For our new Crypto Diaries series, a New Yorker who’s in 97 Discords walks us through his “degen headspace.”
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Deputy Editor, Technology & Business
Welcome to Crypto Diaries, a new series on BuzzFeed News that helps us understand what the future of Web3 might look like — by showing what the heck people who are already living there do all day.
We’ve asked crypto evangelists, NFT collectors, metaverse mavens, and decentralized diehards to keep a diary of everything they’re doing in Web3 for a few days. From trades to Discord servers to the latest degen craze, our crypto enthusiasts will explain every move they’re making to illuminate a space that can be baffling to outsiders. Want to write your own Crypto Diary? Email us at cryptodiaries@buzzfeed.com.
Name: Matt L.
Age: Early 30s
Location: NYC
Industry: Tech
Number of NFTs: 313
First bought cryptocurrency: Ethereum in November 2017
Number of Discord servers: 97
First NFT project: Top Shot
Proportion of total assets in crypto and NFTs: 25%
6 a.m. — Wake up and start my day with a walk around the park to grab some fresh air, since I’ve been working late the last few days. I grab some coffee, check work emails, and look at Discord updates from the NFT communities I am a part of — it’s so hard to keep up!
I’ve been debating buying 3 Essence tokens from FVCKRENDER. He’s a major artist and I’ve been hearing a ton of buzz about his FVCK_AVATAR NFTs but trying to save ETH for the Moonbirds mint. If I burn the Essence tokens, which means they can’t be used again, I’ll get the chance to obtain 3 FVCK_AVATAR NFTs. Check OpenSea — too high of a floor, it’ll probably dip lower after all the FVCK_AVATAR NFTs are revealed.
The Cool Cats NFT project has its weekly update tomorrow, so I need to check in and see if I have time to do the beta test for their video game Cooltopia.
9 a.m. — Two of the NFT guys I follow on Twitter, GratefulApe and Beast, post about an interesting project with Wrangler jeans and Leon Bridges by LTD.INC called Mr. Wrangler NFT collection. It’s a project that celebrates Wrangler’s 75th anniversary by blending digital and fashion together. Hmm…NFT, VIP pass to a show, and a signed jacket by Bridges? I may need to buy into this project. I see in the Budweiser discord that NFT holders got airdropped new NFTs made by artist Jason Naylor — I will need to investigate later. Leave the degen headspace and start my work day.
1:30 p.m. — I get hungry, so I heat up some leftover chicken and rice from last night. As I heat up my food, I see that crypto platform Moonpay is doing a panel at Bitcoin Conference in Miami, so I decide to check it out and see what’s the latest there. Moonpay reminds me of my Ape Fest 2021 poster, which they sponsored and gave out at BAYC Ape Fest. There were only 2,000 posters. A lot of apes will pay a lot of money for some of these items they forgot to get at the event. I’ve seen some of these posters sell for hundreds of dollars.
This reminds me — I text one of my collaborators to get an update on design work for a collaboration I’m doing with his rolling papers company called Elephant Rolling Papers. I licensed two of my Mutant Ape NFTs — Mutant 8112 “Puff” and Mutant 2782 “Smoke” — to create our own rolling papers. Production and designs are nearly completed, but I need to work on getting the word out.
I get distracted and ape into the Shinsekai Portal project that many degens on Twitter are talking about. I don’t want to miss out on the next Azuki and this could be it. There goes 1.5 ETH!
5 p.m. — I join and speak at Budweiser’s Twitter Space celebrating National Beer Day and hear about the NFTs that Jason Naylor created. His work looks so familiar, and I realize later I snapped a pic of his art back in 2017. I love how it pops up — he’s going to be doing a profile picture (PFP) project in April; thinking I may participate in that.
6 p.m. — I had set a reminder to join a Twitter Space around the HRO Batman NFT trading card release that happened earlier in the week. HRO is a pretty cool concept: It’s a fan engagement platform that allows its fans and collectors to get together on things they love. They released the first hybrid NFT trading cards, which I think are so cool, and they’ve started this new project with DC Batman. The response has been insane. I have been trying to track down how I can snag a few boxes, but they’re only available on secondary at the moment. 10,600 packs sold out within nine minutes when they had them on their site. I join as a speaker and want to know more information about where I can find their product. Think this will be huge in the next few months. I somehow snag three boxes on Walmart.com.
