In 2013, the pioneers of Bitcoin were a group of fervent western settlers who claimed to possess gold mines, while others were still figuring out how to use PayPal.

In 2017, ICO founders looked at white papers and thought, "Let's raise a billion dollars, and then figure out what to do next," like a bunch of kids selling lemonade in the desert, except their bank accounts had a few extra zeros.

In 2020, DeFi developers launched new protocols faster than your uncle could tell you about his latest "high-risk" stocks. They rapidly rolled out new protocols like mad scientists, trying to create decentralized currency without blowing up the lab.

In 2021, NFT speculators viewed pixelated ape images as golden tickets to the "chocolate factory," and what they traded those tickets for was not candy, but a bag of cash. While the rest of us were still trying to figure out what "minting" meant, they had already become the Wall Street stock brokers of the image world, making a fortune.

In 2024, we witnessed the takeover of institutional ETFs alongside the rise of meme coins—until the defenders of meme coins realized that the takeover by suited Wall Street bankers far exceeded their imagination. We saw the entire cryptocurrency image transform from a rebellious teenager who only listened to punk rock to suddenly appearing at business meetings in a fitted suit and tie (albeit with a bit of coffee on the tie).