Coffee with Captain: Crypto Markets, Products and Builders

Metaverse and GameFi may look tired, but the ingredients are finally here for a real second wave. AI tooling and better production pipelines make it easier to ship real worlds and real economies. The focus is Otherside’s Amazon drop and the broader thesis around digital ownership. A browser-based experience can feel normal for players while the wallet and NFTs stay mostly invisible. James from the Otherside team answers questions on how the drop works, what “Feels” are, and how communities can get onboarded with higher-quality avatars and assets. Directive Creator (@Escapation) explains how AI is already speeding up 3D workflows like prototyping, referencing, texturing, and rigging. The closing framing contrasts closed economies like Roblox and Fortnite with open-ish precedents like Counter-Strike skins. It lands on open markets and ownership as the long-term unlock for onchain games.

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This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. None of the information shared on this podcast is meant to be taken as financial advice. Chris and guest speakers may hold tokens discussed

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The Everything Token: A Book on Web3 and NFTs

Today’s show opens with a blunt post-mortem on Trove and how hype, KOL promotion, and weak disclosure norms can turn retail into exit liquidity when a launch collapses. The discussion widens into creator accountability, paid promotion, and what real disclosure should look like in crypto, with a quick detour into eligibility and leaderboard mechanics that can be gamed. Then it pivots to the Grok drb.eth rabbit hole, covering the DRB origin story, the ENS angle, and how the wallet stack (BankerBot plus Privy) moves and tracks funds in real time. From there, the group zooms out to what AI agents mean for onchain credibility, verification, and automated workflows as the tooling accelerates. It closes with a brief trade-style check on a newly live token and how to think about supply, lockups, and positioning.

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Coffee with Captain Newsletter: https://coffeewithcaptain.beehiiv.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coffeewithcaptainshow

Follow on X:
Chris Jourdan: https://x.com/ChrisJourdan
Coffee with Captain: https://x.com/coffeewithcap_

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. None of the information shared on this podcast is meant to be taken as financial advice. Chris and guest speakers may hold tokens discussed

Check Out:
The Everything Token: A Book on Web3 and NFTs

Trove’s botched launch turns into a real-time breakdown of what the hosts mean when they call something a rug, with KOLs taking heat for undisclosed paid shills tied to the same blowup. The Coffee Crew rewind the setup from the Hyper-EVM expectation to the Solana pivot, then get into the fallout, missing liquidity and ICO funds still not refunded, including a claim the project is holding about $9.4M. The throughline is credibility. If you’re paid to promote something, disclose it and stop dressing it up as organic signal. They also point to X and Grok opening up the algorithm as fuel for faster narrative churn and copycat takes. The episode closes on a bet that InfoFi and crypto media shift toward fewer, more trusted creators and away from leaderboard farming.

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Coffee with Captain Newsletter: https://coffeewithcaptain.beehiiv.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coffeewithcaptainshow

Follow on X:
Chris Jourdan: https://x.com/ChrisJourdan
Coffee with Captain: https://x.com/coffeewithcap_

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. None of the information shared on this podcast is meant to be taken as financial advice. Chris and guest speakers may hold tokens discussed

Check Out:
The Everything Token: A Book on Web3 and NFTs

Base shows how distribution actually works onchain, with sports.fun claw plays now living directly inside the Base app instead of sending users out to a browser flow. X’s creator monetization is shifting again, de-emphasizing reply farming and pushing creators toward original long-form articles to earn payouts. The conversation then turns into a practical framework for how SEO collides with AI search, arguing it’s “SEO and GEO,” not a replacement, and that the new goal is getting mentioned with positive sentiment and a citation inside the answer. They also hit the monetization endgame, including ChatGPT reportedly beta testing ads for free accounts. Finally, they underline why incentives keep getting redesigned: engagement-driven systems are easy to game with low-lift bots.

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Captain Zwingli: https://x.com/ChrisJourdan
Coffee with Captain: https://x.com/coffeewithcap_

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. None of the information shared on this podcast is meant to be taken as financial advice. Chris and guest speakers may hold tokens discussed

Check Out:
The Everything Token: A Book on Web3 and NFTs

InfoFi is getting “called dead,” but the real story is that the incentives are moving, not disappearing. The show focuses on Kaito’s shift to Kaito Studio and why sunsetting incentivized YAPs leaderboards is a signal that the old playbook stopped working. We talk through how leaderboard chasing warped behavior, why many campaigns did not translate to real outcomes, and what a more creator and distribution-driven model could look like across TikTok and YouTube. Fear and greed is back near pre October 10th levels as the trenches heat up again. There’s also a quick headline hit on the ETH treasury narrative around Bitmine and Tom Lee.

Subscribe:
Coffee with Captain Newsletter: https://coffeewithcaptain.beehiiv.com/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@coffeewithcaptainshow

Follow on X:
Captain Zwingli: https://x.com/ChrisJourdan

This podcast is for entertainment purposes only. None of the information shared on this podcast is meant to be taken as financial advice. Chris and guest speakers may hold tokens discussed

Check Out:
The Everything Token: A Book on Web3 and NFTs