From daily cartoons to a full-on cultural phenomenon, Trencher has quickly become one of the most recognizable characters in the crypto art space. At the center of it all is Grizzle, an artist who blends humor, narrative, and raw energy to capture the pace of internet culture. What began as a playful sketch has evolved into hundreds of pieces, animated shorts, and a thriving community of fans and collaborators.

In our conversation with Grizzle, we dive into the origins of Trencher, the process behind creating art at internet speed, and the power of community-driven storytelling.

OpenSea: Let’s start with origins! Can you share how Trencher came to life? What inspired the first drawing, and when did you realize the character was taking off?

Grizzle: I started dabbling in crypto in 2021 and for the past 4 years, I was focused primarily on my freelance work, creating content to help projects grow their brands. Last year, I realized that, in order to grow my own personal account, I would need to redirect the energy I was putting into others, and pour that same level of dedication into myself instead.

I was inspired by artists like Leon of Nubcat and BoldLeonidas the comic artist. I knew I wanted to create a central character to tell stories via daily cartoons. I wasn’t thinking about a token at all. I saw how BoldLeonidas supports himself primarily through patrons, and that model was very appealing to me.

I started experimenting with character designs in January, testing out a few and seeing which style best resonated with my followers. In March, I landed on a design for the “Grizzle” character and I drew a little “meet the artist” starter pack style illustration. People loved it. So I started to think about how I could get more visibility. That’s when I came up with the original “PumpFun Trencher” piece, a character I hoped people would see themselves in. I’m in the trenches everyday, so I tried to include some niche trench humor and lore in the piece.

I posted the cartoon and it performed well throughout the day, but when I went to sleep, Alon, the co-founder of PumpFun commented on it. All he said was, “🔥”. But at that time, Alon was pretty conservative with his replies, so people sort of went crazy. It spawned dozens of tokens inspired by that trencher piece, my other cartoons, my pets, etc. I woke up to the first Trencher token at #1 trending and above $1M mc. It was a whirlwind of a day to say the least!

OpenSea: Trencher has grown from one drawing into hundreds of artworks, animated shorts, and a full community. What’s your process for creating new pieces, and which project so far has been the most meaningful to you?‍

Grizzle: My process is to be as chronically online as possible. But seriously, we are in a new era of crypto, led by Gen Z. And they are fast paced. The “boomer” 2017-2021 strategies of how to succeed don’t work anymore. If you’re not tapped in, they’ll know. And they can spot ingenuity a mile away.

So I show up, I scroll, I feel out the vibe on the timeline. And I think, “How can I capture the vibe of the day in a silly way?” I try not to overthink it because in crypto being fast and consistent are much more important than being perfect. I actually think that in the crypto world imperfection is valued more than in any other space. It’s more raw and real. In a world where everything is polished and often fake feeling, it’s kind of nice to show up everyday in a space that can be chaotic and messy.

The first Trencher piece is messy in that way, I had no idea it would go viral. Visually, it’s not my best work, but I love that piece and it will always be the most meaningful to me because of how it literally changed my life overnight. I never expected people to resonate with it on this level.

OpenSea: You’ve been consistent in producing new Trencher art almost daily. What keeps you motivated to create at that pace?

Grizzle: I’m sure any artist would agree that staying inspired and creating daily content is massively challenging. You know, months go by. There are life things that come up. Birthdays, family stuff, friend stuff, issues with pets, illness, doctor appointments, car problems. So some days I struggle to create content, for sure.

I think the thing that has motivated me to continue at this pace for 5 months now is to know how privileged and lucky I am to be in this position. It’s rare for artists to go viral and to be in the spotlight. And I know that virality is fleeting. People have short attention spans. So I know that I need to take advantage of this once in a lifetime opportunity, and do everything I can to keep momentum going.

OpenSea: Community seems central to Trencher’s story. How has it felt to see fans create things like the $TRENCHER token or their own Trencher-inspired art? Any contributions that especially surprised you?

Grizzle: I wouldn’t necessarily call the guy who created the $trencher token a fan haha, he’s a serial deployer that has launched over 50,000 tokens. He earned over 83k off my work and never liked a single one of my posts!

The real community are the ones who formed around the token and advocated for the creator fees to be redirected to me. And when people create fanart, or community art, it’s the highest honor. One of my favorite experiences of the past few months has been seeing how many people are drawing the Trencher character in their own style. Including people who I deeply admire like Leon the Nubcat artist, Groowut the Fwog artist, and Doro the Dollo artist.

