EXCLUSIVE: He's Emancipated From His VC Backers And He Wants You To Know About It

His former backers at a prominent Solana-ecosystem fund — a firm that asked not to be named, which is interesting given that they named themselves in three separate press releases when they led his seed round — are not happy. Sources close to the fund describe the situation as "a values misalignment," which is VC for "the teenager stopped returning our Telegram messages and changed the multisig." The teenager in question, @ChainBoy, who launched CHONK to a $12M FDV in January before "going independent" in February, describes it differently. He describes it in a seven-part Twitter thread that opens with the words "I choose me."

The thread, which The Daily Rug has read in full so you do not have to, covers: the importance of creative freedom, a somewhat unclear analogy involving a caterpillar, allegations that the fund tried to dictate the token's mascot design, and a closing paragraph that reads "I'm not doing this for the money. The money is a side effect of the vision." He posted this thread from a hotel room in Miami during Art Basel. The hotel room cost $800 a night. This is public information because he posted the hotel's Instagram tag. The fund has since updated their portfolio page. CHONK is no longer listed. The mascot, for the record, is a frog wearing sunglasses. @ChainBoy designed it himself. It is, genuinely, quite good.