Projects
![]()
No projects found
Investors
New
DAO Treasuries
DATs
Lend / Borrow APRs
Chains
Categories
Spaces
XTalks: Does name dropping big names help or hinder crypto projects
Recorded: May 27, 2024 Duration: 1:03:48Space Recording
Full Transcription
Good morning, good morning, good morning.
Let's do a quick sound check.
Inna, can you hear me?
Hello.
I can hear you well, yes.
Awesome.
I have sent some speakers invites out.
Please take a look if you would like to chat.
So I'll approve it and we can stay.
Perfect.
Sounds great.
Meanwhile, Cody, would you like to introduce the topic or would you like to wait for a bit?
Let's go ahead.
We can get started.
No problem.
So we got a few other people.
First up, we've got Captain Crypto.
Can we get a mic check on you?
Hey, how's it going?
Good to everybody.
Hello.
Hello.
Good.
Good to have you this morning.
So...
Appreciate it.
Yeah, I think we've got a few other people joining us this morning.
If not, it'll be a pretty candid conversation.
How about that?
Sounds good.
Good.
So...
That would be turned into a podcast that will be shared on all our platforms, Spotify,
Apple Music, and YouTube.
And, you know, like, again, remembering the purpose of this space is education.
So even if it's not live, listeners, we are creating some materials, some knowledge base for those who perhaps would like to listen to something while they're driving.
So...
Gotta love it.
Gotta love it.
Gotta love it.
So...
While we wait for our last couple of speakers to come up, I'll go ahead and introduce today's topic.
And, uh, so if you're tuning in for the first time, uh, welcome to Xtalks.
Xtalks is the AMA series sponsored by Layer 1X Blockchain Protocol.
Uh, in this space, we dive deep into cutting edge, uh, of crypto, blockchain, uh, technology, and the centralized future and plenty of what ifs.
So, uh, we're pretty excited to offer this episode.
Um, likewise, we've invited quite a few crypto experts, projects, and other Layer 1 protocols to join us, uh, in many of our spaces.
And our goal is, uh, with Layer 1X's Xtalk is to unite the chains, projects, and users in Web3, not to compete against them.
So, we're excited to have everybody.
Um, and so, uh, if you're in the U.S., it might be kind of light just because in the U.S. it is a holiday today.
So, um, we, we expect pretty, pretty, uh, uh, light today, but that gives our speakers a little bit of an opportunity to have a little more of a candid conversation, which is nice.
Um, so, without further ado, uh, today's topic is, uh, jumping into, uh, you know, does name dropping actually help projects, uh, or does it hinder them in Web3?
So, um, today we're joined by a couple of guests, uh, Captain Crypto, you want to go ahead and introduce yourself and then, um, give us like a 30-second elevator pitch on what you're working on?
Sure. Um, do you hear any feedback or?
A little bit of feedback, Echo. Uh-huh.
One second.
Sorry about that.
Hopefully it's a little better now, but, um, okay.
So, my name is Craig.
My, my real name, IRL name is Craig.
Uh, been in crypto since about 2016.
Started like everybody else, just trying to learn more about blockchain, stay up to date with all the projects.
Uh, you know, participated in some ICOs.
Uh, was a DAO member, then professionally started working in crypto in 2019.
Um, so I worked with a project called FinExflow and we helped them launch on PokerStarter.
And then some of the people that worked on that project, we co-created Wolfpack Crypto.
And we help early stage crypto projects with, um, pretty much everything, building a community, fundraising, uh, taking all the steps they need for a successful launch.
Worked with about 15 projects so far.
Um, also a listings manager at LaToken.
And yeah, anything crypto, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm being into that block, blockchain, web three.
Um, also currently working with rogue chain.
I, that's, uh, I logged into the account there.
So that's a project I'm helping them build their community up.
It's a layer three that's on top of Arbitrum specifically built for betting and games of chance.
And, um, have a couple of other really great projects coming through currently that I'm working with, but, um, I'll have some more information about those.
You just got to stay tuned and yeah, that's about it for now.
That's amazing.
Cause you just dropped the name and I want to, I love it because this is like exactly what, um, we would be touching base on.
And, um, does it help or does it, you know, actually add some value to the project?
If you partner up with a certain, you know, uh, well-established, established, um, individuals or organizations within the area, or it may have like bad reputation and so on and so on.
There are so many aspects about it.
We have, um, someone else on stage as well.
So we will be nice to hear from them.
I think Craig said that he'd logged in to the road chain account as well, Anna.
Yes.
Sorry.
Um, yeah.
Okay.
Unless, unless Craig, you want to come in with a different voice and, uh, kind of talk the road chain up again.
Uh, whatever.
I don't want to turn it into a show match, but I mean, definitely, you know, check it out.
And if anybody's interested, just give it a look.
They can learn more on Discord and whatnot.
Yeah.
No, that's, that's awesome.
So, yeah.
Um, yeah, I think it should be a pretty good topic for today.
So it looks like we're going to have a more of a candid conversation.
It looks like Craig.
So we appreciate you being here and, uh, joining us on this call.
Uh, so without further ado.
Yeah.
Um, let's, let's, uh, Anna, do you want to introduce yourself real quick?
And then we'll get, uh, jumped into the conversation and we'll get going.
Oh, yeah, absolutely.
Um, well, I think by now everybody, everybody knows that, um, I work for L1X.
I support, uh, this initiative, Xtalks, um, just purely for educational reasons.
Uh, it's amazing to establish connections, collaborate with other people from within the
space, within the area.
Cause every time for me personally, I learned something, uh, new.
Um, and, uh, yeah, I hope that it is helpful for those who tune in and listen after maybe.