I think collaborating with Doro has been the most fun for me. I’ve been following Doro on instagram long before he ever started to dabble in crypto. I just love his work and he’s inspired me so much. So for us to get to work together and give each other advice and build each other up, is a really beautiful thing.

So many people say that in crypto other artists are your competition. And supporting your competition is bad for your brand. But I don’t believe that. I think that if you find a small community of creators that you connect and vibe with, share resources, information, tools, skills, and really build each other up. 

I hope that in this new era of creator capital markets, creators will realize that there is power in community and community doesn’t just mean your audience/holders. Community also means your fellow creators.

OpenSea: On that note, you’ve partnered with platforms like Pump.fun and worked with people like Alon. How have those collaborations influenced your work?

Grizzle: Trencher is intrinsically intertwined with PumpFun. The original piece is called “The PumpFun Trencher.” Trencher’s outfit is inspired by the PumpFun logo and I used the same color palette. The Trencher series is essentially “a day in the life of a pumpfun trencher.”

It was important to me from Day 1 that PumpFun and I would go on to develop a strong relationship and a mutual show of support for one another. Early on, I had a lot of conversations with them about how I could see them becoming the very first creative-first token launchpad that funds and supports actual creators.

From creator fees to community art to the narrative of a small artist’s life changing overnight, I like to think that everything that happened with Trencher influenced the “creator first” model that PumpFun uses today.

It’s been such an honor to work with them and make community art for them. Alon and Json and their whole team are so smart, so tapped in. They listen to everything. They notice everything. They take feedback really well and, as a creative, that’s something I value.

OpenSea: Trencher sits at the intersection of satire, memes, and crypto culture. How do you see the role of artists within the meme-coin ecosystem — and what challenges have you faced around things like IP?

Grizzle: This is tricky. After Trencher was tokenized, I wrote an op-ed, where I basically said, “Memes belong to everyone. Memes have no central authority and this is why they are so important to crypto.” I still believe this.

However, creator fees did not exist at that time. And the rise of the creator coin meta and the creator fee model complicates my feelings a bit on this. In my case, where I’m creating daily content for Trencher, and every piece of content supports the token, creator fees are essentially serving as artist royalties. And for months, some random guy was earning tens of thousands of dollars on royalties off my art, while contributing nothing. I don’t believe that serial deployers deserve creator rewards, and I’m so relieved and grateful that PumpFun was able to fix it to be redirected to me.

The line between art and memes can be blurred sometimes. Pepe is a perfect example. Or chillguy. Or italian brainrot. Sometimes memes take on a life of their own and evolve beyond the original creator. I think each memecoin or artcoin or creator coin or whatever type of token all need to be looked at on a case by case basis.

I also think that the rise of “creator capital markets” will naturally give more autonomy to artists looking to have control over their IP.

OpenSea: Balancing creativity and tokenomics is tricky. How do you navigate between making art every day, building narrative arcs, and engaging with the reward side of the ecosystem?

Grizzle: Having a compelling narrative is arguably the most important aspect of success in crypto. There are so many talented artists putting out beautiful works of art, but without a compelling narrative, they struggle to resonate with their audience. You need to be able to market yourself and articulate your story or your brand in a way that connects with people.

I always say that what I do is 10% art and 90% marketing. From running socials, to planning out illustrations and videos, building connections, building trust with the audience, securing partnerships and collabs, figuring out how to tell a story, pivoting with market trends, improvising, etc. It’s balancing all of that with the art, and figuring out the timing so each thing flows seamlessly into the next thing. 

OpenSea: Looking ahead: Where do you see the Trencher universe going next? Are you exploring other formats like merch, gaming, or new characters — and what do you hope people take away from Trencher as a whole?

Grizzle: Ultimately, I’d love for Trencher to follow a similar path that Leon has taken with Nub. I love how the Nub brand translates to both crypto and normie audiences, and he has a cult following in both. I’d love for Trencher to evolve into something beyond crypto eventually, but for now, I’m focused on one thing at a time. I want the character to first be cemented as an iconic main character of the crypto world, like Nub, Smolting, Cupsey, Fwog, etc.I hope that no matter the audience, they will be able to see themselves in the character. Just a normal dude grinding, hustling, and surviving the trenches of life, holding onto the dream of making a better life for himself.