These are the Bear Market Benefits, and the Future of NFTs: DappRadar CEO (Interview)

DappRadar has quickly become one of the most popular resources for decentralized applications. Positioned as a peerless, actionable, as well as multichain data aggregator on a wide selection of NFT collections, dApps, DeFi projects, and so forth, DappRadar has grown into a widely used destination for many industry participants.

CryptoPotato had the chance to speak to Skirmantas Januškas – the CEO and co-founder of DappRadar – on a range of topics spanning from the non-fungible tokens hype play-to-earn, DeFi, the ongoing bear market, and many others.

The Crypto ‘Aha!’ Moment: CryptoKitties

Skirmantas co-founded DappRadar together with Dunica Dragos Valentin but their story started long before that, as they knew each other for over ten years prior to starting DappRadar.

Both of them have development backgrounds – Skirmantas used to do back-end, while Dragos used to do front-end development. They met online and started working on some “little projects” here and there. This is where things get more interesting.

Probably seven or eight years ago, Dragos kept pinging me to do something with Bitcoin. He got into Bitcoin much earlier than I got into crypto, in general. During these few years, I had the same understanding of crypto as probably the majority of people nowadays – you know, “I don’t get it, looks shady, I don’t understand it – I don’t touch it.

He said that it took him probably four or five years since he first heard about Bitcoin to really understand the power of the blockchain.

That happened when CryptoKitties – in 2017 – they launched and went through the roof on high volumes. And then, at that point in time, being a back-end developer, I thought I need to start understanding what smart contracts are really about.

Skirmantas shared that this was his “Aha!” moment – one that he described as “mindblowing.” He was looking at blockchain from a very simplistic perspective and imagined a straightforward yet powerful concept – fixing transparent verifiability within online poker.

Now that he and Dragos clicked on the power and potential of blockchain, the idea for DappRadar was born. Interestingly enough, it took them three to four days from the time the idea was born to develop the first version of DappRadar and put it online. He shared they received over 5,000 users overnight. Since then, they’ve expanded to a team of around 80 people, having hired 30 this year alone.

NFTs Are Definitely Here to Stay

Despite the decline in both interest, volume, and valuation in some of the most popular NFT projects, Skirmantas is bullish on the industry as a whole and believes they are definitely here to stay.

What is more, non-fungible tokens were one of the biggest on-ramps to the cryptocurrency field, in general, as they onboarded thousands of people who got in search of the next BAYC project. Even though many of them got burned, Skirmantas argues that this was a big deal for the industry in general.

A big difference between those who joined because of NFTs and those who joined because of SHIB and other coins is that when you want to buy SHIB – you go to a centralized exchange, put some fiat in the account, and buy the token – this has quite literally nothing to do with blockchain at that point of time. That’s because all your tokens are sitting on a spreadsheet with Binance.

Whereas, with NFTs, you have to have a wallet, you need to put some crypto in it, to learn how to use MetaMask – that was a massive opportunity that the market had and we saw that again.

He also says that one of the biggest challenges, though, is the lack of information and education, which is why we’re not yet at the point of mass adoption.

‘We Kind of Like the Bear Market’

The elephant in the room is the ongoing crypto winter as prices remain far below their highs. Talking about the similarities and the differences between the situation now and back in 2018, Skirmantas said:

I see that lots of people live this “what bear market? The prices are down but what bear market?” narrative. I think that’s the main difference between 2018 and now.

He shared that he joined when the market was at its peak back in 2017 and 2018 and that his first ETH was bought at close to $1,500, and he saw it go down to the lows. Talking about the current situation, he revealed that it doesn’t affect us and that:

“I would say, we even like it to an extent because that brings some sort of clarity to the industry. It pushes all of the “hype” projects away and those that are backed by nothing away. When these go away, we have a good time building and focusing on projects that are really valuable.”

In addition, unlike some distressed companies in the field, the CEO said they are still hiring.

To find out what are his thoughts on the potential catalyst needed to spark a new bull run, his overall view on the future of the industry, as well as what DappRadar has in store for its users, don’t hesitate to watch the entire video above!