The Wolf Of All Streets - The Untold Stories Of Crypto's Biggest Influencers | Mario Nawfal, Scott Melker & Cointelegraph

Starting point is 00:00:00 I started as a DJ. Yeah, okay, there you go. So, we just kind of, you know, what stays in Vegas, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. Like, that's how you sold it to me on Crypto Time. Yeah, exactly, that's how we did it. I told him, whatever happens in Singapore, you stay in Singapore. Yeah, exactly.

Starting point is 00:00:14 Singapore's a little strictly told, you know that. I don't want to shape crypto narratives. I want to tell the story of people who are shaping crypto narratives. So, that's why every person with a million followers is just a really lame philosopher. These gentlemen need a non-introduction, honestly. You gentlemen have played a very big role in this and in the last two or three months you've invited me to be a part of Crypto Town Hall to talk about crypto and crypto news

Starting point is 00:00:53 because that's generally what Cointelegraph does. But I've watched you both from afar until I got the call up to do some stuff with you guys. So thank you very much. It's been fun to do that stuff. But Mario, maybe let's just start with you, man. If I think about X-Spaces, you are the guy. How did you start this thing and did you ever think it was going to be as big as it is? So a lot of people know me from X-Spaces and we do a video show as well like and I had Eduardo Bolsonaro son of

Starting point is 00:01:27 president Bolsonaro Brazil flew into Abu Dhabi for a video interview and I've got a few other presidents and prime ministers lined up for the next few months all of the video so I'm really tripping we did we moderated that had really quality similar table what we did yesterday in the Fight Club. Not moderating, commentating. Commentating. We were commentating Karate Fight Club and it was a video show. The views on video is really big on Excel Space is where I started. Video is what we're tripling down on.

Starting point is 00:01:56 But how it all started, it was thanks to Sam, SPF. So I was doing a panel, just like I do crypto shows. I've been doing them for a long time. The rumors start spreading about FTX helping withdrawals. So I go to Carl Chessay, who was moderating at the time, we're at Master Ventures, with me, and I go, Carl, are you worried yet? And he goes, he's usually always chill.

Starting point is 00:02:17 Anything collapses, he doesn't care. But are you worried now about these rumors? Like Mario, I wasn't worried, but I just got a call from my team a few seconds ago, ago they said well Jaws have been helping now I'm worried so that was the beginning of the collapse of FTX we covered that line I stayed up for 36 hours and then how what led to you know to to to reach success is difficult and then to maintain it is even harder so I reached and I was very grateful for that but then as a business person how can I maintain that so the G20 summit

Starting point is 00:02:48 and the Polish missile crisis happened a Russian missile landed in Poland it turned out to be Ukrainian anti anti anti air defense missile I covered that line because I love politics since I was a kid and then suddenly everyone came through to listen to that. So then I realized the power of space is for live events breaking news. And then the Twitter files happened, Elon joined a lot in that period as well for FTX, a couple of times for Twitter files. And he brought a lot of attention to it as well.

Starting point is 00:03:19 And then when he started quote tweeting me a lot, that helped get awareness and then whenever we cover a major breaking news event whether it's the Silicon Valley bank collapse the Russian mutiny last year the Gaza war the list goes on so whatever we cover a major breaking news event or we get a big guest on you know Prime Minister Imran Khan Hunter Biden and stuff and of course whenever Elon joins always a big one and it just gets a lot of attention and it and of course whenever Elon joins or is a big one and it just gets a lot of attention and it kind of got me here so it's kind of two sides to the business a lot of people don't know that we have a whole VC arm we have

Starting point is 00:03:52 we've been doing this for since 2017 we have an advisory and marketing firm and then we have a whole funnel so we've got 12 people here at the event for my team I think 12 or more today they did all in all in. Yeah, we got all in. And then the funnel that we have is we got the media side and then the strategy we have now, very open about it, very transparent, is that any project we work with, because our investment, our chairman's here as well, any investor we work with, sorry, any project we work with,

