Podcast Notes | Interview with WIF Godfather Ansem: Why Has Solana Stood Out in the Crypto Market?
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Podcast Notes | Interview with WIF Godfather Ansem: Why Has Solana Stood Out in the Crypto Market?
Ansem believes Solana's rapid development and strong community support are key factors behind its success.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsCompiled & Translated: TechFlow
Host: The Defiant
Guest: Zion Thomas (aka Ansem), amateur boxer and prominent figure on Crypto Twitter
Podcast source: The Defiant - DeFi, Web3 & NFT Insights
Original title: Chatting with Ansem, AKA 'The Solana Guy'
Air date: May 28, 2024
Key Takeaways
Zion Thomas, also known as Ansem, is an amateur boxer and well-known figure on Crypto Twitter (CT), recognized for his insightful analysis of the crypto markets. He is also building a project called Bullpen.
In this conversation, Ansem shares his journey into the world of crypto, discusses his experience as a CT influencer, and explores the challenges facing Solana. He reflects on Solana’s ups and downs, highlights what makes it unique, reveals his favorite ecosystems and applications, offers advice, briefly introduces his project Bullpen, and shares his future plans along with some valuable alpha.
Entering the Crypto Space
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Before entering the crypto market, Ansem worked as a software engineer and full-stack developer at Capital One. In 2016, he learned about Bitcoin's significance but did not immediately buy in.
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After graduating from Georgia Tech in 2017 and becoming a software engineer, Ansem was influenced by a mentor at work and began trading cryptocurrencies in his spare time.
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During the pandemic, when markets were volatile, Ansem continued trading—and performing well. In 2021, he decided to go all-in on crypto, focusing on it full-time ever since.
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As Ansem became more active in crypto, he found himself increasingly drawn to trading. He says trading gives him immediate feedback—whether profits or losses—and that instant gratification fascinates him. Unlike fixed work hours or delayed project milestones, the immediacy and continuity of trading better align with his interests.
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Ansem previously served as Head of Research at TCG Crypto but now primarily works independently.
Crypto Influencer
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Ansem mentions that his favorite moments are seeing people get excited and make money by following his trades. Some tell him they’ve made substantial gains—some even became millionaires—thanks to his guidance. They express deep gratitude, saying he changed their lives. Particularly meaningful are long-time followers who have seen Ansem evolve—from getting only a few likes on posts back in 2017–2018, to sharing weekly trade logs and analyses on a private 100-member page in 2020. Witnessing their loyalty and growth fills him with pride and satisfaction.
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Ansem also shares the less enjoyable aspects. With nearly 400,000 followers today, there are inevitably people unhappy with him. Some lose money on trades, overcommit, or misinterpret his statements, while others simply resent large accounts. Dealing with negative emotions and direct messages is his least favorite part. Still, Ansem believes the positive far outweighs the negative overall.
Solana’s Journey: Challenges and Opportunities
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Ansem explains why he came to Istanbul—to attend the "Slide Across Roads" conference organized by Step Finance, which brings together developers, traders, community members, and crypto enthusiasts.
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Ansem emphasizes the importance of in-person events, especially within a highly digital community, as they help build stronger connections.
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He adds that last year’s Breakpoint conference in Lisbon strengthened his confidence in Solana through face-to-face interactions with founders and traders in the ecosystem.
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Ansem believes future users will still be humans, not AI agents. While AI will integrate into every aspect of our future, he expects humans to remain active participants on blockchains.
Solana’s Ups and Downs
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Ansem points out that Solana stands out among L1s due to its development speed and innovation. He sees Solana’s community building and rapid development pace as its biggest strengths.
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He notes that Solana and Ethereum have different goals—Solana focuses on being an integrated L1, whereas Ethereum relies more heavily on L2 solutions.
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Ansem recalls how the FTX collapse significantly impacted Solana. Although the event caused a sharp price drop, he observes it didn’t shake the confidence of developers and community members within the Solana ecosystem. External perceptions suffered, but true believers in Solana remained confident in its long-term potential.
What Makes Solana Unique
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Ansem believes Solana’s rapid development and strong community support are key to its success. He highlights that building the community in 2021 was one of Solana’s greatest milestones. Through community engagement and NFTs, Solana successfully attracted developers and built a robust online and offline presence. When market conditions worsened, it was these committed community members who sustained Solana through long-term belief.
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Another major milestone was Solana’s development speed. Despite periods in 2022 when the network was nearly unusable, the team fixed numerous issues within months. This ability to rapidly develop and repair brought Solana back into the spotlight in 2023.