And, um, you know, even though sometimes we don't pick up many listeners, but I also feel
like it is a momentum and, um, I believe in organic traffic and I want to be naive.
And I would like to kind of like stand by my beliefs that, um, you know, the clearer, uh,
the vision, the more people will eventually pick up on it.
So, yeah, this is the, this is how I see it.
And, um, we're just going to carry on doing this.
No, that sounds great.
Thanks.
Uh, for those that don't know me, my name is Cody and I'm the chief experience officer
at layer one X and, uh, happy to be here with Anna and Craig, uh, getting a little candid
and, uh, talking about kind of something we do in real life as well as in the crypto space
as well.
And that is dropping names.
And so, uh, we want to find out again, if it's going to be a good thing.
Or a bad thing.
And, uh, so Craig's our expert and he's going to help us to find that out.
And, uh, let's get ready and go.
You ready for the first question, Craig?
Yeah, I'm ready.
All right.
Sounds good.
So as you know, since being in the crypto space, since what did you say 2016 or something
like that?
Uh, yeah.
Yeah.
So crypto is actually pretty small, uh, community of people.
If you've been in here long enough.
Right.
And, uh, a, uh, you know, and, and having a single association can have a far reaching
impact, um, but it can also have consequences too.
Uh, from your experience, uh, how does a project's reputation get affected by the perception
of those who they align themselves with and vice versa?
Uh, can a project be a new, newer project be guilty by association type scenario and tarnish
the credibility of the entire ecosystem by dropping the wrong name?
Um, I, I mean, I definitely think so.
It, it kind of depends on the, the name and the circumstances, but definitely, you know,
if it was a case of where fraud or something can be proven, then that would definitely, you
know, negatively impacted.
But then again, it's not always a bad thing, even if somebody does have some bad, uh, reputation
around it, or I shouldn't say bad, like when it's not bad in the case of scamming, uh, it
may be unjustified, then in that case, the old saying, you know, all, what is it?
All, uh, press is good press.
Then that can, that can be a thing as well.
Cause even if you think, um, with the thing like Richard Hart, he had some, some bad press
behind him, but, um, you know, some of his projects are still going strong and there's
some other cases, even like with Binance, for example, they've had some bad press or whatnot,
but they've done good.
I mean, overall, I generally think name dropping for me, it helps in a way, but it always has
to have something behind it because me as, you know, an investor or somebody that's looking
for new projects.
I like, if you drop a name that has experience in building and scaling companies, for example,
whether that's web two or web three, it will give me more confidence to invest.
And, you know, to know that they can do a good job, especially in crypto, because there's,
you know, not to say a kid in his basement can't do it because it's been done, but somebody
with a proven track record, I would just feel more confident investing with them.
Somebody that's a proven leader, they've scaled businesses before.
So I think dropping a name like that is good, but it has to be substance behind it.
Some people or some projects, they may just drop a name, but they are not even really associated
with the project.
You know, I've seen things like, you know, projects launch and they say, okay, we're partners
with CoinMarketCap, we're projects.
I mean, we're partners with Uniswap, for example, just because their tokens listed on Uniswap.
So there's a lot of, there's a lot of that that goes on as well.
So that's my opinion on that.
We call that creative marketing, right?
Right.
Like a white line.
Sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do, eh?
If you have to drop, you drop.
I think it's, I think you bring up a good point too, is that, you know, it is, it is important
to kind of know who you're aligning with just because of the reputation that it goes with.
But on the flip side of it too, is this, I think that some people, I think it matters
who your target audience is too.
Cause if you go out and say, like you dropped the name Richard Hart.
Right.
And, um, if nobody's really into, to, uh, pulse and, and that kind of stuff, nobody's
going to really want to, it's not going to really resonate with them.
Right.
Um, it would basically be like me dropping a, uh, uh, coin market cap or, or like a coin
base or something like that.
And nobody really is associated with them.
It just won't make sense.
Um, so when you're, when you're, uh, in your experience, uh, primarily being an investment,
uh, group as well, the, the Wolf on wall street, what was the name of Wolfpack or something?
I can't remember.
Sorry.
Yeah.
So we don't really invest.
We help, you know, we work with startup projects, but I mean, I'm, I invest myself on a regular
basis.
So, you know, whether it's small to large investments.
Right.
Right.
I mean, those two worlds and blending them together, right?
The Wolfpack helping people and you being an investor yourself.
What, what are, what are some of those, what are some of those like name drops that you,
uh, both you and the Wolfpack kind of look at?
I'm sorry.
I'm coming at it from two different angles here, but it would be interesting to see the
difference of what you look at as a personal investor versus what the Wolfpack may try to,
uh, basically try to get, uh, to help people, uh, succeed with their, their launch.
Okay.
So let me just try to see if I can, if I understood the question.
So one is one point of view is what I might look for to judge whether a project can be
successful as an investor.
Yep.
Correct.
And then from the part of Wolfpack, would it be, I'm looking for what might be as a,
uh, what we think might be a successful project if we're looking at whether we should work
with them or not?
Yeah.
Or, or what type of, uh, names do you try to get in place or, or partnerships do you help
try to get in place to help a project succeed within the community?
Right.
So if I, from an investor point of view, I mainly look at the connections that the people
have.
So, so that's important.
Um, I'm looking at also, like I said, if they, the founders, so if it's a CTO has, you
know, have, do you have experience?
Have you built any projects before?
Have you scaled them?
Um, if it's the CEO, the C, especially the C suite, like what have they, what have they
done before in the world of memes?
It will be more like, you know, who are your connections?
What groups are you connected with?