Starting point is 00:04:22 we do a deal where we have to market you. We get tokens, you know, we wanna have skin in the game. We do marketing plus media exposure plus investment. That's our strategy, it's a kind of formula right now for the crypto side. And then there's the whole political side, which is where I spend most of my time. But for now, we're just building that out

Starting point is 00:04:39 without monetizing and kind of building it into a funnel. Politics, AI, et cetera, brings the audience and then goes down to the funnel to web three so we've got a fresh on fresh gorgeous you know retail or just into web three through that funnel and then we just monetize at the bottom of that funnel and yes that's a strategy it also been a little bit different perhaps got but you you have equal sort of following on social media and really like a well-known voice in the web3 space but how did that actually start right I think you much more conventional Trad5 in the past I started as a DJ yeah

Starting point is 00:05:14 okay so I was DJing for 20 years touring the world and built a following actually from my music and then I had a child and decided I didn't want to be on the road every weekend of my life. And at the time I really just discovered crypto and I was already trading. I went to the University of Pennsylvania in the 90s and everybody was obviously heading to Wall Street. The second they get out, I was heading to DJ.

Starting point is 00:05:40 And so I really found crypto at the perfect time. And my nature is to really go all in on something when I'm passionate about it. So I actually alienated the original people that were following me on social media and cut my Twitter following, and eventually it happened. He doesn't have a strategy, he doesn't give a shit about fame and money, you'll see. I don't know how the hell he's that big because he does everything wrong and he still makes it. Sure. And then it was very organic. So I started tweeting and it was at the right time of trading and people started following it for that reason. And then I sort of realized, well, 160 characters isn't enough.

Starting point is 00:06:11 That was when tweets still were limited. I'm going to start a newsletter. So I started writing a two times a week free newsletter and then I said, this is getting boring for me. I need to be five days a week. So I started writing a five day a week newsletter, started doing a podcast. I was approached to do that right when COVID hit. Literally the worst timing to start talking about crypto. It was, I think March 12th was my first,

Starting point is 00:06:34 my first episode. That was coming out twice a week. And for me, because I said, I'm sort of my nature, it's go all in. That got boring, so I started a YouTube channel and I started streaming every single day to the point where it became I was waking up at 4 o'clock every day still generally my habit and you know the first eight to nine hours a day are consistently making content making content so for me it wasn't a

Starting point is 00:06:56 rising star I don't think in the way that Mario sort of describes his path for me I think it was more of an organic slow grind just consistency and showing up every single day and putting the work every single day all of those things and more you know Mario and I had met and decided collectively with Rand Nooner who is our absentee cousin from Crypto Town Hall, he never shows up not bitter and we decided to basically power Ranger up and start the biggest for Crypto Town Hall. It's supposed to be there every day, never shows up. Not bitter. And we decided to basically power Ranger up and start the biggest show in crypto,

Starting point is 00:07:31 leveraging obviously Mario's audience on Spaces, but our collective three to four million people following us on Twitter, and very quickly became, I think, indisputably the largest show in crypto period. You know, even in a bear market, the deaths were 150, 200,000 people listen to each show every single day that we show up to do.

Starting point is 00:07:53 So for me, I think it's just been consistency and slowly grinding, you know, grinding my way to that point. And it's been incredible. And working with Mario Mario having people like you on the show I feel like my approach has always been to be a student rather than a teacher well I think a lot of people in this space are very comfortable being the ones providing alpha telling you what to do next 10,000 X opportunity very much my nature to sit down had a conversation and hope

Starting point is 00:08:22 for my audience learns through osmosis by the questions that I asked so it's kind of awkward probably in a way for both of us to be on the panel rather than moderating you here how does it feel nice nice on that side right asking all the questions yeah uh i was actually i'll give shout out to point telegraph like i've been following you guys from my early crypto days you guys and coindesk kind of led the way and building that credibility which i think many people want to do by the way hey online and like I mean what I said earlier when I see at the beginning of the show we're really working hard to do quality journalism and meet all the right people in the industry and told the right stories and you know they're not getting paid online and you're not