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Ansem believes Solana’s uniqueness in the dev community lies in its top-down development model. Anatoly-led teams follow a "move fast, fix fast" strategy, allowing forward-thinking optimization of both hardware and software. He stresses that Solana aims to be an integrated L1 blockchain where execution, consensus, and settlement all happen at the L1 layer, unlike Ethereum, which depends more on L2s.
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Ansem notes that early adopters of Solana were mostly active traders and developers emerging after DeFi Summer. In 2021, the rise of NFTs drew many retail users to trade on Solana, laying the foundation for its success.
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Ansem explains the reasons behind increased transaction volume on Solana. Even though Solana’s price fluctuated between $15 and $30 for much of 2023, once demand exceeded supply and prices broke above $30, significant attention and trading activity followed. Airdrops from projects like Bonk and Jupiter further boosted transaction activity.
OPOS
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Ansem explains that “OPOS” stands for “Only Possible on Solana.” It’s a slogan introduced by Solana’s marketing team in 2023 to highlight Solana’s advantages over other blockchains (like Ethereum) in handling high-throughput applications.
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Ansem notes that certain applications requiring massive transaction throughput can only run on Solana. For example, Ethereum handles around 15 transactions per second, while Solana supports much higher volumes. Thus, any app needing heavy transaction processing can only exist on Solana. Additionally, users can conduct frequent micro-transactions at very low cost on Solana—something impractical during peak times on Ethereum due to soaring gas fees.
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Ansem emphasizes that Solana also provides superior user experience compared to other blockchains. Its low-cost, high-speed transaction processing allows users greater convenience in various operations, such as dollar-cost averaging into meme coins. These reflect the “OPOS” philosophy—this level of ease and efficiency is only possible on Solana.
Future Market Trends
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Ansem points out that meme coins are currently extremely popular and serve as effective tools for attracting retail investors this cycle, similar to how NFTs functioned in the previous one. Memes are easy to understand, leveraging internet meme culture, enabling new investors to join communities through ownership and gradually explore other areas of crypto.
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Ansem believes AI will become particularly interesting in this cycle. Following ChatGPT’s release, many AI-related cryptos surged. He highlights decentralized computing applications and AI agents as two especially promising areas. AI agents could autonomously trade on-chain or find optimal yields, greatly simplifying user actions.
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After ChatGPT launched, massive capital flowed into AI, but it remains unclear where the greatest potential lies at the intersection of AI and blockchain. While no clear 100x opportunity has emerged yet, he believes some AI-crypto hybrid projects will eventually reach billion-dollar valuations. He cites upcoming AI projects like Ritual and Gensyn as potentially very promising.
About L2s
ETH L2
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Ansem argues that EVM L2s are overhyped. He explains that moving execution off Ethereum onto rollups aims to improve performance and speed, but if you still use EVM, you’re not solving core limitations. He’s more optimistic about rollups exploring alternative VM architectures, such as Arbitrum’s Stylus and Movement’s Move VM.
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Responding to another founder criticizing L2s, Ansem says he wouldn’t call them “garbage,” but does believe L2 projects received excessive funding because many assume Ethereum is the only viable L1, leading to outsized investments in associated L2s.
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Ansem believes we’ll see fewer L2s going forward. While many exist today, only a few will emerge as long-term winners. Just as many L1s emerged after Solana’s success, L2s will undergo a similar consolidation. In the future, application-specific rollups may share common SDKs (software development kits).
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He specifically highlights Sovereign Labs, which offers an SDK for easily building high-performance rollups. Once such tooling becomes widespread, innovation in L2s may slow, with developers relying on existing SDKs.
BTC L2
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Ansem believes Bitcoin ordinals hold great potential in the NFT space because they are directly recorded on Bitcoin blocks, offering strong traceability.
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He remains cautious about Bitcoin L2s’ prospects in DeFi and other applications, believing they must significantly enhance user experience to deliver real value. If they’re just another EVM L2, they may fail to generate interest unless they clearly demonstrate tangible UX improvements.
Favorite Ecosystems and Applications
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Ansem clearly states that Solana is his favorite ecosystem.
His most-used app is Jupiter, a trading aggregation platform. He also highlights Drip, an NFT platform where digital artists can publish works and fans subscribe to receive NFTs from their favorite creators. Drip excels in user retention, with users actively engaging without needing speculative incentives.
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Ansem mentions that Coinbase’s L2 solution Base is his second-favorite ecosystem. This is due to Coinbase’s wide influence in the U.S. market and its large user base (~80 million). Ansem believes that if Base can attract just 10% of Coinbase’s users, a massive number of people could begin using on-chain apps. However, as an EVM rollup, Base cannot compete with Solana in throughput and fees and needs technical improvements.