10 p.m. — I catch up on Veefriends 2 news — some of my friends are bummed they didn’t make the allowlist, so they won’t get early access to mint. I’m drained from work, so call it an early night.
8 a.m. — I wake up thinking I need to buy some more ApeCoin for the metaverse land sale coming up. I really think the price will spike once more news is out. Grab a BEC from the local deli with a small coffee.
11 a.m. — I have a quick call with one of my NFT clients, part of my side hustle of consulting on NFT projects. Among my clients I have baseball players, I have musicians, even congressmen.
The client says he’s thinking of buying more CloneX NFTs. I tell him he should buy the four he wants because I have a good feeling that Nike, which bought the studio behind CloneX, will release more news and cause another huge price boom.
I then remind him to Venmo me again for last month’s services. I’d say I spend eight to 10 hours a week consulting and make a few thousand a month. Sometimes clients Twitter DM me and I give an answer for a few hundred dollars. Some people just want a quick check about a project, like, do you think this is legit? Versus some say, give me your top three projects of the week. Or they’re looking to buy a Bored Ape and want to know which one I think they should buy.
1 p.m. — I grab lunch and put on the NY Yankees season opener. Feeling optimistic they will have a good season. I scan OpenSea to see if I should buy into anything. I may buy another Alien Frens NFT; they are continuing to crush it!
6 p.m. — I wrap up work and check all my Discords. Man, I wish there was an app that consolidated all announcements into one channel. I missed out on the allowlists for two upcoming NFT projects. One of my oldest NFT clients calls me and says he’ll be around for the NFT NYC conference in June, so planning on partying with him.
9 p.m. — I grab a late Panera Bread dinner as I read about Bored and Hungry’s NFT concept restaurant in Long Beach, California. Looks like a dope restaurant. I may need to go when I do a work trip there in the summer.
11 p.m. — I dust off my XBOX and play some COD Warzone. As I wait for the next game to load, I remember to preregister for the Moonbirds allowlist raffle.
I get a text from a friend to go out. I meet up with her and later in the night she asks me which NFT to buy under $300, lol (most NFT projects have a mint price of 0.2 ETH as the floor of a project, which is $602 in USD — and that’s if you get it at the mint price). I’m like, “You need a couple thousand to get something that might be worth something a year from now.” We stay out until 3 a.m., and I crash hard when I get back to my place.
10 a.m. — One of my LA NFT degen friends texts me asking me if I want a T-shirt from the Bored and Hungry launch party. I’m super jealous I can’t make it to LA but hyped to see more awareness about BAYC. I eat some Frosted Flakes cereal and have some OJ as I do my daily Discord check-ins. I look in on Cool Cats, Bored Apes, World Wide Web, and a few more bluechip projects.
1 p.m. — Before I head out to the NY Yankees game, I check OpenSea — ETH has been dipping. I’m thinking about getting another Mutant Ape. I see on NFT Twitter more Spaces about Goop. I have no idea why there’s so much buzz about this project but I did see a Twitter meditation Space recently where people just said the word Goop for minutes or maybe even an hour, lol. Gotta love NFT Twitter. I make a quick sando and get ready for the game.
Goop 🔥🙈
3:30 p.m. — I Uber over to Billy’s Sports bar to meet a friend and pregame for the Yankees game. It’s packed, and drinks and shots are aplenty. I don’t think I’ll be able to focus too much on NFTs this afternoon.
8 p.m. — I end up going to Hoboken to drink a bit more after the Yankees game. One of my friends texts me asking if they think ETH will still go to $4,000. I say, focus on long-term versus short-term gains!
2 a.m. — I head back to my place and see that one of the earliest NFTs I owned, DeGenz, has sold way above what I had purchased it for. There’s always the possibility of older projects getting rehyped, gotta remember that.
Katie Notopoulos is a senior technology reporter for BuzzFeed News and is based in New York. Contact this reporter at katie@buzzfeed.com.
Contact Katie Notopoulos at katie@buzzfeed.com.
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