The ones who stay are the protagonists.

Author: Yanz, Deep Tide TechFlow

Dressed in trendy attire, running a "statement" little shop, expressing oneself in a mix of Chinese and English, embodying personal style down to every strand of hair, looking down on all visitors with a noble attitude, this forms the current public's deconstruction and mockery of the main person in charge.

The true meaning of the person in charge is dissolved in the jest of "focusing on not caring about people," but as a synonym for the initial professional responsible person, the group it represents has always been there.

Some say the crypto industry is a "paradise for super individuals," where a group of true protagonists thrives.

Some spend only 30 minutes a day building a job matching platform, becoming an indispensable public infrastructure in the industry; some persist at the table during a bear market, becoming well-known whistleblowers; some step away from major industry players, choosing to let results speak for themselves; and some build physical spaces in cities, creating bridges for more newcomers to communicate.

We found some crypto protagonists, each of whom can be considered a super individual, and here are their stories.

Fearless in Crypto: Choosing Passion, Staying at the Table

I am Fearless in Crypto, a Web3 whistleblower and community builder.

The door to the crypto world opened for me during a few offline events. There, I first encountered the basic concepts of the industry and token knowledge, and I was immediately captivated. With curiosity and enthusiasm, I sent out a few resumes, first stepping into a blockchain media company, and later moving to Huobi Exchange.

Life at a major crypto company is not much different from most internet companies; it follows established processes and completes tasks step by step. I traversed different positions: marketing operations, brand public relations, research analysis, and community management.

At the end of 2021, I bid farewell to life at the exchange and began exploring possibilities outside of full-time work. While searching for a new job, I pondered a question: in this industry, besides working for others, is there another way to survive?

This question is not difficult; the crypto world is naturally suited for the existence of "super individuals." Whether researchers, traders, bloggers, KOLs, or community organizers, as long as they find suitable monetization methods, they can live quite well.

After leaving the company, my life rhythm changed completely. I usually wake up between 10 and 11, scroll through my phone, browse messages, and start working around 2 PM after lunch until dinner time. There may be meetings or appointments with friends during this time. After dinner, I either trade, play games, or exercise, generally not falling asleep until one or two in the morning. This lifestyle sharply contrasts with the typical 9-to-5 worker, and the most precious aspect is freedom; without the constraints of a company framework, I can explore life at my own pace.

Now, my energy is mainly divided into two parts: one is managing my personal IP, including Twitter, Binance Square, and Xiaohongshu; the other is operating crypto communities, providing professional services for project parties.

Starting in September 2022, the Fearless in Crypto account has now accumulated over 200,000 followers, which is actually an unexpected gain. In early 2025, dissatisfaction with project parties in the crypto circle surged, especially with the two popular trends of VC coins and meme coins facing heavy criticism. I seized the opportunity to disclose some insider information, unexpectedly becoming an overnight sensation, and thus continued down this path.

Operating crypto communities is also a very important part. Although it is my interest, this path is not smooth. The most challenging moment was during the bear market, especially the year after the FTX collapse. Market liquidity dried up, monetization became difficult, project parties faced tight funding, and budgets were drastically reduced. I could only take on various gigs, doing some thankless jobs to make ends meet, such as agency operations, advertising promotion, and offline event planning; these were all hard-earned "sweat money."

Despite the hardships, the thing I feel most accomplished about is staying at the table, regardless of the storms.

Many people choose to leave after making a fortune or suffering a loss, or become disillusioned with the industry after a failure. Some may struggle to adapt to the freelance lifestyle and find their way to the table. But I firmly believe that as long as you stay in this industry, even if you only occupy a small position, it is much better than in those highly competitive and shrinking industries. After all, the crypto world is still in an upward phase, with more liquidity and more opportunities.

For newcomers wanting to develop in the crypto circle, my advice is to take it step by step. It’s best for those just entering the industry to work in a company to gain experience; after accumulating 1 to 3 years of work experience, they can seek circles that provide information advantages and high-quality interactions, finding platforms that promote mutual growth; after 3 years, everyone may find their unique path that suits them.

The most important thing is to find what you truly love. If you are obsessed with programming, go develop; if you are good at socializing, go build communities; if you can't find a particular hobby for the time being, treating making money itself as an interest is also acceptable. I once wrote in a tweet: Starting from interest and finding what you love is the best.

Antoniayly: 30 Minutes a Day, Connecting Talent and Opportunity

I am the founder of the Web3 job platform abetterweb3.