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Ansem believes many L1s and L2s will fail, with only a few emerging as winners. Even if technically similar, once an ecosystem gathers enough developers and community members, others struggle to compete. Since the blockchain industry is still early, it’s hard to predict which ecosystems will dominate in 20 years.
Crypto Investment Advice
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Ansem recommends diversifying capital across several major ecosystems. Personally, he primarily invests in Solana and Base. He also mentions interesting apps on Base like Friend Tech and Farcaster, and believes social finance (SocialFi) holds long-term potential. He notes that influencers and content creators in Web2 have already proven their impact, and in crypto, due to different capital distribution models, top creators could earn even more than in Web2.
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Ansem offers the following advice to those hoping to follow in his footsteps:
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No formal credentials needed: Ansem emphasizes that in crypto, you don’t need specific qualifications or background—just prove your abilities publicly and let people see your effort, and you can succeed.
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Maintain an open mindset: He notes that anything is possible in crypto. Regardless of your background, with the right mindset and persistent effort, you can achieve your goals.
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Becoming a great trader: Ansem advises aspiring traders to actively study past market cycles, learn charting, talk to experienced traders, and understand early-stage developments in other industries. He stresses that practice is key to becoming a skilled trader—you need extensive hands-on experience, and you will likely lose money initially.
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Content creation and influence: Regarding content and influence, Ansem says he has no special advice, as his own success unfolded organically. His story shows that demonstrating passion and consistent effort in crypto can naturally attract attention and build influence.
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Bullpen
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Ansem is co-founder of Bullpen, a social trading platform designed to offer newcomers and experts a unified place for discovery, learning, and trading. Users can access market trends, trader discussions, and latest news, and execute trades with one click.
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Bullpen uses a crypto-specific LLM (large language model) to analyze information from various Telegram groups, extract relevant insights and market trends, and push them to users. They can act on this intelligence directly within the platform.
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A key goal for Bullpen is scaling user numbers. More users mean more data collected and analyzed, resulting in higher-quality market insights and trading opportunities.
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Ansem shares that the motivation behind creating Bullpen stems from his years of experience in crypto and helping friends get started. He realized beginners need a centralized platform instead of juggling multiple ones. Thus, he hopes Bullpen can provide a “one-stop” crypto trading and learning hub, making entry easier and eliminating tedious onboarding processes.
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Ansem believes more platforms like Bullpen will emerge to simplify the crypto trading and usage experience. He notes that current Telegram trading bots already demonstrate this demand and could attract millions of users in the coming years.
Ansem’s Next Steps
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When asked if he considers himself “successful,” Ansem says yes—he’s doing what he loves and no longer worries about market swings. No matter how markets change, he feels well-positioned to pursue diverse interests including trading, angel investing, and entrepreneurship. Success, to him, means having the freedom to choose and explore different career paths within an industry he loves.
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Ansem plans to continue competing in boxing and may participate in racing events. He hopes to achieve more in these fields.
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Ansem will become more active in angel investing, supporting founders he believes are building exceptional applications in crypto. Engaging with founders and helping them grow is now one of his key priorities.
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Bullpen remains one of his main projects. This social trading platform aims to simplify crypto trading and offer beginners a centralized place to learn and trade.
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Ansem also plans to expand his media presence by creating video content on platforms like YouTube and TikTok. He hopes to educate people and help them enter the crypto world through short educational videos covering topics from wallet setup to market dynamics, helping those who can’t monitor crypto full-time stay informed.
Ansem’s Strategy
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Ansem suggests allocating 70% of a portfolio to relatively safe assets such as Solana, Coinbase stock, Bitcoin, and Prime. He believes these will perform well long-term and enters these positions via dollar-cost averaging at strategic times.
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The remaining 30% goes toward higher-risk investments like leveraged trading (perps), on-chain trading, small-cap tokens, and memes. He recommends recycling profits from these riskier bets back into safer holdings to ensure long-term stability and growth.
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Ansem emphasizes using high-timeframe technical indicators to determine market entry and exit points. He recommends tools like moving averages and other macro-level signals to identify market tops and bottoms.
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He recommends the book *Technical Analysis of the Financial Markets* by John Murphy, which provides foundational knowledge helpful for understanding market trends.
Final Thoughts
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Ansem encourages anyone interested to enter the crypto space—whether you're a developer, business developer, marketer, or trader, there are opportunities for everyone. Talk to people, explore your fit, and identify your learning path.
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He believes now is the best time to pay attention to and invest in crypto. The market is recovering from the fallout of FTX and SBF, and public interest and confidence are rebounding. The approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and inflows from traditional financial institutions signal growing stability and growth potential in the crypto market.
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