What callers are you connected with?
Um, and you know, what, if you've launched any before, I wouldn't, it wouldn't necessarily
be any specific name because there are a lot of names in there, but if they can drop names
that they're either associated with or somebody that's directly in their team or somebody that's
going to push them, that gives me a lot more confidence in them.
Um, and like I said, it depends on, on the project too, because you have, you know, infrastructure
projects that I really like.
So I'm, I'm looking at, um, the, the technical background of the coders.
And then once again, they have all the pieces that they need in the team, because you might
have a great coder, but he doesn't know anything about scaling a business.
So it's going to be, you know, if they have all the positions, what their, what their
marketing plan looks like, what their marketing budget looks like.
Um, and if I'm working with a project is more, I, I just kind of try to find partnerships
that align, um, with, with what they're doing.
So something like for, to give you an example with the road chain, it's a layer three blockchain
that's being built on top of arbitrum.
So obviously a name that, you know, we're going to try to target arbitrum, um, and get their
attention and see if we can get some backing from them.
Um, partnerships with other arbitrum, uh, projects, whether they're, you know, games
of chance or not, or even people that are trying to build something similar because it's a protocol.
So people can use this protocol to, to build their own games of a chance.
So where the partnership makes sense, then I would look for people that, you know, have
success in the industry.
Like I said, for this example would be arbitrum.
So that's a one example, but yeah, it definitely depends on what the project is and aligning
the synergies with, uh, potential partners and collaborations.
No, I like that.
I like that.
Thanks.
Um, you know, it's, it's interesting too, because it doesn't necessarily need to be a big name
either.
Um, you know, you think back to how we got involved into, uh, crypto, uh, I don't know
your exact story, but for many of us, it was probably just jumping into a meme project.
Uh, and, and that was off of the whim of maybe even a YouTuber.
It could be even a friend, right.
That gets us into it.
Um, and, and so it doesn't really need to be.
And so if you hear of like certain people within it, it, crypto is kind of a unique situation
where you've almost got your, your project communities, and then you have your own communities
that you're, you're, uh, kind of teamed up with people that you pick up along the way
and kind of forge relationships with over the years.
Um, and it's interesting cause it, you know, the buzz that goes around in those smaller tight
niche communities of like, Ooh, have you heard of this?
Have you heard of that?
I'm going into this.
Um, it's, it's interesting that way too.
So, you know, one thing that's kind of been interesting is this like where crypto has been
more of a decentralized focus of, you know, keeping people's anonymous and, and, and, um,
keeping their, their identities kind of hidden behind the thing.
Do you feel like dropping names if they're not already public is, is almost a, uh, doxing,
uh, problem that we have sometimes too, uh, in, in that fashion?
I mean, if somebody is trying to stay, if somebody is purposely trying to stay doxed for whatever
that reason may be, then I think, you know, we have to respect that.
And, you know, the one, the projects that do it good, you know, they don't hide the fact
that they're, they're doxed and, you know, maybe the whole team is not, um, maybe some
of the team is doxed and maybe some of them are not, but I think people have to respect
that, but there's still enough information on the actual project that people can make
their, make their decisions.
I mean, I personally wouldn't, I wouldn't drop somebody's name if they, you know, specifically
did not want to be doxed.
Uh, if they're already doxed, then I don't think that would be a problem.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it's interesting.
Cause, uh, you know, I was talking with somebody the other day and they are trying to remain,
you know, completely non-doxed.
And, um, it was interesting cause they were just telling me that they were on another AMA
and somebody, cause they knew him personally, it just happened to slip.
Then they dropped a name and it's like, Oh geez, you know, type of thing.
And so it is, it is a fine balance, isn't it?
Um, trying to keep that ambiguity kind of there as well, if people really do it.
So, um, you know, when it comes to the internet as well.
So, I mean, you gotta be careful because if you putting yourself out there and doing things,
then there's definitely people out there that can find out who you are if they want to.
You know, unless.
That's so true.
That's so true.
That is so true.
And I mean, these guys in these communities are, are instant detectives, right?
If they can find just about anything.
Uh, I, I've heard some, some horror stories over the years and, and, uh, just since I've
been in since 2017, I've definitely heard some, some unique, interesting things that, that
have happened within communities.
Right.
And so, you know, you, you definitely want that level of privacy, but you also want to
make sure that you're building trust as well.
Um, which, which kind of, you know, leads us to another good question is this, you know,
over, over time, you know, as, as crypto projects begin growing, um, and name dropping becomes
less and less.
Um, when is it that you think that from your experience working with projects and, you know,
having projects of your own, when is it that you can stop name dropping and actually start
focusing on building your own name as a, as a piece of the equity within your own project?
Well, that's so that's important to do very right from the beginning, uh, thought leadership
pieces.
So, I mean, in cases, a project, say a project's being formed, they have a team, C-Suite or
whatever.
And a lot of cases they already have, you know, a history of things that they've done.
And, and, you know, that brings it back to what I was saying earlier, that they can bring
on and get investments because people are already invested and made money with them.
That may or may not be the case.
If it's a case where somebody's like, you're just starting this totally new, then you should,
you know, you're going to start to become a leader just by doing things.
And, you know, you're, you have hands on experience.
Like once you get, okay, let's say you build your, your discord group from zero to like
10,000 active members.
You're pretty much a leader in, you know, what your thought and your opinion matters.
Other people are going to be interested to hear how you did that.
Um, you know, it could be doing, um, doing a fundraise.
You know, everybody's going to want to, if you can do a successful raise, then you're going to,
you're going to want to start doing thought pieces in that area, or you should do because one,
you're helping other projects and people, and you're starting to establish your credibility
and your, you know, your, uh, your legacy in, in the industry.
