Humans Of Crypto | Leoteoro - NFT Enthusiast & Community Leader

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Among the various verticals in crypto, NFTs is an intriguing space that I am fairly new to.

It can be daunting to jump straight in with little prior experience.

Thankfully, this incredible human today has helped myself, among many others in the community, along in our NFT journeys.

His frameworks and thought processes for evaluating NFT projects have been especially helpful.

Introducing Leoteoro, a well respected NFT enthusiast within various communities.

How did you get started with crypto? What drew you into crypto?

Becoming a parent made me start to relook my finances and legacy planning. Before that, I was just a plain "dividend investor", converting my 9 to 5 investable savings to blue chip dividend stocks like D05.

Crypto-wise, I began doing my own research when Cathie Wood of Ark Invest talked about Bitcoin in 2020.

Slightly later on, my friend Marcus Techie spoke to me about Bitcoin too. That's when I finally dipped my toes with my first Bitcoin purchase.

Parallel to that, the philosophical aspects of self-custody, censorship resistant property rights also appealed to the more sentimental/aesthetic side of me.

When did you start diving deeper into NFTs?

Marcus Techie was telling me about the launch of local project Cryptobengz.

During the same time, Ether Rocks was trending on Twitter, so I decided to take a good look into the NFT space.

What were some of the most memorable moments of your NFT journey?

Definitely the late night mints, such as Loaded Lions and Generative Nature Synthetic Species (GNSS).

The caffeine dose to stay up late, coupled with the euphoria or disappointment of making or missing the mint, all while engaging with the community via Telegram or Discord.

These have burned themselves into the collective memory of those who were involved.

What are some of your personal favourite NFT collections?

1) Clone X in terms of aesthetics, really dig the Murakami drip clones.

2) Kaiju Kingz community is a bunch of funny yet hustling people. They remind me of myself 10 years ago.

3) I'm also really looking forward to what Gucci will deliver in Web3. Sneak peeks look great so far and utility hinted at has been promising.

What are some of the best and worst calls you've made in NFT investing?

Best call: Betting on Nike's track record and getting in on Clone X relatively early.

Worst call: Not selling PhantaBear at the 8 ETH euphoric top.

What advice would you give to someone considering investing into NFT projects?

Do your due diligence and build up your conviction so that you can hodl and not panic sell.

I would say that without exception, all the big "winners" I'm sitting on quite comfortably now (Clone X, MAYC, Kaiju Kingz, and recently Gucci Grail) have all gone through their periods where the floor price dipped below my buy-in price.

Bet on proven teams, and rely on Web2 track records and best practices when assessing Web3 projects.

What are some resources you would recommend someone new to NFTs to consume?

I think it is more important to find a mentor/friend who is already in the space, who you really trust, to guide you through and get you started with the crucial essentials.

This includes cybersecurity hygiene, hard wallet custody, how to spot scams etc.

When these paramount basics are settled, then you can start to curate Twitter accounts, Discord channels, etc. based on your personal preferences, investment strategy and comfort level.

For big picture mental clarity and psychological mindset moulding, Arthur Hayes' Medium articles have been a constant source of inspiration as well as entertainment.

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