Jiho, Flame X Hall

Most people think that successful crypto bros are all about flashy watches and lambos. But nothing beats insects and butterflies for the founder of Web3 tentpole title Axie Infinity.

“I grew up collecting souls and fossils. My father also collects butterflies. So I like to be in nature,” said Jeffrey Zirlin, better known as “Jiho,” in an interview with a magazine in the Philippines. The founder of Sky Mavis and Ronin Network credits his unique fascination with the Axi E Infinity to its rare bugs and natural creatures.

A month after its launch in 2018, he came across the Axi NFT project, liked the look of the unique creatures, and joined the founding team, making it the biggest Web3 title to date.

“That's part of what drew me to Axi, isn't it? Because I met Axie as a community member, and I was a biology champion growing up.

A character based on Zirlin and his unique hobby features in the adventure game Pixels, which has become Ronin's most popular title among active users.

“I'm into Pixels, the game, and now I have a butterfly,” he laughs. Zirlin is used for light focus, and has built up 515,300 followers on X.

“Many of my closest friends are from the Aksi community. I think Web3 is a great way to make good friends with like-minded ideas,” he says.

When he's not the insect version of Dr. Dolittle, Zirlin says he's been lifting weights and shooting in his spare time.

How did Jeffrey Zirlin develop the X sequel?

Zirlin joined X in June 2018, when nobody really “cares about NFT gaming or Web3 gaming”.

“I got my first 5,000 followers by tweeting about Ethereum protocol issues,” he says.

He regularly survived switching from Proof of Work to Proof of Stake with Ethereum miners.

“In those days there were miners who were against the change, weren't there? I was like, no, you guys are stupid; He says, “You are greedy.”

“I was just a new user of Ethereum, so I sounded like that,” Zirlin added.

It's his DeFi content that has exploded his following. “I was working on Uniswap content, like MakerDAO, which blew up most of the last cycle, where I think I probably went from 50,000 to hundreds of thousands a year,” he says.

“It's proof that things can change in an instant, and you know, a narrative can flip on a dime,” he added.

In the year With more than 2.8 million daily players at Axie Infinity's peak in 2021, fans of the game flock to the Zirlin X account for Axie updates.

He was always on top of things and quick to share anything new happening in the game.

What kind of content does Jeffrey Zirlin create?

Zirlin's content combines “hot stuff”, his views on the Web3 industry, and occasional life advice.

He feels a responsibility to speak up and speak to the community to break the issues of his half million followers.

“I think it's unfair to expect the community to help you if you don't lead by example,” he said.

“I try to lead by example by performing the behaviors I want to see,” Zirlin adds.

Zirlin said he is “definitely in the public eye” which will allow Sky Mavis' other co-founders, Trung Nguyen and Alexander Leonard Larsen, to focus on “more important work”.

As for the content he likes, Zirlin prefers anything “different from what you normally see on Crypto Twitter.”

“This makes it incredible from the kind of guild that people want, Neo surrealist Web3 game content, a place where you can feel the fever dream,” he said.

“Instead of sharing information or sharing updates, it's an example of something out of the box,” Zirlin added.

Predictions for Jeffrey Zirlin?

Zirlin's in-game corruption in 2025. When crypto investors are asked how they know which game's crypto token will generate the highest profits, the answer is very simple.

“The way to think about it is that it's a sign of the breakaway game and a sign of the chain,” he says unabashedly that he believes those games “will be on Ronin.”

One thing he said has changed since the last cycle is that the game has become “less than ideal.”

While many crypto projects are concepts well into their final cycle, Zirlin said he felt games needed to be fully fleshed out for investors to take the crypto token seriously.

Because in the last cycle, the game was also known as a very speculative thing, right? That's always been our argument: Why do you guys try to hold a game to a higher standard than anything else? It is very unfair.

“But now things seem to have settled down,” he said.

Ciaran Lyon

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist. He is also a freelance comedian and has been a radio and TV presenter on Triple J, SBS and The Project.