So I think it's an ongoing process.
Like I said, it depends on what your background is.
It can be leveraged.
It can be leveraged.
It doesn't have to be crypto related, you know, um, it can be a company.
It can be, it can be the achievement that you've done that is not directly related to crypto,
but it could help you in the industry and build the company that you're trying to do.
But yeah, like I said, whether you have surpassed success or not, you should start doing that
every day from, from today.
You know, that might be a podcast.
It might be something like this.
It could be a podcast and you just, it could be an article that you write and you keep, um,
you keep building those.
Cause those are all, those are all, um, what's, what's the word I don't look for.
It's your property.
You can leverage all of those in the future.
So it's important to cultivate them and, you know, keep it organized and keep a record.
Yeah.
It's a, it's a great way to build your brand equity for sure.
That's the word I was looking for.
Brand equity.
Yeah.
It's, it's early in the morning for me.
I don't know where you're at, but, uh,
It's one, it's one 30.
I'm doing a lot of stuff today, man.
I'm moving.
I'm packing.
I'm, you know, she got a few meetings.
No, no, no.
We definitely appreciate your time, but, uh, yeah, you definitely nailed it.
Uh, brand equity for sure.
So, so that kind of brings up an interesting question and, you know, you've been in here
long enough.
You, you've seen celebrity endorsements and things like that.
Do you feel like a lot of projects put too much emphasis on trying to get the big, big
celebrities or even just the KOLs to help them promote their, their, their projects initially
that, uh, ultimately backfire on it for them?
Yeah, that's, that's a, that's a ticklish one.
It's gotta be, it's gotta be done.
Right.
Like I always believe in a mix of organic.
It's important to do organic.
Um, but also you can't just do organic because then our eyes going to get on you.
So advertising is definitely important, but you have to take into consideration your budget
because a lot of times these are our startups.
They might not have a big budget.
So, I mean, I've seen it.
Um, that's why a plan.
And somebody has done it before, even if you haven't done it before, I would advise projects
to go and seek the advice of projects that have done it before.
So you can just take the guesswork out of it.
But so some KOLs, they can, you know, if you'd have realistic expectations and an ROI
on what on your budget, then it can be good because I said, some, some influencers can send
a project just off of, you know, their, whatever it might be a YouTube video or tweet, whether they,
um, put the information out in their telegram group, whatever.
So if it's going to bring back the ROI that you're looking for, then it's definitely worth it.
But a lot of times projects would spend too much just on an influencer.
And then it depends on the project as well.
If it's just a meme coin that doesn't have to build anything, then okay.
But remember if you're a project and you spend all your money on a KOL,
but then you're not really building or doing anything.
If you don't have, you know, you don't have the, the utility for your token to actually
keep people once they, you know, look at you, then it's got not going to make any sense.
So, I mean, to, to kind of wrap it up, it's important to have a plan and a budget and clear
expectations and of your KPIs and ROIs and then budget accordingly.
So, you know, you're not spending 80, 90% of your budget on KOL.
If you have other things to do, like, you know, actually building a protocol or something.
Right.
Right.
And I think that a lot of, uh, a lot of projects fail as a result of that.
Um, I think there's been, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
And I think, uh, we've seen some good, good, uh, use cases of that with, uh, crypto.com's
Superbowl ads and high, high celebrity status coming back.
Um, it's really interesting because, um, even with us trying to, to connect with a few KOLs
and, and, uh, things like that over the course of our, our launch, it's interesting because
as we've done AMAs with specific people, we've gotten called out of like, why would you do
something with them?
Um, you know, uh, they're, they're, you know, they're known for just shilling or rug pulling
or doing this or that.
And it's, it's interesting cause you definitely walk a fine, fine type.
It's super hard because not only just that, like, you don't always know who you're dealing
with.
So, you know, that, that's definitely a problem, but then there's so many scams.
And because I mean, it's all these bots and, and different types of ways that you can manipulate
things.
So a lot of times you don't even know who a good KOL is, you know, or, or even if you look
at a YouTube video, it might look good at first.
And then if you're looking at all the comments, it's like all body comments, it's obvious.
So how many people are really seeing your video?
It makes it hard to, to judge it, especially if somebody is not like into a marketing and kind
of trying to track everything you can kind of fake.
Fake, you can fake being a KOL as well.
It's not too hard.
No, it's not.
It really isn't.
Um, and you bring up a good point.
So, you know, if you, if you setting KOLs aside, you know, what, what have you seen are
some effective ways for projects to leverage partnerships, um, in, in this space rather than just dropping
a name, uh, as we've talked earlier in this conversation about, you know, people just saying,
Oh, I'm listed on corn coin market cap.
So now I'm a, I'm a partner with them and dropping their, their medallion out onto your
website.
I mean, how are some more effective ways that you've seen over your, your tenure here in crypto?
Identify projects where you can bring value to them and they can bring value to you is, is
going to be the most important thing.
Um, it can be things like co-hosted spaces.
What I, what I do, um, for new projects.
So I would like collab collaborations is definitely good when you're trying to build your community and
you can target communities that like are doing something similar.
So, you know, you might give them, if you're an NFT projects, you might give them a thousand
white list spots to mint.
And then you might give your community something from that community.
So those work good, especially, you know, if you're doing the co-hosted space or, or other,
you know, type of media event, then that's going to extend the network effect because.
You know, obviously one project is going to, they're going to be doing their advertising
and marketing and then promotion, and they're going to have their community tuning in.
And then you're going to have a whole nother community.
