ICN.live Key Opinion | EXCLUSIVE Interview with Eljaboom, Crypto KOL

ICN.live KEY OPINION, Exclusive Interview with Eljaboom

Eljaboom is recognized for his influential role in the crypto industry, earning accolades such as being featured in Forbes’ “40 Under 40” list and achieving a Guinness World Record in AI & Robotics. He is the founder of Ajoobz and co-founder of Okse, a decentralized finance platform offering a non-custodial wallet with a Visa card, facilitating crypto payments across over 170 countries. His YouTube series, “The Room of Eljaboom,” delves into blockchain technology, Web3 trends, and features interviews with industry leaders.

El Salvador and Bitcoin Reserve Policy

El Salvador is well known for its Bitcoin reserve policy, continuing to acquire BTC at a steady pace. Yet, the IMF is sounding the alarm, urging the country to halt its accumulation, even as President Bukele claims over $357 million in unrealized profits from Bitcoin holdings. What’s really happening here? Do you see El Salvador’s Bitcoin strategy as a genuine threat to traditional financial elites because their model of cleaning debts can be adopted by other countries as well?

Anything that has to do with the cryptocurrency industry usually sets off alarms for traditional finance and the conventional financial system. But in the end, as we’re seeing today, everyone is being forced to accept the change.

Eventually, they’ll all work together and learn from each other.

Meme Coins, NFTs, and Crypto Gaming

Meme coins, NFTs, and crypto gaming—once billion-dollar narratives—seem to have lost momentum. Today, the conversation is largely dominated by Bitcoin and a few select ecosystems. Is this a sign of market maturity, or just the calm before a major comeback?

As we’ve seen, meme coins haven’t died; on the contrary, they’re still growing. The only area that has truly faded is NFTs. When it comes to crypto games, they’re still around, but many have struggled due to poor tokenomics.

A lot of projects simply used tokens to reward users, whereas Web2 games are designed differently; You pay to enjoy the experience, not the other way around.

This constant free token distribution led to a collapse in the economic structure. With time, I’m confident this will be addressed, and new, stronger models will emerge.

Web3 Media and Investment Fusion

As a key opinion leader in the blockchain space, especially in the MENA region, how do you view the evolving media landscape in Web3? For example, Trump Media recently announced a bold $2.5 billion Bitcoin investment as part of its corporate treasury. Do you see this convergence of media and investment as the future of Web3 media?

Trump’s office and Eric Trump are contributing a lot to Web3 and this industry. They’ve managed to make it more open, allowing innovation, developers, and even dreamers to have a part in it.

What Trump is doing is making this industry accessible to everyone.

Protocol Exploits and Infrastructure Risks

We’re still witnessing large-scale exploits, even affecting billion-dollar protocols and top-10 Layer 1s. Is the infrastructure layer still too immature from a technical standpoint? Is the industry so early that even the most established players remain vulnerable?

Unfortunately, technology always comes with risks. We’ve seen many exploits and hacks. Even now, we don’t have a single bridge that’s truly safe. So many big bridges have lost hundreds of millions of dollars, dragging down multiple projects with them.

I believe the best path forward is to eventually have a Web3 insurance company.

One that constantly audits smart contracts, stress-tests them, and is able to pay back losses if something goes wrong. Instead of leaving things as they are now, like a jungle.

Centralization vs. Web3 Ideology

You’re well-known as a strong supporter of CZ and the Binance ecosystem—the largest centralized exchange in the world. But doesn’t this level of centralization go against the core ethos of Web3? Shouldn’t the biggest transactions and user bases be moving toward decentralized exchanges instead?

We always say: “Not your keys, not your crypto.” So yes, decentralization is 100 percent the future. But for new users, DeFi is extremely hard to use, and the risks often outweigh the rewards. That’s why many go for centralized exchanges.
Today, nothing beats Binance as a centralized platform.

And they’re also adapting by launching the Binance Web3 Wallet, which helps users start exploring DeFi more easily and gradually learn how to transition into Web3.

Open Mic: Your Thoughts on the Market

We’d love to give you the floor for an open-ended response. What are your personal thoughts on current market conditions, and do you have any insights on the future of the industry you’d like to share?

The market right now feels lost. In the last cycle, utility tokens were able to grow and find a solid place on tier one exchanges. But in this cycle, meme tokens dominate, and exchanges are mostly chasing volume. Utility projects usually don’t generate wild volume, which is why most of them are struggling.

This impacts not just retailers, but also VCs and everyone tied to utility-focused efforts.

On top of that, utility projects now face legal complexity, having to navigate both global regulations and frameworks like MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation) in Europe. Meanwhile, meme tokens don’t require any of that.