Eric Conner: The 52 Month DeFi Bear Market Is Over (Full Thesis)

Andy (0:00)

We're here at AI Supercycle, episode number 50, powered by our friends at Nier. Enough said. In the past, we have to say what they are, but if you don't know about Nier now, then we can't help you. We got Eric Conner here, the co-author of EIP 1559, OG Ethereum developer and investor, just general investor in the space, been very, very dialed in, in the market. So Eric, great to have you.

Eric Conner (0:24)

Hey guys, thanks for having me, I'm excited for this.

Andy (0:27)

Yeah, first time, first time. And what a run from some of these AI names. I mean, you look across the market and you look at Nier and Venice kind of leading. Then you look across at this Pearl token that I'm not sure you looked into proof of verifiable work as this kind of next Bitcoin for AI, almost taking out BitTensor and the there kind of role, interesting dynamic there.

You know, you've got the, the likes of, you know, Arsium doing well, you've got Zama doing well in the privacy side with AI as well. So a lot happening here. And Eric, I know you've been quite early to a couple of these names. Maybe just talk, talk through your AI investing, AI crypto crossover investing strategy here.

Eric Conner (1:08)

Yeah, for sure. I mean, I kind of have a funny one that I guess I'll go into, but yeah, I mean, crypto is always going to follow like the mainstream narratives, right? And I think the best thing for crypto is when it can improve a mainstream narrative like AI. And I think some of these projects can prove like you can break out of the traditional AI space and blockchain and crypto can add some value. I think Venice VVB is kind of the obvious one there. I actually funny enough, this was back like when it launched, it's at least a year and a half, maybe two years ago. I know I lose track of time fast in this space, but I literally saw VVB launch and bought it sub a dollar. I believe like Eric tweeted the contract or something, but even then I was watching like new launches on chain because not a lot was really happening.

I bought it and then Coinbase listed that same day.

The bad news in this story though is I fumbled it like day two and then watched it run up like 90% since then. But yeah, I literally, I was one of like the first, like besides Sniperbots, I had to be one of the first buyers of VVB ever. And then I fumbled. What's funny is I sold it like they had a Coinbase pump and it was just up a lot in a day. I'm like, I didn't know much about it. There wasn't much info. And then it literally did nothing for like a year and then just took off again. So yeah, that's a classic fumble. I kind of like those fumbled things that FOMO does. But I don't have one for just my baseball. But I probably don't want to look at that one.

Andy (2:29)

We have one too, man.

Robbie (2:30)

We had Eric on this show in person at Neer Con back in February. I mean, I think VVB was like seven or eight bucks.

Andy (2:40)

No, two, $1.80 in Denver, East Denver, $1.80.

Eric Conner (2:44)

It's part of the game, right? But yeah, I try not to lose too much sleep.

Andy (2:49)

Exactly, you messed up, it's higher. You just buy in with more size if you want to revenge trade, if you're still really bullish, if the thesis hasn't changed.

But fortunately for the rest of your portfolio, from what we've seen both publicly on FOMO, with Boner and some of these others, and then also just through your tweets, you're kind of the owner of this own both and chill thesis around the Perps assets. How did you come to that? Why was this such an obvious play for you where it's like, hey, everyone's going to be upset at lighter or hyperliquid, there's gonna be this kind of Solana versus ETH camp forming, just own both and relax. You don't need to take a side, take a polarizing view of this market. We're still early, what's your thesis? How did you come to this and how did you nail that?

Eric Conner (3:36)

Yeah, I think this is because of a lesson I learned last cycle, so I'm sure a lot of people are listening. Originally, I've been in ETH maxi for years, kind of recovering ETH maxi over the last year now. But I was in Ethereum early and I held it for years. And for a while, I just thought that was the only token I ever wanted to own. And because of that, I kind of missed the whole Solana cycle. And you know, ETH didn't do much when Solana was pumping. I saw Solana very early, I could have easily rotated, I could have played the meme game a little bit, and I was just like a little stubborn there.