So that cross pollination between communities is probably one of the most effective ways to
do it when it comes to building, um, uh, a community.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Um, like I'm, I'm all for that as well.
Like even, even with us trying to get listed on various exchanges and things like that, I, I, to
me that, that feels like the ultimate name drop, right?
Uh, Hey, we just got listed on Mexi, OKX, uh, Coinbase, you know, whatever it might be.
It's, uh, it's one of those things that I just feel like, okay, great.
We're like every Tom, Dick and Harry out there.
That's, uh, trying to get listed and we just got listed, but I'm, I'm the fan of you.
It's just basically going out and talking about the actual partnerships of things.
This has to have value, man, because I see that I'm, I'm, I'm a listings manager.
So like I said, I see my work.
That's what I do.
I work with projects that want to be listed.
Um, and you know, not even just with LaToken.
Um, I have connections with other exchanges, but sometimes like you have to know what you,
what are you getting your project listed for it as that, you know, some of the main things
might be okay.
Improve liquidity.
It might be easier, you know, better trading spreads if you're, if you're on Ethereum or whatever.
So it might be onboarding new traders.
It might be reaching their community, you know, doing marketing and co-marketing activities.
But some people think, okay, I'm just going to list it.
Cause even we have different listing packages and people want to say, okay, I'll just pay you
like 3000 to get listed.
When it's like, you know, there's upfront costs, you know, there's marketing activities
and promotional activities that go along.
We have third party, um, people that we work with where it's going to, you know, cost money.
And, you know, an average, even if you spend an average marketing budget, what is that like
50 to $200,000 realistically.
So it's like, you know, you have to use the listing as a whole marketing tool.
And then you, once again, use that and add that to your brand equity, whether it's making
posts about it, tweets, you know, you're, you're doing.
Um, the social media campaigns you're doing, you know, you're doing it with them and you're
taking advantage that they already have a built in community.
So you can't just list it.
If you list somewhere and nobody knows you're listed, then how are they going to even find
your coin?
They have to know that you're listed, which comes through marketing and promotion,
co-marketing activities.
Right, right, exactly.
And, uh, so I, our, uh, our communities brought this up a couple of times and I, and I hope
you don't mind me asking, but since you're a listing agent, um, you know, one of the questions
is like, how come these groups or this project can get listed on this, this exchange and, uh,
another project can't, um, you know, one thing that, that a lot of people need to understand
as well as this kind of the, the overall picture.
It's not all just about, you know, price, uh, volume, you know, things like that initially,
because there's, there's a first listing and then there's a second listing type of, uh,
requirement.
Right.
Um, do you, do you mind just kind of sharing a little bit about like difference between the
two and, and what you guys look for as listing agents, um, on that?
Or is that something you can't really talk about?
No, no, I can, I can talk about that.
I'm, I'm happy to talk.
So, I mean, each exchange is different depending on, you know, where they are, obviously like
the big ones like Binance and Coinbase.
Um, sort of, I mean, and most, most of the top exchanges are going to be looking for things
like the amount of trading volume that you have going on, things like how big is your community?
You know, if your community is really making a lot of noise all over the place, then that's
going to be, those are the big ones, the community and, and the trading volume.
I mean, it's not even really about the underlying technology.
That's what they're looking for because they know they can make money off of those coins.
Other than that, um, each most, most of the top exchanges do have KYC and AM, AML, uh, policies
that they're going to look for.
Now, besides that, if it's a smaller project that doesn't have that trading volume or community first,
then connections can help.
Connections is super huge.
And even because even a good project, if it's really good with great volume in a community,
they can probably get listed for, for free.
Like the Pepe when it came out, it was doing so much volume.
It created that FOMO.
Everybody knew, you know, a project like that.
Um, they're going to get listed.
Like the projects are just going to buy the coins and list them.
The, if it's a smaller one, I would suggest there's a strategy.
So first you want to build your community, whether you have a working product or not,
you want to build your community because they're going to be the ones that are, you know, advocating
for you to get listed and they're, they're going to make the noise.
And then the trading volume, but a good strategy is to get listed on a smaller exchange.
First, use all the co-marketing and promotional activities to build your community, to get your numbers
and the social media and everything out, get your brand equity out there.
And then once you're listed on a couple of those exchanges, you can go to a tier two exchange.
You're going to have a much, you know, you have history.
You've got product development.
They can see that your community is growing.
Not only are you going to have a better chance to get listed.
You're going to have a more negotiating power to get listed with a better price.
Because now you can say, okay, I'm talking to X exchange, Y exchange, Z exchange.
You know, they gave me a price of 10,000 and, you know, you'd have to kind of beat that price
because they're pretty much your competition in the market.
And then after that, you can build up to a project like Coinbase or Binance.
And if you can make, get enough trading volume and create FOMO and your community is strong,
then you could potentially get listed for free.
If you don't get free, it's definitely going to have a lot less cost for you to get listed.
Or like I said, in the case of Binance and Coinbase, it's not even always about whether you have the money to pay.
They have to think, you know, they think about everything.
You know, is it a solid project?
What's the community like?
What are the founders like?
So you can't just pay to get listed on Binance or Coinbase.
I hope that answered the question.
No, no, that's great.
I mean, this is all part of the conversation, right?
Because being able to drop where you're being listed in terms of CEXs or even DEXs, right?
Are always good marketing and you brought it up earlier.
You know, all marketing PR kind of stuff is good for it, even if it is positive or negative, right?
And that is definitely a positive for any project.
I mean, I've seen communities, projects like that, that have been listed, had some great hype,
and then have been able to go into a tier two, tier one and just catapult their, their amount of volume and, and, and community growth as a result of that.
Yeah.
