Profiles
The movers and shakers of Web 3.0.
GG's 2025 Game of the Year: Pudgy Party
Pudgy Party delivers a premium mobile gaming experience that the Pudgy Penguins team intends to make one of the franchise's core pillars moving forward—and it is GG’s 2025 Game of the Year. Mythical Games, the studio behind Pudgy Party and other crypto games like NFL Rivals and FIFA Rivals, said that Pudgy Party has reached 1 million installs since its September release, while maintaining a 4.9-star rating on the Apple App Store. In doing this, Pudgy Penguins CEO Luca Netz told Decrypt that the...
Nov 15, 2024
Profiles
'Dogecoin Millionaire' Regains Title After DOGE Pump—And This Time, He's Selling
It’s been a wild ride for the “Dogecoin Millionaire” over the last few years as his net worth touched $3 million and then fell to the hundreds of thousands. But with the leading meme coin surging to a price point unseen since 2021, he’s reclaimed the title. Glauber Contessoto spent his life savings and loaded up credit cards to buy $180,000 worth of Dogecoin in late 2020 and early 2021. The following year, his stash shot up in value to $3 million—but he didn’t sell. In the months following, his...
Sep 30, 2024
Profiles
Binance's New CEO Is the Opposite of CZ—And That's the Point
When Binance CEO Richard Teng took over from his predecessor Changpeng “CZ” Zhao in November, he knew he was stepping into some big shoes. But the newly appointed executive of the world's largest crypto exchange by daily trading volume said he never intended to be the next CZ—at least insofar as trying to match one of crypto’s biggest personalities. “I don't think I will be able to fill those gigantic shoes,” Teng told Decrypt in an interview. “It was never the intention.” In fact, Teng, who is...
May 19, 2024
Profiles
Epik Duck: From Joke to $25 Million Solana Meme Coin
It took just one flicker of an idea, two minutes of typing, and four SOL. Within an hour, Mando had created a financial asset worth in excess of $25 million. “I’m sitting here going, ‘What the hell has just happened?’” the pseudonymous crypto trader and influencer told Decrypt. (Disclaimer: Mando is an investor in DASTAN, the parent company of Decrypt, which is editorially independent.) The absurd tale of the asset in question, a Solana meme coin called “Epik Duck,” has particular resonance in...
Oct 7, 2023
Profiles
Why NFT Artist John Hamon Set 3 Years of Work on Fire in Paris
For just .03 Ethereum (about $50), you can buy a photo of a coffin in front of the famed Centre Pompidou. For another .03 ETH, you can buy a picture of that coffin in flames. "The coffin symbolizes what this period has been, which is why it was symbolically burned to represent, through this funereal gesture, the death of contemporary art," French artist John Hamon told Decrypt's SCENE. John Hamon's coffin in front of the Centre Pompidou. Image: John Hamon. Kicked off in 2020, the performance—tur...
Sep 30, 2023
Profiles
Inside Art Blocks' Marfa Weekend, Digital Art's Latest Hotspot
Last weekend, hundreds of digital art devotees descended on Marfa, the tiny West Texas artist’s oasis, to partake in what’s rapidly become a can’t-miss cult favorite in digital culture circles: the Art Blocks Marfa Weekend. Art Blocks, which curates and releases generative digital art collections minted on the Ethereum blockchain, first invited community members to the desert town in 2021, when the company opened its physical gallery just off Marfa’s main drag. Last year, the event ballooned sub...