In this episode of Mission: DeFi, host Brad Nickel is joined by Revelo Intel founder Nick Drakon to discuss his introduction to crypto, his approach to markets, what Revelo Intel provides, and some more details on what to expect from us.
Read our notes below to learn more.
Nick’s Background
Was involved in the nightclub business from a young age.
Through the nightclub business, was introduced to poker.
Decided to dropout of law school to play poker when poker first began to become extremely popular.
Built businesses in poker, was involved until the US effectively banned it ~ 2008-2009.
Poker can teach people how to gauge trust, which is important in crypto.
With help from TradFi connections, began managing his own portfolio post GFC (global financial crisis).
Experience trading equities helps people separate valuable information from noise.
Financial market is like a poker game at scale.
~ 2010 Nick started a lighting e-commerce business, learned how to be an operator.
He loves the concept of working to gain an edge and profiting, whether it’s in poker, business, or trading.
Introduction to Crypto
People in poker began sending Nick BTC as payment ~ 2011 – 2013.
Poker players often were left out from using financial services.
In 2017 hee shorted altcoins, held onto BTC position.
TradFi connections began pointing out BTC use case to him mid-2019.
After shorting the markets before covid, Nick realized that central banks would print money, and that his portfolio should be positioned accordingly.
Decided to position into BTC, and eventually DeFi.
Went full time crypto in 2021.
Market Insights
Planning can be good, but you need to actually gain experience to learn.
Nick is primarily a trader, wants to avoid business cycles which cause large drawdowns.
Doesn’t do day trading or technical analysis, makes fundamental trades on a 1-3 month time horizon around specific catalysts.
Runs a long/short book to protect portfolio from volatility in market.
Is currently net neutral; this enables participation in market while hedging against overall market risk.
Equities prices are driven by corporate profitability, which he is bearish on.
Range of macro outcomes, deep global recession in 2023 is most likely scenario.
Crypto is dependent on capital flows.
Crypto is unregulated, investors have to be knowledgeable on smart contract risk, exploit risk, risk of founders, etc.
This increases opportunity for those who can successfully evaluate the risks that aren’t present in TradFi.
Brad
Day traders and short-term traders are constantly on edge, have to be cautious of downturns.
Multi Passport Lifestyle
Nick grew up in Australia, was thankful for what he received from government.
Realized he could live in other countries to reduce capital gains tax burden.
Became interested in having options to defend against government actions over citizens.
Covid lockdowns accelerated his thought process to take action and create options to defend against governments.
Has multiple passports, is banked in multiple countries, has exit plans.
When you give governments power they don’t give it back.
Many options to escape governments, such as passport by investment programs, won’t be available over the next few years.
Many benefits in having multiple bank accounts, passports etc., including ease of travel, ease of moving money, having options if you need to move.
Revelo Intel
Nick initially had no desire to start another company, especially in crypto.
Subscription-based companies faced multiples compressions from 7x EBITDA (earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization) to 4x EBITDA.
This premium multiple could be even greater in crypto, he decided to launch a company rather than a protocol/token as he isn’t technical.
It’s very difficult to keep track of everything in crypto as an investor or enthusiast.
Over a year ago Nick started paying people to keep track of projects he was interested in and take notes on AMAs, twitter spaces, etc.
90-95% of the information in a community call or AMA could now be read in 5 minutes.
Information in crypto is fragmented, the first iteration of Revelo Intel distills crypto information in one place, without any bias or opinionated content.
Revelo Intel Details
Revelo Intel collects, organizes, summarizes and presents information to save people time.
Daily free newsletter provides notes on one podcast, or piece of content.
The first product provided is notes: at launch Revelo Intel will cover over 100 projects, podcasts, individuals, organizations, etc.
Notes provide summaries on any content that is put out by people or projects on the coverage list.
Our notes available via twitter thread
Platform will allow users to access notes in one easy-to-navigate place.
If you’re following several projects, you can simply read the notes instead of having to keep up with their schedule and listen to podcasts.
This expands opportunities for users.
Products #2 and #3 will reduce the time it takes to research new projects.
Service will be ~ $20/ mo.
Product will be chain and project agnostic, customers will influence what is covered.
Expected to launch in ~ 6 weeks.
Brad
Book summaries and investor newsletters are business models that have worked well.
Content will be extremely valuable in next crypto bull market, incumbents are weak.
Projects and People in Crypto Nick Respects
Chainlink oracle, it provides the rails that DeFi will run on.
Founders and teams complain about the process of using Chainlink, but they all have to use it.
If you don’t use Chainlink, you’re at a disadvantage: this idea has always worked well in TradFi businesses.
Since Chainlink isn’t a normal business, it’s unclear how revenue is distributed.
Nick respects Justin Bebis, at the Bytemasons team (Bytemasons is the team behind Reaper Farm yield aggregator).
Despite not having much experience he has a lot of knowledge on operating businesses, and helps educate crypto users with the Blockbytes crypto media team. This is something DeFi founders should strive for.
Nick also respects Dr Liquid at LiquidDriver (liquidity as a service protocol) : he’s very sharp and focused on winning for himself, his team, and his token holders.