You know, what's a good example of that is a project that's called Turbo.
I don't know if any of you guys are, they like, I think the white papers, they just asked ChatGPT or how to make a successful meme coin.
So when they, they actually applied on LaToken for a listing and it came to my desk.
And then I looked at their volume and I looked at their, when I was looking in their community, I saw how active they were.
And I was like, okay, I, you know, I think we can list these guys for free.
And plus they had, like I said, they had already done exactly what I said.
They were already listed on about five other exchanges.
Their trading volume was high and they had the community.
We listed them for free.
And I think he got listed.
The guy that came to me that, um, I forget what his position was, but he was helping with business development.
Um, yeah, we actually worked together.
Um, now.
So, you know, he had worked with them to get them listed on some other exchanges.
Uh, for free.
So that's what I say.
You haven't somebody good to work with you and your community is going to be the two most important things.
And then once you have your community, that's where the trading volume comes from.
Cause you know, they're talking about it.
They're creating foremost.
So now you have not just your community, but also the wider network coverage of them.
Always tweeting about it, of them shilling it all over the place.
Then putting out the memes and, you know, it becomes recognizable and people can't help.
Like what's this crazy looking frog that I see?
You know, that's how it kind of works.
Yeah.
A hundred percent.
A hundred percent.
I love that.
Um, so kind of going down that vein, um, you know, I guess while you're wearing your listing,
listing, uh, uh, agent hat, you know, do VC names really matter a lot as well when you're
taking this into consideration?
Is dropping those kinds of names pertinent to getting listed as well?
Uh, on the like tier two exchanges, I, I don't think that would, I mean, obviously it wouldn't
hurt, but honestly, you wouldn't even, you wouldn't necessarily need that.
Um, if, because by the time you even come to the exchange, it's going to be, you know, pretty
much taken for granted that you're already at a certain stage of the project anyway.
So whether you got that through VC or bootstrapping or, or whatever, we're just going to really
be, you know, looking at that.
Cause by the time you get listed all, you know, to pre-sale, unless it's an IEO, then that might
have, that might have somewhat of a, of an effect.
But I would say that is probably more for like the bonuses and coin bases and crackings.
But any, anybody under that, honestly, it's not going to make too much of a difference.
I say that to say, it'll be good to drop that name, but more than likely it wouldn't even,
you know, it wouldn't require you to drop that name.
Gotcha.
Okay.
Yeah, no, that makes sense.
Like I said, we're trying to explore every, every little nook and cranny we can about this
conversation.
So, but I do, I do, I ask, that is a question that I asked, um, you know, I would ask them
like, did you do any private sales or have you done any public sales?
Have you launched on, but that's more just to kind of get an idea of, do they have the
budget to, you know, to, to really push the project of where they need to push.
So it is something that I would take into consideration.
But like I said, most of the time, if they come to that stage, they, they probably have
what they need, or maybe they don't me personally.
Cause I'll be honest with you.
A lot of, a lot of exchange agents.
It's just pay me the money and I'll list you, you know, and a lot of exchanges are pretty
much like that.
If you have the money to pay and you can pass the KYC and AML, then a lot of exchanges would,
would just list you.
Me personally, I like to try to only work with projects that I believe in.
And I think that are going to be, you know, solid.
And those are projects that I have in like, you know, my personal portfolio.
So when people ask me, I said, look, I've worked with this project, this, we did this
and this, you know, that's, that's just me personally, but some of the smaller projects,
sometimes it's even hard to tell if they'll do good or not.
I try to look to see if the founders at least have some sort of passion and love for that project is,
is a good indicator to me rather than they're just trying to make a quick buck.
Yeah, that makes sense.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
And those are things that we're definitely experiencing on our, our side of things as well.
It just seems like they're, they're very passive aggressive on getting us listed for a fee.
Right.
Yeah.
That makes sense.
Yeah.
Because like I said, once you get, and then what, that's why I say was once you build up,
then it's going to be the other way, then they're going to be coming to you and wanting you to list.
So it's all about that power dynamic.
If you're just starting and you don't have the community, that that's the most important.
The community will make them listen to you.
Like they will have to go in, in their spaces.
They'll go on their Twitter.
Like, yeah, when listing, when listing, we look, we're strong.
There'll be, you know, shilling in all the, in all the groups.
And then you have the training volume.
They definitely want to list you because they can make money.
So at the end of the day, it's all about how can they make money or how can they attach themselves to a brand that's hot and get new traders.
So if, if the power dynamics in their favorites, you know, pay me the money.
There's plenty more projects that want to list.
We don't need you.
But if you're a hot project, then it's like, okay, I know that you, we can get new signups on our, our, our exchange, because all of your community is going to sign up to our exchange or relist your token.
So we want to be the first to list you, maybe lock you into an exclusive deal or something, you know, that's, that's kind of, it's all about the power dynamics.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, I love that.
I love that.
Um, so let's just pause here real quick.
So we've got, um, a few listeners, uh, today.
So if you're listening and if you have a question about this particular topic or, uh, just have a question for captain crypto on listing or, um, helping startup projects, getting started, uh, definitely drop that in the thread below.
And, uh, we'll, we'll, we'll bring those up to him here in just a minute, but, uh, been a great conversation, uh, Craig, we appreciate it and, uh, always love having you on the space and, and, uh, you're, you know, you're always welcome on here.
We love your insights and feedback.
Um, so with that being kind of thrown out there, let's just kind of keep the conversation going a little bit more, um, in terms of like, you know, you mentioned that you, you love projects.
That you're passionate about.
Right.
