Jaime Rogozinski is the founder of WallStreetBets. What started as an online community grew into a worldwide retail investing movement, uniting traders across countries, online platforms and asset classes. We sat down with Rogozinski during the [REDACTED] Live (formerly named “WallStreetBets Live”) conference to talk about how it felt to see the community come together in real life, and what it means to build something that grows far beyond its original scope.

In this conversation, Rogozinski reflects on the evolution of WallStreetBets and what it taught him about scale, ownership, and trust on the internet. He also shares his perspective on blockchain as infrastructure, the changing nature of market discovery, and why experimentation with NFTs, tokens, and gamified systems continues to matter as the space matures.

Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

OpenSea: What are your first impressions of the conference so far? How does the overall energy feel?

Jaime Rogozinski: The last few days have been turbulent, to say the least. At some point you have to drop expectations, do what you can, and see how it goes. I am having a blast. This has been far more powerful than I anticipated. I tend to be cautiously optimistic, sometimes overly so, and this has surpassed even that. There is a lot of buzz, a lot happening at once. Good vibes, great speakers, great audience, incredible attendees. All I can say is wow.

OpenSea: Can you take us back to the beginning? How did this all start for you, and does it ever feel surreal to see how WallStreetBets and the community evolved?

Jaime Rogozinski: Nobody wants to wake up from a good dream. There have been moments where it was hard for me to appreciate the magnitude of it all. I remember visiting Canyonlands [National Park] in Utah before I ever went to the Grand Canyon. Canyonlands floored me. My brain understood the concept. Then I went to the Grand Canyon and it was so vast that I could not fully appreciate it. It is like being in an airplane. You cannot perceive the height the same way you can standing on a ten-story building.

I went from WallStreetBets straight to the airplane. It was so much bigger than I understood. That took me by surprise. It took time to process it in a way that matched how other people saw it. My perspective was limited, and it only changed through feedback. I would say something casually and people would respond like, do you realize how big this actually is?

That realization probably happened around 2018 or 2019. 

The legal fight began shortly thereafter. It was painful and costly, but it led to something important. It was like Plato’s cave. I was forced out of an echo chamber, and I ended up better for it.

That fight stopped being about reclaiming something personal. It became about protecting a community. I am not making money from this event. I am not involved financially. I was even told it might lose money. That does not matter to me. This event will have a net positive impact, and that is what I care about.

Before this interview alone, meaningful connections were already being made. Out of this conference will come innovation, partnerships, and change. That was the fight. I can change my name. I have done it before. I will be fine. But the precedent that says internet born communities belong to platforms rather than creators is dangerous. That affects everyone.

OpenSea: You are currently at Wire Network. When you think about bridging traditional finance with blockchain, what feels most realistic in the near term?

Jaime Rogozinski: I have moved beyond just finance. Finance is what I know best, and it is an easy entry point because people understand it. But what I really want is a future where blockchain is invisible infrastructure. It should not be synonymous with the price of a token. It should be a foundation for trust, transparency, collaboration, coordination and resilience.

We talk about AI solving problems, but in reality it is aggregating ideas from people around the world. Blockchain can enable that same kind of global collaboration. That is where things get interesting, not just in finance, but in science, culture, social movements and education.

The next generation of world changing ideas is sitting in classrooms right now. We need to give them tools that bake in accountability and transparency by default. That is how we give ourselves a fighting chance against future asymmetries that will not just be about money.

OpenSea: OpenSea supports both NFTs and fungible tokens. Do you think people still mentally separate them?

Jaime Rogozinski: They all coexist. People like to pick bubbles, and every bubble feels valid from the inside. NFTs were a great on-ramp. Selling JPEGs was simple, familiar, and understandable. It let people experiment.

From there, you start seeing dynamic NFTs, real world assets, and more creative use cases. My favorite example from the last cycle was the Australian Open NFT collection. It was not about owning art. It was about participation and connection. Fans were engaging with something they loved in a completely new way.

Then you have projects like Pudgy Penguins or Bored Ape Yacht Club that started as images and evolved into real-world brands. That experimentation paved the way for broader thinking. People are less likely now to dismiss everything as just JPEGs, and that shift matters.

This next phase will still have failures, but many of the worst ideas already died. Lessons were learned. The iterations are getting better. Give it a few more cycles and the concepts will mature.

OpenSea: Discovery has moved from brokers and analysts to onchain data, Discord, and social platforms. How does that shift change market dynamics?

Jaime Rogozinski: I would frame it slightly differently. What we call retail traders today are not the same as individual investors from twenty years ago. Today you have many different types of market participants playing by different rules, and they all coexist.

What blockchain adds is verifiability. Anyone can rent a Lambo and sell advice. Onchain, you actually have to trade. Performance is visible. Addresses become reputations. Some of the most trusted signal providers are not influencers at all. They are just wallets with a track record.

That changes research. People can literally follow success. When it comes to price discovery and liquidity, that kind of transparency is powerful. You are voting with your wallet, not just your words.

OpenSea: You have been bullish on blockchain for a long time. What do you think the traditional world will adopt next?

Jaime Rogozinski: That question mattered more four years ago. At this point, the foundation is there. The problem has largely been solved. Now capitalism will decide what wins.

I am less interested in guessing which category takes off next. If something truly innovative appears, it gets my attention. Otherwise, the system will sort itself out.

OpenSea: Is there anything in particular that has caught your attention recently?

Jaime Rogozinski: Two things. First is Wire Network. They solved a problem I thought was impossible. They addressed interoperability and liquidity in a native, trustless way with remarkable elegance. For blockchain to support a better future, it has to work with itself. Scientists should not need to understand protocols. They should just use the tool.

The second is gamification. Games are how humans learn. Gamifying education, finance, or technology lowers barriers and increases participation. People criticize it, but engagement leads to curiosity, and curiosity leads to understanding. That is how systems grow stronger.

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