In July 2021, I was still working in post-investment at a VC. Doing post-investment is somewhat like being a nanny, trying to meet various needs of project parties as much as possible. Hiring is one of those needs.

Some project parties would ask: Can you help me find an operations head? Can you help me find a marketing head? Do you have any reliable engineers to recommend?

While matching these needs, I often saw information in my social circle about people just leaving their jobs or looking for opportunities.

Gradually, I realized that the crypto circle lacked a platform that could bridge these two gaps—project parties need reliable people, and reliable people can't find reliable companies. This is a resource mismatch issue, and the solution is actually quite simple: it just needs a Notion database and a Telegram channel. As long as the information is shared, those in need will naturally match.

Breaking the information monopoly and lowering the threshold for both sides is something I want to achieve. Many job recruitment websites require you to log in and register a resume to see information, or force you to choose an identity, where job seekers can only see job postings, and recruiters can only see resumes. I want to change this model, making all information open to everyone. To be honest, looking at other people's resumes is quite interesting, and it satisfies many people's curiosity.

From July 2021 to now, I have been operating this platform alone. The platform operates very simply: form tools and Notion make up my automation system. When someone submits job-seeking or recruitment information, it automatically syncs to my review database. Every morning and evening, I spend half an hour reviewing this content, moving qualified information to the public database.

For recruiting companies, I conduct basic screening, at least requiring the company to have a website and a Twitter account; this is the most basic requirement. Companies without these are likely to be shell projects and are directly filtered out.

However, the first few months were very difficult because no one was willing to share their life experiences on a strange platform; this is a very private and trust-filled action. I could only go to developer forums to find materials, transporting some public resume information to my channel. Perhaps the matching demand in the job market is indeed very rigid; this state lasted for about a month, after which people began to actively submit resumes and job-seeking information.

What surprised me is that although I did no promotion, this platform has steadily developed through word of mouth and has shown a 45-degree growth. Occasionally, friends suddenly contact me, saying their friends found jobs through my platform, even at some companies they never thought of. This is the source of my sense of achievement and the motivation for me to continue.

Currently, abetterweb3 is a purely public welfare platform. Apart from the small income from the Telegram channel's profit-sharing plan (accumulating to about seventy or eighty dollars now), there is no other profit model. But seeing it truly helping people and achieving its original intention is enough.

Many things you can't imagine how they will turn out after a few months, but if you persist, even if you only spend 30 minutes a day, after 4 or 5 years, you will find that you have accumulated significant value.

Essentially, the problems currently criticized in the crypto circle are all human issues. Whether the product is well-developed or whether the project is viable, the root lies in talent. I hope my platform can serve as an infrastructure to help retain some talents willing to stay in this industry, rather than letting them all flow into the AI industry.

If possible, I still hope to develop the platform into a website, changing the currently somewhat primitive maintenance method to provide a better user experience. But regardless, the original intention of allowing information to flow freely and helping talents and opportunities match better will not change. After all, isn't the original intention of the internet information sharing?

Yuliana: Strategist, Letting Results Speak

I am Yuliana, the founder of a crypto project incubator.

After entering the Web3 industry, I have worked at Bybit and Morph. They are well-known, well-funded, and have excellent team backgrounds and resources. But for me: it seems that no matter how hard I work, some results are always out of my control. In an environment of extreme internal friction, I invested a lot of energy and time into work, only to find that not only was the output not proportional to the input, but sometimes I also felt powerless regarding the results of things I was good at and wanted to do, which prompted me to start my own business.

Running an incubator is a conviction. In 2021, I made an attempt, but after eight or nine months, I returned to work at a company. In May of this year, I restarted my incubation business.

Helping projects with overall marketing and growth is the main business direction. The team is small, about six people; I am responsible for taking cases, bringing in more resources, communicating project needs, planning and strategizing projects, and promoting execution. This streamlined structure allows us to respond flexibly to market changes while maintaining high execution efficiency.

The projects we take on can generally be divided into two types: one is those with phased needs, requiring only specific tasks to be completed; the other is projects that require deep involvement, where I help them analyze development dilemmas like a CMO, formulate overall plans, solve data indicator issues, enhance market heat, and meet data indicators. The biggest challenge on this path often comes from the project parties' willingness to cooperate.