Um, and that, that's one thing that, you know, as I'm looking for, for potential partnerships and things like that for us as a layer one, um, you know, strategically, those are the things that we're looking for as well as it's like, how can we help better or, you know, uh, scale or even promote projects and things like that.
And, uh, what, what, what kind of things are, are, are, are you kind of most interested in this upcoming bull run?
Um, what kind of things are you looking for?
What kind of things do you hope to see project wise or, or technology wise coming out?
Right.
Yes.
I mean, that's, that's a tricky one too, because it's, it's so, it's always changing so much, man.
But me personally, I have an eye on the Bitcoin layer twos.
Um, and my reason behind that is, you know, the expected transaction fees on Bitcoin when the prices are higher and the network is congested to be really high.
So, I mean, I'm already starting to see a lot of, you know, um, things going on with big people building on Bitcoin layer twos, um, even some new layer ones.
And then the different, let me see, like the different spaces, the like deep end is one that I've, I'm on real world assets.
I've always been into that from the very beginning, um, like real estate and things of that nature, even artwork.
I mean, there's so, there's so many that I'm, you know, passionate about myself.
I've always thought that like real estate artwork was a good one, obviously defy, um, gambling, but those are where I see the matter right now.
Obviously the, the ruins and the ordinance, I think just Bitcoin in general is going to be, uh, super hot.
I'm expecting even the, the NFTs on Bitcoins to pick up again.
So those are some of the areas that I'm personally looking at and focusing on myself, but that could all change month to month, you know?
Yeah, that's, that's the nice thing about, uh, technology, right?
Just wait six months and it'll totally change again.
Uh, so, so that brings up a good question.
I didn't hear you, you drop anything around AI is what's your thoughts?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's it.
That was silly of me as well.
I mean, definitely.
Of course.
Yeah.
I mean, I use AI every day of my, uh, my life, man.
It helps me a lot.
So that's, that's definitely a big one.
I mean, I have, um, an investor friend.
He just did something in Montana on some native American land where they're setting up a farm with, um, so it's going to be a farm for, for AI and Bitcoin.
So, I mean, that's something that I'm, you know, always, like I said, I use AI every day to, to write articles, to check things, um, write emails, make, uh, make YouTube videos, presentations.
And yeah, some of the investors that I'm working with are heavily looking into AI and, and investing in AI projects.
So thanks.
Thanks for bringing that up.
I don't know how I, how I didn't include that one, but yeah, a hundred percent.
Well, yeah, I mean, it's, it seems to be the topic on every AMA I'm, I'm on it.
It's like, but, uh, but yeah, I was just kind of curious.
So, uh, it looks like we have, uh, uh, a, uh, community question potentially.
Uh, let me see.
Sorry, Zaria.
Sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name, but.
Do you want to.
Hello. Can you hear me?
Yep.
Go for it.
My question.
What are the benefits of properly investing money in your project?
And how do you help investors?
And how will your project achieve maximum profit in the future?
I'm sorry.
I'm sorry.
That's my question.
Okay.
I didn't quite get that.
Did you, did you get the question?
I didn't get it either.
Do you mind repeating your question?
I think I got the question, but.
What are the.
Repeat question.
Can you repeat your question?
Can you repeat your question?
Okay.
What are the benefits of properly investing money in your project?
And how do you help investors?
And how will your project achieve maximum profit in the future?
Is that for me?
Or is it for for layer one excellent?
Yeah.
Yeah.
Oh, that's for me specifically.
Well, if.
Okay.
If you're talking about rogue chain.
Um, so like I said, I'm helping them build their community.
So one of the things that they're doing right now is an incentivized test net.
Uh, we're actually getting whitelist, uh, submissions for that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And, you know, for that, so how the test net is going to work.
Everybody that, um, submits their Ethereum, uh, compatible wallet will receive $2,000.00
of play, uh, test net tokens.
And then there's other ways to get more test net tokens.
Like, um, our Zeli campaigns, participating on discord.
So those test net tokens are going to be used to place bets and, uh, trading volume on
the test net.
then depending on the amount of volume, trading volume that you generate, you're going to be
airdropped the main net tokens. So, I mean, that's a benefit. You help us by testing out
the protocol and you get an airdrop in return. Other than that, there's a lot of ways to make
money. So it doesn't have to be just for people that are into gambling. There's three different
pools. That's going to be the house bankroll. So anybody can provide liquidity to that and earn
passive income. In the testing ones, the bankroll in about, I think, 10 to 12 weeks, I believe,
has gone up about 100%. And even though that's obviously not indicative of what the real results
are going to be like, you can use that as an indicator. The test net might be a little
bit better of an indicator because right now all the trades will be being done on bots.
But yeah, you can earn passive income. It's going to have a dial. So those are benefits as well.
Yeah. And, you know, Layer 1X, if you want to answer as well, I don't want to, you know,
make a choice about that.
Yeah, no. And so how Layer 1X can definitely help projects as well is, you know, first off,
it starts at our core technology, right? So we are able to do bridgeless interoperability to EVM
and non-EVM chains. So the cool part is, is that you don't need to be necessarily built on L1X
blockchain to utilize this technology. You can actually be on rogue chain or you could be,
you know, wherever, kind of wherever it is, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, you know, wherever.
And you can tap into this interoperability, which gives projects a instant access to liquidity,
instant access to the different projects and use cases out there so that they can build that
seamless experience across the board. Not only with that is our ability to tap into our low,
low capped 1 cent per transaction fee, it'll never be higher than 1 cent, no matter the amount
that you're exchanging. And that goes, you know, for transactions that are transpiring on the L1X
blockchain. Now, obviously, if you are transacting from like Ethereum over to like a different chain,
you'll have that, that initial gas fee that's on that chain plus the 1% or 1 cent, excuse me.
