Zoo Monster

Today marks the 1-month anniversary of Kaito's TGE. While many in the community first heard about @KaitoAI through the Yapper Leaderboard launched late last year, few know the story that began back in 2022—when they were still called MetaSearch. Caladan @caladanxyz was the first to write a check into Kaito and doubled down during their second round in 2023. After catching up with a few liquid funds recently, I still think Kaito is underappreciated for its long-term potential. As a Day 1 investor, I wanted to share the Kaito I know and the incredible team behind it. I met @Punk9277 in July 2022 when he was still based in Seattle. Fresh off running a nine-figure book at Citadel, Yu started exploring crypto during his non-compete. He quickly spotted inefficiencies in the space, made some sharp trades, and picked up a @cryptopunks—which now lives on as his PFP. Used to leveraging Bloomberg and other data sources for formulating his trade ideas, Yu was frustrated by the lack of reliable data sources in crypto. That pain point sparked the idea for what would eventually become MetaSearch. MetaSearch set out to solve a simple but critical problem: make crypto information searchable, structured, and actionable. Information in this space is scattered (e.g. Twitter, Telegram, Discord), in-platform search function is often sub-optimal, and existing search platform (i.e. Google) is not optimized for crypto. MetaSearch started aggregating and indexing that chaos into something usable. Over time, MetaSearch became one of the icons on the menu tab. In its current form, Kaito delivers real-time data that helps quantify sentiment and mindshare—fueling everything from investment decisions for funds to GTM strategies for projects. Since monetizing in Q3 2023, Kaito has made meaningful progress toward the revenue goals Yu laid out just two years ago in his fundraising deck. (Fun fact: his “TAM and Go-to-Market” slide is still one of the best I’ve seen.) Now, onto Kaito’s token business. After countless coffees and lunch chats with Yu, I’ve gotten a glimpse into the grand vision he and his team are building. Crypto is an attention economy—and Kaito is positioning itself as both the gatekeeper and enabler of that attention. Their first retail product, the Yapper Leaderboard, immediately found product-market fit. I've seen higher quality content and more active crypto discussions on Twitter since it launched. I’ve also heard top KOLs confess to losing sleep over slipping out of the top 10. That’s the magic: the leaderboard creates a flywheel where great content is surfaced and rewarded, which drives even more quality participation. And let’s be honest—who doesn’t love tracking their reach and getting that little dopamine hit from a Yap? The Yapper Leaderboard naturally evolved into other successful products, like Kaito Connect—which lets pre-TGE projects compete for a dedicated Community Leaderboard slot. It’s proven to be an effective launchpad, giving emerging projects visibility among the audiences they want to reach. Over time, Kaito Connect has become a kind of “coming-out party” for pre-TGE teams, helping them rally early support and build momentum. In a world where attention is the most scarce and valuable resource, Kaito has built a loyal following across KOLs, projects, funds, and retail users. Its attention economy lays the foundation for many more "[redacted] launchpads" to come. I see Kaito Connect as just the beginning—helping projects prep for TGE. Down the line, I expect we’ll see an ecosystem of tools that support projects at every stage of their lifecycle. I'm excited to learn more about Kaito's revenue growth, source of staking yield, network inflation/deflation as they publish the stats. But more than that, I’m confident in their ability to monetize effectively—as the ultimate facilitator of attention in crypto. It’s been a privilege to watch Kaito grow from the very beginning. I’m incredibly bullish on its future as a category-defining player in InfoFi and the Crypto x AI space. @Punk9277, thanks for being my friend and my first "smart follower." Can't wait to see what's next! teapaw.org/Punk9277/status/190255…

HyperEVM is now live 🔥 This is a major step toward @HyperliquidX’s vision of housing all finance by adding general-purpose programmability to its high-performance blockchain. Here's why I'm bullish and how anyone can take advantage of this opp A thread:

Vana is building the first network for user-owned AI data. With AI having the largest mindshare in tradfi and the crypto space, the winning narrative is clear - you'd want to own the shovels. Here's why we're bullish on @vana, one of @caladanxyz's key investments👇