Starting point is 00:09:00 online I guess so yeah I mean you can't please everyone it's the truth but I mean you guys have had many critics right? I mean it's probably the hardest part of what we do. Critics, I like how you call them critics. I'm being honest. I'm the same. I call them fuel. I call them... I'd be honest with you about that, but I mean like it's a lot of pressure. I'll be honest, you know. You gotta be honest. Be honest with your story. Like I'll be honest with mine, but you gotta be honest with yours because yours is heartbreaking what you've been through. And we would like to hear the side of oh it's it's insane i'm on the political side as well so there's a country i can't go to i talked about brazil when i had the son of the president i had a federal investigation into me and elon in brazil so i cannot go to that

Starting point is 00:09:37 country and pakistan is the same because i had prime minister mankana and his whole pti party and i'm worried about the UK because we had Tommy Robinson on and they're very strict on free speech. Even Elon's like, I'm not going to go to the UK. What about France now? I'm still chilled. I love France. I love France. But I haven't done anything to piss him off yet.

Starting point is 00:10:00 I'm sure he'll get there. But no, these are the countries in Venezuela that President Maduro invited me to go interview him. He only wanted me sure he'll get there. But no, these are the countries in Venezuela that the president of Maduro invited me to go interview him. He only wanted me in person to interview him. And that was literally the same time as Pavel got arrested in France. They said, we'll give you amnesty, protection, blah, blah,

Starting point is 00:10:16 blah. I'm like, no, I'm not doing it. Pavel just got arrested in France. And then Bolsonaro, he goes to me, he goes, Mario, you can't interview him, you should do it in person. But anywhere Maduro will go, anyone in politics should know how crazy Maduro's story is. The US is confiscating his private jets. So, and I haven't talked about this publicly.

Starting point is 00:10:36 So anywhere Maduro can go to interview you, countries he can go to, like Venezuela, Cuba, you cannot go to. And any countries you can go to, US, any other, most other countries, he cannot go to like Venezuela, Cuba, you cannot go to. And any countries you can go to, US, any other, most other countries, he cannot go to. He'll probably get arrested. So I put it to you. So that's like another level. I had death threats. Not only death threats, I had plans, attempts to harm me, take me to a country, pretend to have a meeting and all that. That was back during the Gaza war. Because this Middle Eastern politics is brutal. So that's in the political world.

Starting point is 00:11:09 And crypto as well. When I first blew up, it was very quick for me. And I'm sure it'll annoy people, rightly so. So when I blew up, I went through my phase of hate. And it's too unbelievable to talk about it. So I had, I was doing, I'll tell the story because it's a fascinating story. I was doing the Killer Whales show. It was after the Russian mutiny space. I gained hundreds of thousands of followers in like two, three days. It was so many followers that my team messaged Twitter saying, hey,

Starting point is 00:11:38 are these real followers? So many. And Elon, he quote tweeted me a lot on that day and said really nice things. That led to a lot of people that hate Elon and people on crypto to go on the attack. And then five minutes before I walk into filming where they take your phone away and all the cameras are set up, I get a call from Romy. She's not here now. She goes, Mario, there's an NBC hit piece on you that says and I was to say you guys didn't cover it because you guys know how to do fucking due diligence and

Starting point is 00:12:09 Another there's one called protoss or whatever covered it. They probably removed it by now If they thought about it, they looked at the evidence, but it's not crazy This is and you know anyone will if you if you're building a media following this shit will happen the character assassinations will happen so the media article was an FBI SEC respond to complaints about Mario Norfolk all they wanted to do is put my name FBI SEC the journalist that wrote it has a history of attacking Elon so you should use me to attack Elon like Twitter star backed by Elon or something so they used me to attack Elon so I not only have I never done you know SEC or anyone ever even contacted me It was like Twitter star backed by Elon or something. So they used me to attack Elon.

