Bankless: Why Gen Z Will Turn Everything Into a Market | Threadguy

Date: December 18, 2025
Host: Bankless (A)
Guest: Threadguy (Michael Stocks, B), aka the "Gen Z face of crypto"
Topic: How Gen Z is reshaping crypto, trading, and finance culture at large—turning everything into a market, and the rise of entertainment finance.

Episode Overview

This episode features a conversation between the Bankless team and Threadguy—a leading voice and content creator for Gen Z in crypto. They explore the unique relationship Gen Z has with digital assets, trading, speculative culture, and why everything—from sneakers to meme coins—can become a market. They also dissect the emerging genre of "entertainment finance" and discuss the future of financial media.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Who is Threadguy and His Journey into Crypto

• Threadguy introduces himself as Michael Stocks ("Threadguy") and describes his non-traditional entry into crypto—starting with NBA Top Shot NFTs during the COVID-19 pandemic, after a background in sneaker and sports card reselling.

  • [00:30] “I came here in 2020 for top shot to trade...I was in the internet reselling game...sneaker Twitter was the first time...my world shattered.” — Threadguy

• Marks the entry of a new kind of participant in crypto, not driven by cypherpunk ideologies but by trading, cultural trends, and online hustles.

  • [01:25] "2021 with NFTs and then 2024 with Solana meme coins were the two periods of hyper growth on-chain—people coming exclusively to trade." — Threadguy

2. Gen Z’s Online Hustler Culture and the Market Mentality

• Gen Z grew up trading sneakers, collectibles, and flipping products online, making micro-entrepreneurship normal.

  • [03:52] "First generation that has grown up trading things on the internet…a foundational concept is that my generation...grows up in a world where it is standard to make money out of the system in weird niche ways." — Threadguy

• This experience made Gen Z more comfortable with digital assets, NFTs, and meme coins. For them, trading is a familiar aspect of online life rather than a foreign or high-risk pursuit.

  • [06:18] "My generation, everyone that comes after us, grows up where it is standard to make money out of the system...[it] set the stage to see something like NFTs and be like, ‘Oh, I get this’..." — Threadguy

• Threads discussed the broader importance of COVID as an accelerator for this dynamic—Gen Z was forced online and found alternative ways to make money.

  • [03:47] "Covid accelerated timelines significantly." — Threadguy

3. The Split Within Gen Z: Stability Seekers vs. Hustlers

• Citing Kyla Scanlon, the hosts note two major camps:

  1. Those seeking stability in trades (skilled, non-college jobs)
  2. Those drawn to "lottery ticket" culture—high-risk, high-reward plays in hopes of escaping socio-economic stagnation.

• Threadguy acknowledges rejecting doomerism, but notes that the latter camp dominates crypto because the system feels stacked and barriers to traditional success are high.

  • [14:13] “I reject doomerism...but I will say I fall into the latter camp… I was a hustler in high school and middle school…I always had some weird little, not grift, but hustle.” — Threadguy

• Gen Z’s preference for self-defined pathways—becoming streamers, YouTubers, or creators—is tightly linked to why permissionless, “gatekeeper-less” markets resonate.

  • [17:28] “If you ask the average person in school right now, what do you want to be? They’ll say, ‘I want to be a YouTuber’...there’s something inherent about the permissionless finance side of things.” — Host

4. Crypto as Internet-Native Capital Markets

• Threadguy is bullish that permissionless, open crypto markets are the inevitable endpoint for all internet “hustle” culture.

  • [18:38] "It’s the greatest time in history to be on the Internet…because of crypto. And as time goes on…and more people have more access, the place you end up is just: internet capital markets." — Threadguy

• Key insight: This transition mirrors the evolution of gaming—from nerdy to mainstream, powered by content and entertainment rather than only skill.

  • [30:02] “Gaming is a really interesting parallel...what took it to the next level wasn’t the pros, but the content creators…the entertainment side took it into the next stratosphere.” — Threadguy

5. Entertainment Finance and Trading as Spectacle

• The hosts and Threadguy discuss how “entertainment finance” is becoming a sector—trading, livestreams, and viral content making finance a form of real-time drama.

  • [29:58] “Maybe you’re trying to be the face of just the entertainment finance sector…What do you call what you are doing?” — Host
  • [30:01] “I like entertainment finance.” — Threadguy

• Parallels are drawn with eSports and gaming: trading competitions, live-streamed trades, and celebrity traders as cultural icons.

  • [32:43] "Just like Starcraft or League of Legends, except it’s six people perping on one-second charts." — Host
  • [34:21] “It was just this crazy, like Steph Curry’s going for 75, turn the game on…There’s no better word than spectacle. It was must-watch.” — Threadguy

• The new “celebrities” are high-profile traders—risk-takers who perform for a live audience, with the community tracking their every move.

