Crypto Reacts: Everybody Hates Coinbase’s Mini Movie “The Degen Trilogy: Part 1”

The reaction to the first installment of “The Degen Trilogy” was a unanimous NO. It seems like Coinbase can’t get it right with their NFT strategy. First, the company spent millions in a marketplace that nobody uses, and now this. “The Degen Trilogy” is a phenomenal piece of animation with the worst script ever written. A waste of talent, effort, and money at a time when Coinbase is laying-off employees and under investigation by the SEC.

One thing’s for sure, “The Degen Trilogy” got a lot of attention. As a marketing piece, it did half of its job. We doubt it accomplished the other half, getting people to sign up for Coinbase’s NFT marketplace. The mini-movie’s plot is extremely confusing and the exact thing they’re promoting is never clear. Is it a contest? Can people participate in the other parts of the trilogy? What are the characters doing, exactly? And what’s the general message? Why is there a character rug-pulling the others?

But enough about our opinion, let’s read what the Twitterati had to say about this car crash of a promotional vehicle. At least Coinbase accomplished the impossible with it, “The Degen Trilogy” got Bitcoin maximalists and NFT degens on the same page.

What Did The Bitcoin Influencers Though About “The Degen Trilogy”?

• What Bitcoin Did’s Peter McCormack wrote, “You agency must have been rubbing their hands when you bought this pitch.”
• CoinCorner’s Danny Scott complained, “Can’t believe I wasted 5 minutes of my life watching this. I’m more confused at the end than when it started. What’s the point in this video?”
• Swan’s Cory Klippsten went with a visual gag

• Tuur Demeester went right to the meta-message, “There’s only one winner in the zero sum game” “I’m going to start my own coin” On par with SBF explaining how crypto ponzi’s work.”

Star Power From The Crypto Space

• Degen extraordinaire Ryder Ripps slammed the writing, “the 3d animation and render, impressive. the script? disgusting”
• Famed trader and podcaster, Cobie pointed out that the piece “needed a cameo from the Zuckerberg sister to finish the web3 bingo cringe festival.”
• The Coin Bureau guy showed no mercy, “The SEC should rather be investigating this for illegally inducing cringe.”

COIN price chart on FTX | Source: COIN/USD on TradingView.com

What Did NFT Degens Though About Coinbase’s Mini-Movie

• This Bored Ape holder though, “While the animation is top notch, the narrative is cringe. If we want to include Web3 into mainstream culture, it needs to be more subtle and classy rather than on-your-face. Expected more from Degen Trilogy.”
• This Web3 fanatic said, “crypto really does erode everything good about culture. this video is disgusting. especially the half assed use of “red pill” moment from Matrix.”
• This pseudonymous Tezos fan clowned Coinbase, “Hahaha we spent $300 million on an NFT Marketplace that did zero volume.. so here’s a $30 Million video that everyone will hate.. if y’all was wondering why the stonk dumped.. this is the real reason.”

• This NFT degen wrote what everyone was thinking, “imagine getting laid off by coinbase bc they couldn’t afford to pay you and then they come out with this.”
• This anonymous Twitter user criticized the company in a hurtful way, “This is why I cannot recommend coinbase anymore.  They lost the plot.  This is not inclusivity.  This is elites with $300000 jpegs telling plebs to become their exit liquidity.”

To Be Fair, Positive Opinions About “The Degen Trilogy”

• This pseudonymous degen thinks, “Why all the hate? Wouldn’t expect an adaptation of NFT Twitter culture for a mainstream audience to be anything but cringe, but overall this was pretty decent considering the context. Commodification of culture is just what capitalism does.”
• Producer Hannah Roodman justifies Coinbase, “Storytelling w a community is HARD AF, but this is so solid.”
• This BAYC holder is satisfied, “Wow Coinbase has released the first part of its movie called “The Degen Trilogy.” If I’m not going to be lynched, I want to say I like it unlike most. In fact, I can say that the web3 efforts of the big names amuse me a lot.”

• Is Graham praising the piece or making fun of it? “Both the Degen Trilogy and We’re All Gonna Make It are masterpieces of this cycle. Don’t tell me that you’ll forget them.”
• This BAYC holder wrote a whole essay about “The Degen Trilogy,” from which we rescued: “The messaging of the short makes it very clear. This is an oppty to disrupt hollywood by way of talent and ownership – this is bigger than Coinbase and BAYC.”

In any case, also to be fair, we had to look hard to find positive “The Degen Trilogy” reviews. And they’re not even that positive! We at Bitcoinist can’t wait for part two, to be honest.

Featured Image: The Degen Trilogy, screenshot from the video | Charts by TradingView