Starting point is 00:12:45 So I, not only have I never done, you know, SEC or anyone never even contacted me, and I've been since 2017, all my competitors, you remember ICO box closed down, all of them, all the big guys, we never even got a letter from the SEC for questioning. And I've never even been sued on a civil matter. So I've been as kosher as they come

Starting point is 00:13:03 because I get scared to do shit. So I knew I did nothing wrong but in my mind I'm like what? What story did they fabricate about me? Who fabricated it to get me here? Then I find out it's one person, a mentally ill person, has a history track record of having had private investigators, track record of fabricating stories against other people, got him on record saying the story is false. The never responded as an ex FBI agent that responded asking one question and then dropped it ex FBI agent the SEC never responded it was a private plane call and it was all fabricated but what happens is everyone else will take it that's why I respect publications like

Starting point is 00:13:41 coin desk a protest in other small outlets they took it and they make it they said socialize it speak one heater and they change the story they're like everything is looking into Mario the first office that respond to the plates one source and then we put up the evidence that hate the source lied and all that and and we never requested for the output to come up because now it's more of a badge of honour but at the time it was brutal because it's not long after SPF and a lot of people

Starting point is 00:14:12 everyone starts, oh Murray's being arrested Murray can't even go to the US anymore I was in the US at the time, I go there all the time and it went out of control that was in Scaramucci and Eric Weinstein I saw them both in LA that day two people I respect immensely and they've had their own their own version of the character assassination worse than mine they're like Mario everyone will forget

Starting point is 00:14:34 about it sooner or later it was hard to understand that at the time but he was absolutely right and it makes you now immune to anything else since then there's been always hate no impact because once you go through one one round of significant attacks you survived that one and his story is relatively similar he gave me a lot of advice back then and my weakest point gave me a lot of advice him and Ran and their teams and when you go through one round of attacks it just makes your skin a lot thicker and we went through three four months about say two to three months it was brutal

Starting point is 00:15:10 for us from a business perspective and afterwards it was better than ever and for investors for clients for partners so now it's completely hidden you know no one even brings it up anymore if you've gone through it and but it was really tough you know the dad right like I know i've got twins like 18 months old so very young it changes a lot of things in your life scott like you you've had your fair share of papers online and you know i've had him so many things shared about both of you about allegations in crypto you know and uh yeah we look at these things and you look at face value but i I'm sorry, you have to show me facts. Transaction hashes, everything's on the blockchain.

Starting point is 00:15:49 You have to prove it. Prove to me that these wallets belong to you. It's a very hard thing to face up, right? Because people like Zach HPT will tweet that out. He has a huge following. And then you're the one left having to deal with that. And yes, you guys are involved in this business. I think you're pretty open about what you do.

Starting point is 00:16:05 There's many, many KOLs out there that do worse things, you know. But tell us your experience and how hard it's been for you in the end. I don't think it's particularly interesting in the lens through what what Mario went through. And I think it's just a similar tale that everybody goes through. It's just sort of the joke that I made to you. If you're not getting made online you're not online right so I think you people don't realize as you grow and

Starting point is 00:16:31 Mario as I said he really learned this very fast they don't realize that you were once a guy with 20,000 followers and then 50 and then a hundred and you were just the guy everyone loved who was tweeting ideas and trades and charts and things they were doing and as you grow you realize that the response for what happens is very different when you have a larger following. So that's why every person with a million followers is just a really lame philosopher and you just throw inspirational quotes and tell people to hold plunge every day, because the risk of saying anything specifically about the market or any token risks moving the market. You have PTSD from past situations where it made you got paid. But I don't think focusing on being attacked is that

Starting point is 00:17:20 compelling. I think it's the part that Mario shared Which is how you react to it eventually and you've learned that none of it actually exists in the real world Okay, so as you alluded to I have children like my wife Obviously we went through threats having security for doing literally nothing Just because the market went down and we had talked about things that were once worth more as I said They love you on the way up, but everybody hates you and blames you on the way down because people don't want to take responsibility for their actions. We had some real world situations at the very beginning, but you come to learn that even the people who say the worst things about you, if you walk up to their face, which I have a long history of doing, if you walk

