Investor Talks: A Chat With Rektdiomedes

Investor Talks is a written interview series that offers deeper insights into some of the most fascinating thinkers and investors in our field.

Thanks to all our sponsors for making it possible to share this content for FREE!

🖥️ PYTH | SMARTER DATA FOR SMARTER CONTRACTS

⌛️ HOURGLASS | LEVERAGE AIRDROP FARMING

🪄 TANSSI | LAUNCH YOUR SYMBIOTIC RESTAKED NETWORK IN MINUTES

📈 ⁠iYIELD | YOUR FINANCIAL PICTURE, SIMPLIFIED

🧪 MANTLE | START YOUR RESTAKING JOURNEY TODAY WITH CMETH

🐡 PUFFER FINANCE | LIQUID RESTAKING FOR THE LITTLE FISH

🌔 MOONWELL | THE LEADING LENDING AND BORROWING APP ON BASE

🐐 ⁠GOAT NETWORK⁠ | A BITCOIN L2 TO EARN WITH BTC & DOGE

⚙️ GEARBOX PROTOCOL | ONCHAIN LENDING REIMAGINED

📈 DEFINITIVE | THE MOST ADVANCED PLATFORM FOR ONCHAIN TRADING

Rektdiomedes, an anonymous crypto researcher, delivers insightful commentary on X and authors the popular newsletter, The Daily Degen. We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Rektdiomedes for an engaging Q&A session.

Can you give us a bit of your backstory, how did you get into crypto and when?

Rekt: Sure! So I first had someone gift me some Bitcoin back in 2015… then I sold 90% of it at the peak of the 2017 bull market and thought I was a genius lol… I just never really got that into crypto then as I had other areas of investing and entrepreneurship that I was more passionate about at the time instead. 

It was actually DeFi and yield farming in 2021 where I really fell in love with crypto and went fully down the rabbit hole finally.

What’s a belief you held that felt obvious at the time, but was ahead of mainstream thinking in crypto? 

Rekt: I have long thought that stablecoins were the killer use case of crypto, and it seems like the market has sort of come round to that view but still not entirely. 

I fully believe though that within five years the combined market cap of all stablecoins will exceed that of Bitcoin, and one day will reach into the tens of trillions.

Can you recall one of your biggest wins in crypto where you felt like you got in early on something?

Rekt: Yes, the Arbitrum airdrop was a perfect example. I used Arbitrum a ton in 2021 and 2022 purely organically, and got a substantial airdrop across a bunch of wallets as a result. Really felt amazing- the vibes were exquisite and is one of my fondest memories in crypto.

How would you describe your investment style? Are you more of a long term buy and hold fundamentals type of investor or are you more of a trader? Or something in between?

Rekt: I am more of a long term investor. However, I try to take most of my entries during market-wide liquidation cascades where we crash really hard… and then I also try to always sell individual tokens when their chart just shoots straight up for any reason.

In my experience most tokens in crypto get 1-2 such events per year where the chart just goes up in a straight line for several days, and often it never happens again, as many coins die so I have learned to always sell a good portion of my position when that happens, even if its a coin I really like that I may want to accumulate more of in the future potentially.

How do you source your investments or trades? How do you develop a thesis and gain conviction?

Rekt: Usually from smart people I follow on Twitter.

From there, I’ll usually buy a small bag of something so it catalyzes me to do more research, even if the price is high, but then if I do more research and really want to make it a more sizable position I’ll try to wait until the next time there is a market wide correction and then do so.

What’s your thoughts on this cycle? Has it been harder than previous cycles for you? This seems to be the prevailing sentiment amongst many on CT.

Rekt: Well, this is the first full cycle I will have been here for, as I didn’t jump full time into crypto until the end of 2021.

It definitely seems hard though so far because BTC-dominance has just been relentless and we haven’t seen an alt season like we did in 2021.

And indeed I think its very possible we climb all the way to $10T total crypto market cap and beyond with only lots of successive ‘mini alt seasons’ like we’ve seen the last couple years… and no big huge blow-off speculative top like in 2017 and 2021.

What are 3 or more tokens you are holding that you have high conviction in?

Rekt: Well my biggest position by far is actually $COIN, which is a stock obviously rather than a token, but I think its the best overall bet on crypto’s success in the medium term future.

And I also own a lot of $TAO and think its riskier but has the potential for really outsized returns if things go well.

And then I own quite a bit of $SYRUP and just started working with the Maple Finance team actually, and really could not be more bullish on them as a play on the nascent “DeFi Renaissance” we are starting to see and increased institutional interest in crypto.

Are there any tokens you’re looking closely at but haven’t bought yet?

Yes, Cap is an extremely cool new stablecoin from three of my favorite people in DeFi - Benjamin918_, DeFiDave22, and the_weso - but I do not have any exposure to it or involvement in it at this time.

(Note: This is one of the more novel new stablecoins in development and something we plan on doing a deeper dive on in the near future so stay tuned!)

Are you bullish/bearish on these new Alt L1/L2 ecosystems this cycle and why in one sentence?

Rekt: Yes.

• Berachain - exquisite vibes

• Monad - I like intern

• MegaETH - lots of my smartest friends seem into it

• Movement - seems polarizing which tends to be good predictor of success

• Eclipse - very interesting premise

• HyperEVM - total cult action, hard to fade…

We see you do this brutal exercise called “The Achilles”. What exactly is it and what motivates you to do it?

Rekt: So, the Achilles is 70 weighted pullups (wearing a 70 lb backpack), plus 2 miles carrying a 70 lb dumbbell in each hand while wearing a 70 lb backpack. 

I started doing it almost a year ago and post it to twitter each week with each one dedicated to a different person or thing.

And as far as why I do it, mostly to push myself and to try to be less of an embarrassment to my ancestors.

Btw, here’s a link to Rekt’s first ever Achilles post on X (yes, he’s an abosolute unit):

• Follow Rektdiomedes on X here

• Subscribe to The Daily Degen here

• Subscribe to The Edge Podcast here

• Watch The Edge Podcast on YouTube here