Jiho, X Hall of Flame

Most people think that successful cryptocurrency bros are all about flashy watches and Lambos. But for the co-founder of Web3 core title Axie Infinity, nothing beats bugs and butterflies.

“I grew up collecting insects and fossils. My dad also collects butterflies. So I like being in nature.” Jeffrey Zirlin, better known as “Jiho,” told Magazine in an interview conducted in the Philippines. Sky Mavis and Ronin Network co-founder says his unique fascination with rare bugs and natural creatures led him to Axie Infinity.

He heard about the Axie NFT project a month after its launch in 2018, loved the look of the unique creatures, joined the founding team and helped turn the project into one of the biggest Web3 titles to date.

“That’s one of the reasons I was drawn to Axie, isn’t it? “Because I discovered Axie as a community member and was a biology champion growing up.”

A character based on Zirlin from Pixels, a laid-back adventure game that has become Ronin’s most popular title among active users, and his unique hobby features.

“I’m playing a game called Pixels. “Now I have butterflies,” he laughed. But Zirlin is no stranger to the spotlight and has amassed 515,300 followers on X.

“Many of my close friends are also from the Axie community. I think Web3 is a great way to make good, like-minded friends,” he says.

When she’s not an insect version of Dr. Dolittle, Zirlin says she likes to lift weights and shoot hoops in her free time.

How did Jeffrey Zirlin grow his X following?

Zirlin joined X in June 2018. At the time, “no one was interested in NFT games or Web3 games.”

“I got my first 5,000 followers by tweeting about Ethereum protocol issues,” he says.

He regularly argued with Ethereum miners over the switch from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake.

“There were miners who opposed conversion in the old days, right? I thought, ‘No, you guys are idiots.’ “You guys are greedy,” he said.

“I was just a new user of Ethereum, so I made some noise that way,” Zirlin added.

It was his DeFi content that exploded his follower count. “I was creating content about Uniswap, MakerDAO, for example, and a lot of it exploded in the last cycle. I think we went from 50,000 pieces a year to hundreds of thousands,” he says.

“This is proof that things can change in an instant. As you know, narratives can be flipped on a dime,” he adds.

At Axie Infinity’s peak in 2021, it had over 2.8 million daily players, with fans of the game flocking to Zirlin’s X account for Axie updates.

He was always on top of everything and was quick to share new things happening in the game.

What type of content does Jeffrey Zirlin produce?

Zirlin’s content is a mix of “hot takes,” his views on the Web3 industry, and the occasional life advice.

He feels a responsibility to represent the community and stay up to date to analyze things for his 500,000 followers.

“I think it’s unfair to expect the community to help if you don’t lead by example,” he says.

“I try to set an example by performing the behaviors I want to see,” Zirlin adds.

Zirlin said he was “definitely more exposed to the public” than Sky Mavis’ other co-founders Trung Nguyen and Aleksander Leonard Larsen, allowing him to focus on “more important work.”

When it comes to the content he likes, Zirlin prefers content that is “different from what you typically see on Crypto Twitter.”

“A guy named Desire from Kind of Guild creates absurd, neo-surrealistic Web3 game content that feels like a fever dream,” he says.

“It’s not just about sharing information or sharing updates, it’s about thinking outside the box,” Zirlin added.

What are your predictions for Jeffrey Zillin?

Zirlin is optimistic about the 2025 games. When asked how cryptocurrency investors can know which game’s cryptocurrency tokens will yield the most profits, his answer is very simple.

“The way to think about it is the tokens of the breakout game and the tokens of the chain that the breakout game is connected to,” he declared, adding quite cheekily that he believed the game “will be on Ronin.”

One thing he said was that games have become “less of a speculative asset” since the last cycle.

While many cryptocurrency projects were concepts at best last cycle, Zirlin felt the game needed to be fully fleshed out for investors to take cryptocurrency tokens seriously.

“In the last cycle, games were also known to be the most speculative. This has always been our argument. Why do you want to hold gaming to a higher standard than other spaces? “It’s very unfair,” he said.

“But now things seem to have resettled,” he claims.

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Ciaran Lyon

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian cryptocurrency journalist. He is also a stand-up comedian and radio and TV presenter for Triple J, SBS and The Project.