  • [41:28] “The traders—the new athletes, man…Respect risk takers.”—Threadguy
  • [37:58] "Stephen A. Smith [commentator]…never played sport in his life…LeBron James doesn’t give a [expletive] what he has to say—risk takers respect risk takers." — Threadguy

6. Market Memetics: Why Gen Z Excels

• Deep dive into how Gen Z’s fluency in memes and social flows gives them an edge in speculative, attention-driven markets.

  • [43:41] "We are experts at mimetics…we can just trade memetics." — Threadguy

• The real edge in modern financial markets is “growth investing in a narrative that will become ‘the one note of the Internet that day’” (base16Z).

  • [48:56] “Not just American Eagle, but all my best trades this year…an underexploited edge in today’s memetic financial markets is growth investing in some narrative that will become the one note of the internet that day.” — Threadguy quoting base16Z

• Memetic markets and real markets are converging, with crypto leading the trend but equities showing similar dynamics (e.g., the Sydney Sweeney–American Eagle trade).

  • [49:15] "All my best trades...in today’s memetic financial markets is growth investing in some narrative..." — Threadguy quoting base16Z

7. Everything Becomes a Market: The Broadening of “Tradable” Culture

• As the means for taking and broadcasting financial risk become ubiquitous and frictionless, everything becomes a market, and every event or meme can be traded.

  • [36:01] "We're headed towards a future where the market is the economy...everything is financialized. The biggest winners are the traders—the new athletes." — Threadguy

• Examples include sneakers, sports cards, stocks, NFT mints, celebrity coins, and even Counter Strike skins—all converging into internet “capital markets.”

8. Counterparty (Threadguy Media) and Future Vision

• Threadguy describes his media company, Counterparty, as the bridge between trading and entertaining—an organic blend of content and trading culture.

  • [54:19] “We call it Counterparty…and it’s awesome. I want to trade and talk to the traders…It’s sort of the blend of both. It’s beautiful.” — Threadguy

• Aspires to expand coverage from strictly crypto to all forms of internet markets, from CS:GO skins to sports cards and prediction markets.

  • [56:27] "95% of what we do is crypto, but I want to interview the best Counter Strike skin trader, the best sneaker flipper, the best prediction markets trader...I think all these things become one: the market." — Threadguy

• The long-term thesis: In ten years, “nobody will go public—they will just launch a token,” making all capital markets liquid, accessible, and viral from day one.

  • [57:58] “Nobody will go public in 10 years—they’ll just launch a token...the direct to consumer revolution in finance, but 15 years late.” — Threadguy quoting Vibu

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On generational change:
  • [02:57] “I want to have the conversation about what Gen Z is naturally disposed to…and what parts of crypto those resonate with the most.”
• Trading as cultural standard:
  • [03:52] “My generation…grew up in a world where it is standard to make money in weird niche ways…on the internet amongst Discord, Twitter, and niche communities.”
• Entertainment finance is the next big thing:
  • [30:01] "I like entertainment finance." — Threadguy
• The spectacle of trading:
  • [34:21] “That was the only content for 10 days: what is James Wynn doing?”
• Markets and memetics:
  • [45:36] “What Twitter is for politics and finance…TikTok is for culture. It just is."
• Aspirational trading:
  • [24:17] “The TAM for [Gen Z] that will trade Internet assets is infinite. Infinite.”
• Everything as a market thesis:
  • [36:01] "The traders—the new athletes, man…We are slapping a market on everything."
• Long-term vision for crypto markets:
  • [57:58] “Nobody will go public in 10 years—they’ll just launch a token.”

Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:30–01:25]: Threadguy’s intro and how sneakers/cards led him to NFTs and crypto
• [03:37–06:18]: How Gen Z’s culture of online reselling and trading set the stage for embracing NFTs, meme coins, and crypto
• [14:13–16:42]: Discussion on Gen Z’s split between stability seekers and high-stakes hustlers
• [18:38–21:56]: Why Gen Z gravitates towards open, internet-native capital markets
• [29:04–34:59]: Rise of “entertainment finance”; trading as content and spectacle; comparison to gaming’s evolution
• [41:28–43:38]: The trader as cultural hero; risk-takers as new celebrities
• [43:41–49:15]: Gen Z’s edge in trading memetics, and the convergence of memes and financial markets
• [54:14–57:58]: Threadguy’s vision for Counterparty (the media company) and the unification of all online markets
• [57:58–60:03]: The future: tokens as IPOs, the public nature of internet capital markets

Concluding Thoughts

This episode vividly portrays how Gen Z is redefining the world of finance and crypto, moving away from institutional gatekept models towards a world where everything can become a liquid, public market. Trading, for Gen Z, is as much about culture, content, and spectacle as it is about profits. As the technology matures and generational shifts accelerate, the lines between markets, memes, and media continue to blur—ushering in a new era of "entertainment finance," where every narrative can be traded, and every trader can become a star.

Find Threadguy:

• Twitch: twitch.tv/threadguy (Mon–Fri 12:30pm PST)
• Twitter: @notthreadguy
• YouTube: Threadguy

“I just think we’re right, dude. I really do.” — Threadguy [63:37]