Starting point is 00:18:00 up to their face at a conference and say, hey buddy, you said some bad things about me, but here I am. It's nice to meet you. They shake a conference and say, hey, buddy, you said some bad things about me, but here I am. It's nice to meet you. They shake your hand and say, I'm sorry. Every single time. Keyboard warriors are not real people. You're dealing with bots. And once you realize that it's inevitable and it's part of the situation,

Starting point is 00:18:21 I wouldn't say, maybe you say you become immune to it. I think everybody's human, right? And I think being's human right and I think being a doxxed person in crypto is inherently dangerous right since locked hat you know you know we've been throughout every story but at the end of the day if you really believe in what you're doing you're compelled to continue doing it come hell or high water right and I think that everything that I've been through and I know Mario feels the same way, I think it's been actually a net positive for myself

Starting point is 00:18:48 and for those who follow me, because it's tailored my content in a way that becomes really educational and valuable and evergreen. Right, and this is supposed to be how to make, what was the original topic of our talk? Shaping crypto narratives. Shaping crypto narratives, right? So I don't want to shape crypto crypto narratives I want to tell the story of

Starting point is 00:19:08 people who are shaping crypto narratives right and to be the one who gives them a voice and delivers the message of the things that are actually important to do who separates the signal from the noise in a conversation and I think there are brilliant people in this space that don't perhaps speak as eloquently as they could or perhaps are devs and don't have a great marketing team, but who are the ones that are actually building the future that we believe so deeply in this space. And so, like I said, I think it pushes you forward to A, win, like shut up the haters, I said it's fuel but B to really find what's bullshit and what's real and to deliver what's real to to you know an increasingly larger

Starting point is 00:19:49 audience. I thought you were gonna say what is it we don't want to shape crypto narratives we want to become the crypto narrative. You never want to become the narrative you never want to be the main character. It's not gonna say that. I just get out of the way. Yeah I agree with you like my i have a few thousand followers on social media nothing nothing serious but i got that from being a sports broadcast in south africa i worked in radio for like eight years i worked on sports tv news for about a year before i moved to amsterdam and the most interesting thing is like a lot of my followers especially on twitter are actually people that followed me because I covered the rugby

Starting point is 00:20:26 world cup a few years ago and they really liked the content I was doing about that but you know I had the opportunity to work with Quintetograph I have a journalism degree I started applying myself to this industry you reshape yourself and like I'm exactly like you I love speaking to people I love telling these stories having conversations and yeah it's's just inspiring to sit and be involved in what you guys are doing, because you guys are way up there, and you're very influential,

Starting point is 00:20:49 and I think you've gotten a lot of hate. One of the most common hate, to your point, you know what the most common hate was when I started? Shut up DJ, know your role. Yeah. Right, you're just some DJ, like why the hell are you talking about this? You have no qualifications, I'm like you had a degree from the University of Pennsylvania, whatever.

Starting point is 00:21:09 Right, but... You're a DJ. You get this? Yes, I am. He's your biggest critic. Yeah. We are each other's biggest critic. You should see our WhatsApp chats. But at a certain point, like I said, you just do what you're passionate about. And I think if you show up and you're consistent and you show that passion you will eventually know rise because I know you gotta be more strategic as well like everyone it's just I think these are two true ingredients and a much more complex soup I personally because I don't know how you again I have no fucking idea became

Starting point is 00:21:41 big you know you're probably the most knowledgeable people in crypto, but you don't, I don't know how the hell that soup happened. But congrats, you deserve it more than most, including myself. But I genuinely think you're, it's just, you've gotta be very strategic. It's not easy. The same way it's not easy to build a successful business,

Starting point is 00:21:59 it's not easy. Obviously luck plays a role. I invested in this project early, or I was the first meme coin on this blockchain etc so so timing and luck timing is so important timing and luck are very important but i didn't you know i was very meticulous in the in the steps that i took to get to where i am so for example covering the polish Polish Missile Crisis. I'm giving very obvious examples, a lot more than that.

