In this issue:

• This Week in Neo Tokyo: Andrew Tate - Next Guest On Degen Digest? (by PhoenixxDown)

• In the Depths of the Shitcoin Trench, Alone I Roam (by PhoenixxDown)

With both sentiment and price action being choppy, you’d have been better off touching grass these past few weeks. Hopefully, you’ve been doing so - and if that's the case, you might have missed out on some NT updates this past week.

Will that sentiment improve soon? Why are so many rappers making Solana memecoins with their faces on them? Nevermind that, what about those porno coins? Just why, really. Dare we ask, what is the utility? Who knows. What’s a world come to.

Will Andrew Tate be our next guest on Degen Digest to discuss all these crucial matters, completely uncensored? Ask him in the comments of this weeks newsletter announcement on X. One of these clickbaity titles will pay dividends. I just know it.

One of the biggest stories of the week was the news that Citizens can now get their coveted NFTs custom-tailored in 3D and turned into a GTA demolitionist, Nifty Island platformer, and more with $BYTES.

What does that mean? Check out this tweet from one of the main players working with STYLE, LeBoomington:

Content wise, this is how things shaped up:

Interlinked 33 featured Tanner Matthews, the COO and Co-Founder of Altura. Many of us are familiar with Tanner and Altura already, but it's always a good time to remind ourselves that these were the chads who stepped in when we had all that trouble with OpenSea delisting Citizens some time ago. Key discussions include: Million Dollar Grant, Smart NFTs, and Crypto Accounting.

Orbofi AMA: The world's largest platform for personified and decentralized AI companions joined the AMA team for a discussion about the features of their project, including creating multimodal AI companions modeled after famous historical figures and fictional characters. Listen back here.

CafeCosmos AMA: The founder and CEO of the fully on-chain tycoon game, Nico Rodriguez, joins for a talk about where you can own a cafe, acquire land, and run your business. Tokenomics and play-to-earn features are discussed, with the goal of creating a self-sustaining world. Listen back here.

Meet Your Citizens features NT Design Lead and one of the nicest people a lot of us have had the pleasure of meeting, Photoshopped_AF. Discover how a high school project led to building a multi-million dollar business, his stint in Hollywood, and how his shift to web3 reignited his passion for memes and community. Hosted by the Queen of The Citadel, Block Editor.

NFT Market Monday: Topics included the market nuking, the Tate and Iggy mania, “wen ZK?” (sadly, we got the answer to that one shortly after), and the future of launchpads with Trailblaze - who was a delightful guest to have on. If you need to catch up, here’s a run down of Trailblaze below, and you can listen back to the MM recording here.

We mentioned REL9X a few issues ago as they were revealed to be the creator behind the mysterious Angie account. As promised, REL9X has dropped a thread on how it all came together with a tutorial on the best tools to use with the best methods. Dive in below.

Ktrap is back with another of his famous Citizens staking updates. The core metrics have never looked better. Things may look quiet on the outside, but conviction is unwavering in The Citadel.

And finally, what led you here to The Citadel? Drop your story in the X post below. It’s funny how each tale is unique with a lot of emotional baggage attached. Neo Tokyo is truly a special place to be in.

Until next week, citizens.

I have spent the past week or two in the shitcoin trenches alone. It’s not been pretty; it’s been bleakly depressing even. And this is coming from someone who embraces the degeneracy of crypto and memecoins. I don’t consider myself above investing in a shitter if it can put food on my table. But when you wallow in a septic tank full of shit for a while, you do start to stink. And I feel a good bath is in order.

The first thing I realized pretty early on is that you need to hunt in packs. It’s no good going alone, and frankly, it’s a miracle that not only I ended up in the green going the route I did, but somehow didn’t lose my ass entirely. I can’t recommend it. That’s where the advice begins and ends with this article. The remainder is more of a chronicling of what I witnessed.

We all know that any “alpha” dropped on Twitter means you’re too late (especially talking about SOL shitcoins with a lifespan of 6-24 hours). So, my strategy was to find the wallets of influencers who promote the hottest new shitcoins using the balance screenshots they’d post on Twitter—because Lord knows they can’t resist a flex with the caption “keep fading me” attached to it—and track them whenever they buy something.

I wasn’t the only one who had that plan though, and quicker copytraders (skill issue on my part) would push the price up immediately. I’d end up buying the top of these green candles. That is, until they announced on their Telegrams or Twitters that they’d bought the token. That would then drive the price up to a 2-3x generally, where the shitfluencer would take their initial out—aka, dump on their followers and make it risk-free. They would just keep repeating this process, making every trade a no-lose situation. It’s a bit hard to hate on this in a way; it’s smart, but it feels dirty all the same.

What was very dirty and has a green light to be hated on is some of these same accounts would create pump-and-dump tokens on pump.fun, fill them with 20-30 SOL, and then rug pull as soon as there was 2 or 3 SOL extra to take. Yep, sometimes they’re rugging for just $300.

And then the Tate meta came along, which added a whole new dynamic to my experience. I don’t think I’ve ever seen worse trading than I’ve seen on these Tate tokens. Pure reactive, unhinged, psychopathic madness. Chaos. If Tate mentions Daddy, that coin gets pumped and everyone sells the other one. If he calls himself the Genie, everyone sells Daddy and piles into Genie. I don’t know what these people are thinking or how they’re still solvent. A constant flat circle of two parties eating each other’s excrement over and over again, with insatiable hunger. No lessons learned. Horrible to watch.

It's disheartening to see people in the comments of these influencers, proudly sharing their wins with statements like "I gave you this 100x, I gave you that 500x," holding onto hope that they can replicate the success of those they perceive as skilled traders. They’re not good traders; they’re insiders who work together. There’s skill to that no doubt, and I’m not hating on it; I understand it’s part of the game, but these people calling themselves good traders starts and ends with them getting in early because much of the time they’ve had a DM off someone in the know.

Their private Telegrams and X accounts are merely vessels to lead outsiders in for their own cabals to eat alive. It’s led me to the conclusion that the only way to truly win in shitcoins is to cabal it yourself. I don’t mean scamming people, like how Dolce and Gabbana did to me (I may have mentioned it once or twice on Market Monday), but run with a small, tight-knit pack with decent tools at your disposal. Going alone is horrific, don’t do it.

For the record, my hatred of Dolce and Gabbana is not part of a strategy or some rational roadmap to victory in recovering the funds I lost minting it via the recently filed lawsuit. I just despise them and want them destroyed.

All content from Neo Tokyo News is for entertainment purposes only, and not financial advice.

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