosystem economy with a token launch.
Gonna be fun to see how this plays out.
Web3 native companies have a lot of goodwill within CT and the core crypto audience, which is essential for the successful launch of any crypto product.
Web2 companies have a huge audience they can tap into, tons of retail users, expanding beyond the hot potato game within core CT.
The lines will continue to blur this year as many Web3 IPs expand their content heavily into Web2 (Pudgy Penguins, Azuki, Claynosaurz etc).
While Web2 companies make a push into crypto with their existing name recognition, fan base and with a lot of capital/connections.
We are currently seeing a trend in NFTs towards more lending transactions, especially for grails.
A ton of CryptoPunks (worth over $30M USD total), Pudgy Penguins, Bored Apes and other bluechip NFTs are currently on loans via the three major NFT lending platforms: NFTfi, Blend (Blur's "buy now pay later"), and Gondi.
The left-facing (and top rarity) Pudgy Penguin was out on a loan before the 200 ETH sale.
The last Azuki Spirit sale was three months ago, but several Spirits are currently on loan on NFTfi.
And that’s only pfp projects, NFT art has been heavily relying on loans for a long time now.
NFT lending tends to have a different audience than the normal NFT marketplaces, more collectors, and the majority of the volume seems to be driven by a smaller group of whales and power users.
NFT floor prices of major collections have been pretty flat lately, real money is made increasingly not in trading but in lending (APR can be really juicy if you understand NFTs well and can manage the risk).
Makes sense to keep an eye on this if you’re in NFTs imo, NFTfi released a dashboard/aggregator that aggregates the entire lending market (all loans across platforms, top users etc), good way to get an overview