Blockchain President: Brattleboro Family Cat Inspires New Meme Coin | Local news

WEST BRATTLEBORO — Odin the Cardano Cat Meme Coin is a new cryptocurrency created by a local family.

“My dad got me into crypto maybe six years ago now, and that attracted me — buying coins and seeing them go up,” said Thomas Hyde, who graduated from Brattleboro Union High School last year and is studying financial technology at Worchester Polytechnic University. In Massachusetts.

Thomas heard about WPI’s cryptocurrency analysis and charting classes, which piqued his interest. During the winter holidays, Odin launched the Cardano Cat Meme with the help of his family.

They bought a camera last week to attach to the cat and started posting videos on it youtube.com/@OdinTheCardanoCat. They also tweet on X, formerly known as Twitter, and plan to expand their social media reach to other platforms like TikTok and Instagram.

“As meme currencies go, there is no intrinsic value,” Father Matthew Hyde said. “It’s for entertainment, but we wanted to add a little twist and make our meme coin a little different from others.”

Historically, Matthew said, meme currencies are created using computer-generated graphics.

“What makes us different is that we took a live pet and made this our own work of art if you will,” he said, while other meme coins are usually created by friends rather than families.

“We incorporated the family aspect,” Thomas said. “My father and I were working on social promotion and building hype. My mother did the translation in Japanese and Chinese. So we tried to expand our reach that way. Naturally, Oden was the face of that.”

Post on x.com/odincardanocat Odin is called the “chairman of blockchain.”

Nan Hyde, Matthew’s wife and Thomas’ mother, is not involved in purchasing the coins. She said she enjoys translating for the project and tries to get people to buy the family’s shows.

Originally, Nan is from China and studied abroad in Japan. At Leland & Gray Union Middle and High School, she teaches Chinese.

Nan said she was proud to convey information about the currency to people in the two foreign countries. She noted that China has restrictions on the use of the Internet and social media.

Matthew said the coin “gained a little bit of interest” in the United States

“It’s going in the right direction,” he added. “Of course we’ve only been out for two weeks, so we’re still in the beginning phase of our launch, building the brand and platform.”

The hope is that daily posts on YouTube will expand the coin’s reach, Thomas said.

“We’ve seen other content on YouTube of people putting a camera on their cat and getting a lot of followers that way,” he said. “We’re hoping to have those kind of nice sales.”

The goal is to build community at this point, Matthew said. When that happens, he believes more people will support the project which also strengthens family bonding and resumes construction for his son.

“If we can make money, that’s great,” Matthew said. “If not, it’s a great experience to go through all these channels and try out blockchain.”

Cardano is referring to the platform that the family called the meme coin. Matthew described the cryptocurrency creation application on the site as “very easy” to fill out.

“A lot of people do it but I think you will find that a lot of them are scams,” he said. “We’re not going to pull the rug out. What often happens is someone might make a coin, and they’ll become the first buyer and buy a set. As the price goes up, they’ll get dumped from the community.”

At the time of the interview on New Year’s Day, the family had purchased $40 of their coins. That represents only 2 percent of the supply, Matthew said.

Matthew said that one billion coins had been minted. At the time of the interview, he counted 40 holders who owned 30 percent of the supply. It is estimated that the project will have a market capitalization of at least $50 million, a metric that measures the total value of a cryptocurrency.

Thomas said that “significant community buzz” could make a meme currency flourish or spread quickly. He cited Dogecoin as an example, which “spilled dramatically” once Elon Musk tweeted about it.

“We’re also community-driven, so we’re open to feedback,” Thomas said. “We are ready to listen to people via Twitter…to please fans and supporters.”

Snake, a play on the word “snake”, is another popular meme coin. Matthew said drinks associated with the brand are now sold in stores.

The family is thinking of creating Odin’s treats to sell at a local pet store. They stayed odincardanocat.comWhere other goods can be purchased.

They hope to give some of the profits to Big Brothers Big Sisters. Matthew stressed the importance of having mentor figures for young people in their lives.

For nearly 20 years, Matthew has been running coupon books for Damerston Community Centre. He said 10 percent of profits were given to local nonprofits. He also runs Khameleon Coatings on Putney Road in Brattleboro, where he offers sand powder coating for metals. The 16-foot oven is large enough to accommodate a spiral staircase, fire escape landing, outdoor furniture, and car and motorcycle tires.

The beginning and the “black eye”

When he was 7 years old, Thomas wanted to build a computer. When the family got to the point of needing to buy a graphics card, they were shocked at the high price. They learned that people were buying cards to mine cryptocurrencies. They bought one and mined cryptocurrencies while Thomas was at school or sleeping, but skyrocketing electricity bills caused the practice to amount to nothing. They decided to buy the coins directly.

“We got a black eye in ’22,” Matthew said, “with the FXT debacle and the Luna USTD fallout.”

The family lost more than $20,000 with Luna, however, they are hoping to get their money back soon as part of a civil suit in Singapore. A recent headline on Binance describes the Luna incident as “Biggest Cryptocurrency Scam in History: $40 Billion Lost in One Day!”

Matthew said the FTX scam caused people to withdraw money all at once and led to doubts about cryptocurrencies. With incoming President Donald Trump talking about more pro-crypto regulation, he is optimistic.

“I think it needs regulations so things like FTX and Luna don’t happen,” Matthew said. “Investors need to be protected. It’s not what it used to be. It was very bad, there was a lot of fraud. You have to be vigilant.”

Matthew said his family is “kind of an open book.”

“Investors love it,” he said. “They want to trust the team.”

New coins come online at Cardona all the time, Matthew said. His family chose the blockchain platform “for its security and decentralization.”

“No one is controlled by one entity,” Matthew said. “It’s a governance thing. So everyone has a voice, and a stake, in how the platform, or blockchain, is run.”

Ideas are proposed and then implemented if a vote is taken, Matthew said. His family does not vote but delegates for what he called “the complex we share.”

Thomas said he has college friends who are now buying cryptocurrencies and asking for his advice. He currently has no career in mind.

“He could be an analyst or a bean counter,” Matthew said.

Odin the Cardano Cat meme coin can be purchased from snek.fun.