I remember once, I communicated very clearly with the project owner, but their technical team thought it was not their focus and was unwilling to cooperate on development. What could have been completed in 7 days was delayed to 14 days, and the communication process was full of resistance; no matter what I said, there were always doubts and challenges, and some even spoke very rudely.

“At that time, I just had to grit my teeth and do it, not resting on weekends, often communicating late into the night, just to get things done.” Although the process was difficult, fortunately, the results were good; the project data showed significant improvement, and we achieved results beyond expectations. As a result, the project party's attitude completely changed, and subsequent cooperation became smooth.

Whether the project party is clear about its phased needs is the foundation for establishing cooperation. Some projects lack clear goals and a clear roadmap, making it difficult to make substantial progress even with communication, while teams that have clear goals and are willing to accept professional advice and execute can fully leverage the value of limited resources. This has also become one of my criteria for selecting partners.

In my view, becoming an influential person in the rapidly changing crypto industry is the core of success: either become a super individual, amplifying your influence through social media and other channels, or start a company, build a strong brand, and work with clear goals and strong execution to make your presence known in the market.

One thing I firmly believe is that you must have a very clear sense of purpose and be results-oriented. The crypto industry is ever-changing; success requires not only expertise and execution but also a clear goal orientation and results-driven mindset. Whether as an individual or a team, only by clearly knowing what you want and being willing to put in continuous effort can you find your place in this field full of opportunities and challenges.

CC: Stay True to Your Original Intention, Align Knowledge with Action

I am CC, the founder of a Web3 physical space (Web 3 Space).

In a provincial capital city, I have a store called "Web3 HUB." The over 700 square meter space primarily revolves around four core areas: event hosting and organization, sales of Web3 peripheral products (hardware wallets, rings, headphones, watches, etc.), shared office space, and a newcomer incubator.

This choice largely stems from my experience in traditional industries. After over a decade of entrepreneurship, I have opened bars, cafes, restaurants, and beauty salons, accumulating some successful cases in traditional industries, chains, and branding. After entering the crypto circle in 2018, I found that there were no "teachers" in this circle; all learning had to be gained through continuous trial and error, which is the biggest difference from traditional industries.

At that time, I wanted to establish a public platform as a bridge, allowing more people and newcomers to communicate and share.

In 2020, my experience at the Hong Kong Blockchain Week greatly inspired me. I realized that if every city could have such a place where people from all over the world could gather, communicate, and share, it would be a wonderful thing. So, I decided to take action.

Now, Web3 HUB operates daily from 9 AM to 9 PM. If there are events or parties, it extends to 2 AM. We hold two public classes each week, relying on traditional domestic traffic platforms like Xiaohongshu, Douyin, and video accounts to attract all new friends, entrepreneurs, or job seekers interested in Web3 and AI, building bridges for their communication.

As a physical space, Web3 HUB incurs monthly operating costs of over 200,000 yuan, and it can be very tough during slow business periods. In a bull market, many projects and public chains are willing to come out for offline exchanges and sharing; in a bear market, everyone focuses more on self-survival and is less willing to socialize. At this time, my experience in the traditional Web2 field becomes an advantage. Our space is not entirely vertical to Web3; during bear markets, we also host some traditional Web2 events, such as Douyin courses, new media courses, English lectures, and psychological counseling courses, allowing the space to operate normally.

In my view, making more people aware of our brand is one of the most successful things we have done. Currently, in just the city of Chengdu, we already have three to four thousand members. This has changed many people's impression that Web3 ultimately requires issuing tokens. In fact, the blue ocean of Web3 is vast, and many resources can be linked without issuing tokens.

As someone who is starting a business in the crypto circle, as long as you adhere to the principle of "staying true to your original intention and aligning knowledge with action," you will not fare poorly in the circle. The barriers to entry for Web3 entrepreneurship are low; too many people talk one way and act another, and some even issue tokens to profit and then leave. But since I started my business, I have never wavered from my original intention, which is to make our brand and space better.

In the future, we hope to establish similar spaces in Hangzhou, Shenzhen, Singapore, and throughout Southeast Asia. For everyone, as long as you respect the industry, keep learning, research and delve into any new narratives, and strive not to fall behind, you can achieve your results in this opportunity-filled industry.

From being mocked as "focusing on not caring about people" to the real existence of "super individuals," crypto protagonists are continuously writing their own life chapters. Whether it’s a 30-minute persistence or years of exploration, they have become accustomed to freedom and are proving that in this decentralized world, the most valuable resource has never been capital, but people.

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