In this episode of Talking Tokens, Jacquelyn Melinek speaks with Nick O’Neill, Co-Founder and CEO of BoDoggos. Nick shares how years of running The Nifty, one of the largest NFT media companies, shaped his understanding of community behavior, storytelling and internet culture and how that experience ultimately led to BoDoggos. Nick reflects on the psychological cost of operating as a character, how satire bleeds into reality, the tension between being informative and being entertaining, and why mixing humor with truth is harder (and more effective) than playing either side cleanly. Nick also shares stories behind his most famous stunts including staged scandals, yacht controversies, fake breakups, and sketch-comedy girlfriends and why narrative arcs outperform standalone posts. Timestamps(00:00) – Intro (03:25) – Dating life, fake girlfriends and how his online persona affects relationships (06:52) – Virality, trolls and how attention works on X (09:04) – Screen time habits, muting posts and handling backlash (11:27) – Comedy versus news, satire runs and experimenting with formats (13:33) – Filming in public and New York being ideal for chaotic content (15:38) – What makes a crypto capital city (16:13) – Origin of “Choose Rich” persona and the run that blew him up (18:06) – Quote tweet culture, algorithm changes and why narrative arcs matter (21:02) – The Dubai meme, stereotypes and how jokes spread through quote tweets (22:05) – Community notes, gaming, satire, yachts and how stunts go viral (27:45) – When fans think the character is real and dealing with public reactions (33:10) – The emotional and creative load of playing a character long term (36:07) – The famous Avalanche yacht stunt, how it was staged and how the narrative exploded (41:03) – Reputation risks, brand concerns and the line between humor and harm (44:08) – His view on crypto culture, memes, trading identity and what web3 became (46:57) – Technical versus cultural crypto, NFTs, and educational content (49:20) – Why serious content doesn’t perform well and blending humor with truth (51:32) – BuzzFeed era, ads in the feed, and the collapse of journalistic integrity (53:02) – The MicroStrategy subway rant and his opinion on the company (54:46) – Bitcoin, institutional flows and how he thinks about investing (55:32) – What he wants next in life including family, audience growth and coding (56:26) – Final advice on consistency, surviving the content cycle and momentum You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple or YouTube.If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review! Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/0LOgWxIQ0NnNUD5eXsSuoZApple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/talking-tokens/id1743669141 Follow us on XJacquelyn: https://twitter.com/jacqmelinekTalking Tokens: https://twitter.com/_TalkingTokens Follow us on InstagramTalking Tokens: https://www.instagram.com/_talkingtokens/ Note that this podcast is for informational purposes only and any views shared by anyone on the show are opinions, not financial advice. The host or guests may have a direct or indirect financial interest in content mentioned.
