Yat Siu, X hall flame

Serial Web3 entrepreneur and angel investor Yat Siu of Animoka Brands is on a mission to crack the code of just how big the social wave effect is for every user following on X.

“Not every sequel is the same,” a casually dressed Siu told Hall of Flames on a zoom call from his plush Hong Kong office.

“I would argue that for example, some may have only 10,000 followers, but this influence is much deeper than 100,000 or 200,000 followers because the audience following you has its own network effect, so the nodes of the followers are more powerful. ” explains the Austrian-born classical musician turned tech entrepreneur.

“Roughly speaking, if Elon Musk follows me, he's going to be worth more than 100,000 or more people who follow me, not to belittle their value, but to say that the indirect influence and impact is huge,” he said.

It wouldn't be a stretch to think that Musk might have been tempted to become one of the 160,000 followers that acquired Web3 gaming giant Animoka Brands CU in 2014 for a multi-billion dollar deal.

Starting life as a mobile game company, over the past decade Animoca has become one of the largest investors in the Web3, making over 450 investments, including big names like Axie Infinity, Polygon and OpenSea.

A-listers are also fans of Suu's work with NFTs and Metaverse (remember them?) for crypto-friendly entertainment with popular series Paris Hilton and award-winning rapper MC Hammer.

I remember when MC Hammer started following me, I was like a saint.

For Siu, the big pinch-me moment in 2021 was when his “childhood hero” William Shatner from Star Trek followed him.

Siu has a real laid-back, casual vibe. What starts with an interview quickly turns into a brainstorming session on how to measure follower value.

“With 160,000 followers, it would have been impossible for me to navigate and solve it,” he laughs.

I would joke that someone who could go through all of their followers and create an Excel spreadsheet of the most valuable people would put up an ad offering $100 on their X account.

Confirming the reporter's business input, the successful businessman said, “That's a good idea… it would be interesting to analyze it.”

What led Yat Siun to X fame?

Siu is a down-to-earth guy and will blow off a lot of his followers like it's no big deal.

“It's okay, it's okay, it's reasonable. Not millions,” laughs Siu, which is totally understandable when A-listers like Paris Hilton have 16.4 million followers.

CU's focus on “growing the space” for educational content on Web3 has helped drive its following over the years. His involvement with the metaverse, NFTs and games and has also contributed to a high public profile in crypto media and conferences.

What kind of X content does Yat Siu create?

If you're a crypto bro looking to follow X accounts that promise to make you rich, Siu probably isn't your guy.

But if you want someone who cuts through the noise and provides interesting insights into the wider web3 industry, he's worth following.

“When I write something, it's usually about macro things, the industry, trends we see, companies we like,” Siu explains.

“I retweet a lot of things I like,” he added.

Siu dives deep into long-form blogs and shares links on his X account.

“Usually I write these on Medium, I post them on Twitter, they're really thoughtful thoughts when I have time, maybe a 10-minute read,” he says.

What content does Yat Siu like?

Siu admits he doesn't have a “favorite account” on X. Just as it sees followers as more than just numbers, it sees content the same way – not as a neutral object.

“I see it as a common thing; the value comes from measuring the pulse of the community,” Siu explains.

“I like a variety of content, from long stuff to interesting and informative. I use it all,” he said.

However, as a fellow longtime writer, Siu says he enjoys BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes' “fun and insightful stuff about the markets.”

Crypto predictions from Yat Siu

So, with price predictions off the table, CU's forecast tempts the crypto crowd by suggesting that Donald Trump's main rival might not be bad for crypto.

“I'm not negative about Harris on crypto, I think she will be more measured and careful, but I don't think she will be an opponent, at least so far it doesn't seem that way,” he said.

“People on Twitter are like, oh she's not mentioning anything in her campaign, she must be bad. No, leaving something out doesn't mean you're against it,” Siu explained.

With all the pro-crypto comments that Trump is making in 2024, Siu can't deny that Trump can quickly push crypto forward.

“I think it's fair to say that if Trump wins, crypto will have a much brighter run than if Harris wins,” Siu says.

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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.