If you are reading this, you probably don’t know how bad it truly is.
I’m talking about YouTube – specifically, Crypto YouTube.
Dear reader, just by virtue of being subscribed to our niche, highly curated newsletter, you have already self-selected to tune out the pablum of crypto content that permeates the biggest top of funnel for our industry.
Let’s explore the state of Crypto YouTube. Put on a suit of armor, because there be dragons cringe.
Crypto YouTube’s Inverse Law of Quality
Let’s introduce a concept I call the “Inverse Law of Quality.” The lower the quality of a Crypto YouTube video, the higher the views it received (and vice versa).
Look no further than the infamous “shill price list” leaked from Crypto Twitter anon-sleuth ZachXBT a couple years ago. A good undisclosed shill on a medium-size youtube channel was a cool $5k back in the day.
Archetypes of the Crypto YouTube grift
The Crypto YouTube grift comes in many shapes and sizes, but I’ve zeroed in on some classic archetypes of Crypto YouTubers that I outline below.
Soloprenuer: This is the king of Crypto YouTube content, the business model with the highest ROI. Often just a dude with a camera, big expressions, and a dream (and usually an eastern european accent).
All he needs is a ticker and an audience and he can do the rest. I’m talking about titans of the industry such as The Moon Carl or the disgraced BitBoy X (formerly BitBoy Crypto before his extremely public legal dispute, likewise extremely public divorce, and still incredibly publicized drug crashout).
But the absolute GOAT of this format is MMCrypto. Nobody does it better than this guy. His strained face demands that you click to learn about his latest trade.
Then you’re funneled into a few minutes of incoherent rambling punctuated by crypto buzzwords and probably a chart or two. But it’s peak crypto clickbait content.
Slop-House Production: Wanna juice your brand with a high-throughput content team? Get a slop-house sweatshop operation going and really crank out some videos.
One of my favorite examples of this is a shorts-only content house promoting a solana memecoin called $YETI.
“Yeti Crypto” videos all follow the Hero’s Journey: poor bum risks it all on the YETI coin, makes 1000x, and then flaunts it (his life is now perfect).
It’s a fantastic format and according to socialblade the brand has done over 400 million views since June.
And yet, $YETI is down 93% since launch. So the game goes.
Lifestyle Kings: We’re not going to tell you how they got their money, just that they have it. And YOU TOO can have it by buying THIS course or clicking THIS ref link!
Honestly, 2021 was peak “Lifestyle guy,” but one of this cycle’s breakout stars is definitely my boy Orangie.
He’s been on a memecoin heater for a while. Even moved his bros down to Miami with him so they could trade memecoins with him.
They haven’t been in any of his videos recently so I think they may have gotten culled as the memecoin market pulls back.
Alt season is always right around the corner, right?
The common thread is that these youtube content creators simply refuse to recommend buying Bitcoin.
They may lead with “Bitcoin up 110% z0mg!!” but the content always funnels to a private trading course, referral deal, or just a low cap sh***** that the creator most certainly has an undisclosed allocation to.
This reminds me of Dante’s Inferno, specifically the 4th level of Hell for avarice. Inspired by the classic myth of Sisyphus pushing a boulder mountainward forever, in Dante’s Hell, Hoarders and Squanderers push boulders against each other in a futile, eternal stalemate.
In other words, those hoarding wealth are in eternal struggle against those who blow their money (gamblers/speculators). Their efforts perpetually cancel each other out.
In crypto, I imagine it looks something like this:
So the next time you hear our industry called “grifters” just take it in stride. It’s (probably) not your fault – it’s just that the average person only sees grifting front-and-center on the largest video platform in the world. They haven’t made it into the same exclusive group chats that you have.
Maybe you should charge for access?
In an ironic reversal it may actually be the regulators who solve this issue: crypto is broken and needs tradfi to fix it.
