Humans of Crypto | YPSONO: Co-Founder of SG NFT Creators

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Builders buidl, regardless of the bull or bear market cycles.

They continue to drive the industry forward through their grit and hustle, doing the work behind the scenes.

Today, I'm excited to share my chat with a young passionate builder - whose hustle and efforts in building within crypto is on full display.

If you're thinking of entering the crypto space but don't know where to start, this interview will be a good starting point.

Introducing YPSONO, co-founder of SG NFT Creators and builder at multiple crypto startups.

Tell me more about your origin story. How did you get started with crypto?

I started with NFTs in university. I never quite understood tokens back then, but NFTs were simpler to understand. My friend explained NFTs in a rather ‘ponzinomics’ manner, where you could mint some NFTs in one day and have the value multiplied the next.

So I started to browse through Opensea, experienced using Discord and the community over there. I had initial success flipping NFTs too, making a few thousand dollars in a day.

I was also running an investment page on Instagram with content for stocks, but did not get much traction. But that was where I met Ella and Hiddenwalls and started SG NFT Creators where we focused on providing a community platform for local NFT artists and creators to network, learn from each other and provide them opportunities to showcase their works.

During the NFT hype in early 2022, I saw the rise in alpha groups and the frequency of mints and flips. I realised then that there is no true hard skill in flipping NFTs and with the impending market downturn, the only people who will outlast this will be those who create art and use NFTs as a means of transaction.

I realised that NFT creators will outlast market conditions, bull or bear. In fact, a lot of them started small and are now getting paid commissions to do work for big brands.For example, Hiddenwalls got commissioned by Sentosa and had her recent work sold for 0.8 ETH.

SG NFT Creators is a platform for NFT Creators to connect with each other, get gigs and more. With SG NFT Creators, we also hosted a lot of events, and partnered with Metajam to showcase local creators on the big screens at the event. It was also there where I came across many different opportunities that I’m working on now.

How did you get your first job in crypto?

I met an influential figure on crypto twitter and he hired me to do Business Development for his company. I was tasked to look through 10-20 DeFi protocols a day to check for viability in partnerships. This made me realise that a whole lot of the DeFi protocols out there were mere forks of one another and just inflated their tokens to create the perception of high APYs. This got me to question the relevance of crypto and its existence.

I later started working at Bluejay and saw the true value and benefits of crypto while working there. In my opinion, stablecoins have a real use case as a lot of people and businesses move money across borders. With stablecoins, the process is significant better.

That was where I also appreciated crypto more and believed in the future for crypto.

I am now helping out in 3 crypto startups in various roles from business development to marketing.

What are some of your biggest lessons from working in crypto?

It’s not that hard to get a job in crypto. You need to contribute in a tangible and open way for everyone to see.

I was recently speaking to Guang Yi, a Legal Counsel from the Ethereum Foundation. For him, he took all of his personal crypto research, 10,000 page Notion resources and put them out there on LinkedIn. It drew a lot of attention and the Foundation gave him the job.

You can also show how you are truly passionate about the crypto space. When I first started, I was hosting events and writing articles with SG NFT Creators for free, connecting people around the space. My current employers then identified these skills that were valuable to them and they were willing to pay for them. This shows how people value your contributions even though you might be doing ‘free’ work at the beginning.

Try to get connected with people in the industry as much as possible. Especially for folks based in Singapore, there are very few people in the crypto industry in the country, so it is easy to build up your connections. If you actively go for events and meet new people, opportunities can come your way.

What would you do differently if you could start in crypto again?

I would better understand and start from the basics and fundamentals of different networks.

I entered crypto in a very informal manner through NFTs, so I would start there and better understand the fundamentals of crypto and blockchain.

At the same time, I believe that ‘You are who you are because of what you've experienced’.

Everything happens for a reason and I’m grateful for all the work that I’ve done before.

I also live by a few key values:

• Provide value

• Give more than you receive

• Memento Mori

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