Starting point is 00:22:29 Or having big guests. So, on Clubhouse, I used to be the biggest room on Clubhouse before it went to zero, the whole app. And then even there, I was very strategic. So, I've done it before, and then I was the first one on Twitter Spaces, one of those beta phase. I was the biggest one there. Then I stopped because it was too small.

Starting point is 00:22:46 But yeah, it's very, and obviously, we don't have enough time to go through the exact formula of how to get there, but it's not a formula, but it is not easy, otherwise a lot more people would have, we get two to three billion impressions every 28 days on our tweets. Two to three billion impressions.

Starting point is 00:23:01 Yeah, it's a massive, massive reach, and that's outside of crypto um but yeah it's it's it's it's not easy we'll have to sit down at some stage and do like a nice long two and a half hour podcast and we can talk about all the stuff from the video i mean i've got dmr video guide here well do you know we're going to do this thing um let's let's wind it down and actually just have a bit more fun don't worry about the clock because i think everyone is just taking it easy here um you feel undered flight with me and i don't know how you managed to put air pods in your ears and sleep because that was a crazy experience um

Starting point is 00:23:34 i'm like i like what those people are doing um i'm not the biggest nft person to be honest and i think a lot of their ecosystem is built around that but it was a fascinating experience these guys if you guys don't know about it'm sure you saw it online they charted a cat's always flight I don't know how they did this I don't know how they did this I mean it's guitar catch I always they say they manage I'm gonna do ember it's first change for well yeah I mean either way they they started the flights and essentially it was supposed to be a networking event and it was conventional guitar airways hosts on the plane it was supposed to be a networking event and uh it was conventional qatar airways

Starting point is 00:24:05 hosts on the plane it was a normal flight essentially and i don't even think the host testers and everything knew what was going to happen and then it just ended up being a party on the plane first class was was relaxed you know people were talking and chatting but the middle of the plane was a party for like five hours mario was literally sleeping the only guy that stayed from the plane i'm pretty sure um but it was a crazy experience and then obviously you had a party last night I know you can't say too much but tell us a story about what happened last night yeah tell us a story about what happened last night when you walked in and then left and left us behind you tell that story. Now I was hiding in my room. So the redacted flight was

Starting point is 00:24:41 was just crazy the whole fucking events been crazy so the redacted flight was just crazy. The whole fucking event has been crazy. So the redacted flight, I slept because I pulled in all night and the night before I had the big space with a few of Trump's team, the Tulsa Gabbard, RFK. Yeah, yeah. So you didn't briefly go on there. Yeah, yeah. So I did that one. And the meeting was in the morning.

Starting point is 00:24:59 So I didn't sleep that night. So I fell asleep on that plane. I put the fans down, you know, the white noise music, and fell asleep. The beds were good, the Qatar Airways. So I fell asleep on that plane. I put the fans down, you know, the white noise music, and fell asleep. The beds were good, the Qatar Airways, and I kinda hid in the corner. So apparently there was a party next to me as well, so it wasn't only in the middle of the plane,

Starting point is 00:25:13 the front of the plane also had a party, because I saw the videos, but I was out of it, and I'm glad I was. But it was a smart marketing strategy by Redacted. I was gonna say, what do you think about it? I don't know, I don't know if the ROI is there. I'm really careful. We did our first party yesterday.

Starting point is 00:25:28 I want plans to do a party. Let's just do our first one. One of our partners convinced us. We did our first one. We only put it together in a week. It was like a last minute decision. But that didn't go as planned. It ended up for anyone.

Starting point is 00:25:41 They said, I'm really sorry. I'm getting a lot of people that's not too happy. We had a different, bigger venue planned, and F1 messed everything up. So the venue didn't fit the two, whatever, two and a half thousand people that showed up immediately instead. You know, it didn't fit two and a half or three people.