So you'll still have those fees. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about those gas fees, but
that's why we're so cheap and inexpensive on those things is because we understand that, you know,
cross chain transactions do cost quite a bit. So there's a lot of tech that comes in to help
projects in terms of, you know, being able to grow and scale. When it comes to, you know, the value add or
the creating revenue, there's lots of opportunity for that as Captain Crypto mentioned before as well.
The world's your oyster, especially when we unlock all of Web3 for you as well. So you can pretty much
go anywhere and transact with any blockchain. So hopefully that answers your question. And thanks for coming up on
that one. Looks like we've got another one. DeFi Mayor, you're up. Go ahead and ask your question.
All right. So my question is, what are the challenges you're currently facing in your project? And what are your
greatest achievements so far?
Did you hear my question?
Yeah, I think we did hear your question. What are the challenges, right? And what are so far achievements? Is that correct?
May I ask? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sorry, my, my headphones cut out. What was, what was, what was that?
Captain, did you hear the question?
Sorry, was that for me or for layer one?
I think it was for both. I think it's a go ahead.
Okay. So, okay. And I mean, I guess this could go for any project that I've worked with. But so at the moment, the biggest challenge with Rogue is, you know, I believe in the team, I believe in the project, I believe in the concept.
It's just that there's so much noise in crypto, like, how do you get the word out to the, you know, the communities? How do you get people to come in your community, people that are going to be passionate about your project, contribute to the project and help make it a success?
I think that's, you know, I think that's, you know, pretty much the, one of the hardest things for, for most projects is because a lot of them, they have, you know, they have the technical abilities, they can build projects and everything.
But yeah, how exactly do you build a community? How do you get the word out there, you know, without, you know, because you kind of want to do it organically, you don't want to break the bank on just advertising and marketing.
So I think that's the one, and it requires creative solutions. Like I said, everything that we've talked about today are some of the things that I try to do, the collaborations with different communities, where it makes sense.
Not always asking is important, too, because the projects always, you know, go to other projects, you know, can we have this? Can we have this? Can we have this? Can you do this for me?
And I try to have them, you know, we're bringing value to them. So like layer one exit, there is so much value that that project can bring to other people that are either building all that, or that may need interoperability.
So you go to them first with a solution to a problem they may be having. And then you can think about seeing what they can do. So you're bringing real value instead of just with your hand up.
So it's probably one of the best ways to build a good collaborations. And then you can tap into some of their community as well.
Yeah. And, and from us, you know, I, I think some of the biggest challenges is trying to balance between, you know, the, the degen kind of view of, of a project, you know, FOMO and hype versus having a,
a native blockchain, which is more based on the tech and long-term investorship of it. Right.
I think that there's a, it's been kind of a struggle for us to kind of, you know, educate and, and help our, our community understand the difference between the two,
because the strategies are, are totally different in terms, in terms of like how we market, who we market to, you know,
initially it was all about trying to build hype and, and things around getting this blockchain launched.
But since launching, it's been a shift in focus where we're, we're, we're not building applications.
We don't build applications. We've got the infrastructure in place for projects to come build on us.
And so, you know, for us, we're, we're highly targeting developers and, and things like that.
And so there is a dynamic shift in that, and it's been kind of a struggle for, for many of our degen contributors at the earlier stages.
But we'd like to think that it's definitely going to be rewarding in the long run, not financial advice by any means, but, but yeah, I mean, I feel like we've setting aside the value of things.
I feel like the technology that we bring to the table is definitely something that can be utilized by all blockchains, all projects and users across Web3.
So, but yeah, that was a great question. I think we'll round it out there with that one.
So Craig, Captain Crypto, we definitely appreciate you coming on and spending a few minutes.
We know your time is valuable, but we want to appreciate, give you appreciation for that.
You know, you're always welcome on our AMAs, my friend.
You always bring some good insight and some good perspective on things and kind of set us back in our place every once in a while, which is good, especially for a lot of our listeners.
So we do appreciate you and, and everything.
How's it being here, man? Always a pleasure.
Yeah. Do you want to take 30 seconds to a minute or so and just kind of throw out a little shill for your projects you're working on?
And how, if people have questions, how they can find out more, more about it?
Yeah. So, I mean, in general, if, I mean, if you have any question for me, you can always hit me up on, here on, on Twitter.
I think I have even my calendar. So you can even, you know, if you want to speak to me, you can book a call, whether that's, you know, talk about anything or project.
If you have some help for me, shout me out.
If you have a project that you're looking for help with, shout me out, you know, project that wants to get listed, shout me out as well.
Just talk about anything. As far as Rogue, I think they're here.
Definitely, if you're looking for a good project to get into early and some farming opportunities, you know, that there's obviously not financial advice,
but I think it could be very profitable for people getting in for liquidity provision and passive income.
I would check that out. And yeah, that's it, man. Everybody's free to hit me up. I'm pretty much open.
Check me out on LinkedIn. If you want to connect professionally, Craig Henderson, La Token, I'm easy to find.
Perfect. Well, thanks again, my friend. And if everybody that's listening hasn't already followed you guys, your personal as well as Rogue Chain, highly recommend doing so.
Sounds like they got some good stuff cooking. So with that being said, thanks, Anna, on our Xtalks handle for joining us as co-host today.
We appreciate her putting time and effort into putting these episodes together.
And with that, if you're in the U.S., happy Memorial Day.
And for the rest of you throughout the world, let's keep working to unite all of crypto.
Until next time, we'll chat with you later. Have a good day.
Thank you. Have a good one.