Starting point is 00:25:59 It was like the two penthouses together, and it is a massive space. And the party was actually good. I had no idea because we were dealing with the crisis. But everyone that made it inside, that motherfucking sick party, even though the police shut it down, and people hiding, I was hiding in another room,

Starting point is 00:26:14 and taking the poster down. Took two hours to get everyone out. Because the whole hotel had shut down. The line of cars, you know. A lot of big names that I respect massively in crypto, I won't name them here, massive names that will probably never go to a party, we're sitting there waiting in line, so they're pretty pissed at me, so I was, yeah, it was not ads, my team just had a breakdown, our phones just went crazy, the goal was just to get a nice party, I wanted

Starting point is 00:26:42 to have, first of all, I wanted an exclusive party with some names people that we invested in our partners. I was initial plan I'll go to sleep. I wake up my team changed it all up to something I like I do my personal life which kind of very you know What stays in Vegas what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas by party? That's how you sold it to me on crypto time Yeah, exactly. I told him whatever happens in Singapore. You stay in Singapore Yeah, exactly. Singapore is a little checked. I told him whatever happens in Singapore, you stay in Singapore. Yeah, exactly. Singapore is a little strict in its courts. You're on that. I knew it was that strict.

Starting point is 00:27:08 And it wasn't planned. I didn't have anything illegal in there. So I was just, I had alcohol and that's it. Everything was legal that we had. And so the police came, shut it down, did a whole search, tested a few people, fines. They were threatening people for fines and threatening those people for fines, threatened with arrests so didn't go as planned but it was yeah it was meant to be like the kind of a Vegas type of party and cameras go off at midnight so that was a plan next time if we if we do it is obviously the venue has to be a lot bigger we want to plan at least a month or two in advance to

Starting point is 00:27:39 really make it fun how did you know that this was going to happen? I mean, I knew that it was going to happen. Yeah, he warned us. And so, but I didn't know because the hotel, the team spoke to the hotel, like, hey, that's how many people we have coming. There'll be a lot of people. Can you deal with it? Yes, we'll give you staff, we'll get people checked in, et cetera. Obviously, I wouldn't expect everyone coming at the same time.

Starting point is 00:28:03 Everyone brought it plus one, plus two. sorry usually people only have an invite to come yes but everyone came and when we said to people we thought we thought if we shut it when we thought we're shutting it down we said people had police coming in I will run out yeah they were like yes bring me back no one knows no one just didn't believe I don't know the police was there and two of my team members got punched in the palm I almost punched you on punch security gave the fight so obviously people didn't react the way we thought that react but you know by 7 8 a.m. everyone was gone and my my CEO was staying in Joe's home and she literally said she got to the hotel around 12 o'clock and she saw like the bodies of people

Starting point is 00:28:41 so she's like I'm curious I have to go she walked she went up she saw some people there no she was that plus one plus one plus one but she got in she said it was a great party but she left before the police can ship in we established what we call a VIP room uh my wife and I and two of our friends in the uh laundry room where they were storing and then we realized we're like okay if we go out this door oh can't go that way then we opened the other door and a thousand people swarmed in and tried to push their way through And then we realized, we're like, okay, if we go out this door, oh, we can't go that way. Then we opened the other door and a thousand people swarmed in and tried to push their way through the door. So we basically locked ourselves in a laundry room.

Starting point is 00:29:13 I had a great time. By 7 AM, I... I had a lot of VIP rooms. I was worried this morning because when I heard that there was a party, I was like, well, there goes Scott and Mario. I was a DJ for 20 years, I may be 47 years old but I can still not sleep with the best of them. I never don't show up no matter how bad it is. I was worried that something bad would happen.

Starting point is 00:29:37 We had someone I don't know what they had but they just went crazy in the room they broke one of the doors they broke the lock and banging on the doors so I just got security, my security left by then, I thought I was going to go to sleep, I was heading to my little Caesar salad getting ready to sleep. And I hear banging, my team runs in, Mario there's a fucking guy, whatever he's on, and he's banging on the door. I thought everyone was left, because I see people left in the place. And then I just hear boom boom, because I take my earphones off, bang bang bang bang so I go that might be there to this friends also fighters and so I call the hotel security I'm like even the security won't be enough to stop it so I'm like they just want my dukes like multiple rooms to get lock my room they

Starting point is 00:30:18 collapse fall asleep and balls and also that I've tried to kind of come to that karate fight covers from I could promote the party as well I was on there commentating I left early to kind of help the team of things went south and But also I tried to calm it down. Karate Fight Club was one to promote the party as well. I was on their commentary. I left early to help the team when things went south. And we tried to ease it up. We started going, all my teammates, like 20 people, canceling everybody, so I go on the years, sending out their messages.

Starting point is 00:30:36 When at Karate Fight Club, we told them, guys, don't promote it. Don't come, because their fighters were meant to come. Well, we should have brought in the firefighters to help. Don't come. So we tried to do that come. Well, we should have brought in the firefighters to help. Don't come. So we're trying to do that as well. But, you know, luckily people managed to make sure that even people are being very positive about it today.

Starting point is 00:30:52 Literally everyone's being understanding. And the intentions were obviously. I got the message, like there was like a screenshot of the email that you sent out to everyone and then sorry on WhatsApp. I just found it there, because I just found it there because I just didn't know who's sending me what? All the messages.

Starting point is 00:31:06 Arthur Hayes had a party a couple years ago, it was last year at Singapore and it's still a party of legend because people, usually people are trying to jump fences to sneak into parties, but people were jumping the fence to sneak out of the party because it was so crowded that they thought they were not going to make it. And so listen, there's one thing you know, Studio 54, you know it's the 2,000 people outside that talk about the event for the rest of their lives that they couldn't get into it. It doesn't even matter if there were only 20 inside, right? So I think it'll be the stuff of legend regardless and it'll be viewed positively in the future. But maybe next time...

Starting point is 00:31:40 Don't stop to organize it. Don't stop to organize it. Scott is organizing the next one. Look, I'll be honest. I was at Token 2049 two years ago. And it was the whole experience I've had since the redacted flight and some of the events that I've been to. Everything's been fantastic. This is the first time I've been to a gospel on something like this. And I really hope we can do it. Thank you, Yana.

Starting point is 00:32:01 The conference itself is incredible. I just want to say that as well. Yeah, it's been great um Yana I don't know if she's in the room she might be uh talking outside like our team worked really hard on this and I don't know I mean yeah she's got a team that does it it's like we're not a huge amount of people that put this on and how many properties that that would directly involved maybe like 10. oh they're saying this a. We had 10, probably directly 20 total. All the sales team was involved.

Starting point is 00:32:26 But I think the harder thing is, for me just personally, was making sure, like, leveraging my network of all the people that I know that are really great speakers. And we had some fantastic speakers. And, like, thanks to you guys for being so giving with your time as well. Because that's what it comes down to. Massive respect to you guys. We wouldn't be able to do that for you. I should have said, on my journey, part of it was that I was a writer for Cointelegraph

Starting point is 00:32:44 for about a year. Shit, we need to bring up those other pages. I hope so. Largely. Was it when we were still paying people in Bitcoin? Because when I joined Cointelegraph, that's how it worked. Originally, I was being paid in Bitcoin, so I got paid exceptionally well. There we go.

Starting point is 00:32:59 If you held on to it, what you earned back then. Don't sell Bitcoin, buddy. Well, you know, maybe some people offered a lot a few years ago. Somebody offered me $5,000 in Bitcoin for a DJ gig in 2011 and I told them to fuck off with their magic internet money. And you don't know how many coins was that? It doesn't matter. I don't know why you gotta bring up old stuff.

Starting point is 00:33:18 Don't talk about it. It's all about PTSD. Well, I probably had. What did we do the calculation? If I had not just traded all of my Doge in the early cycles and held it, my wife's covering her ears, I think, probably $40 to $50 million of the Doge if I'd held it to the top. Don't worry. Like 10 grand, that was awesome. You'll be just fine, Scott, with the way

Starting point is 00:33:36 things are going. Guys, I mean, we could talk forever. Thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much for being here. it's it's a bacon I look forward to put so time all whenever we do it see you next week

The Wolf Of All Streets - The Untold Stories Of Crypto's Biggest Influencers | Mario Nawfal, Scott Melker & Cointelegraph

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