Crypto on Campus

Opyn: building DeFi-native derivatives and options infrastructure in DeFi

Meet Regan O’Malley: USC senior, crypto newbie, and community at Opyn.

Regan got involved in crypto after her close network pulled her in. Coming from a traditional business background and heading towards Markets Analysis at JP Morgan Chase, she’s launched into crypto in the past few months. After gaining over 6,000 Twitter followers nearly overnight, helping launch Astro Girls, and working part-time in Community at Opyn, she’s looking towards crypto as the future, potentially exploring roles in community, education, or VC.

We dive into the importance of introducing yourself, transitioning to crypto without a formal background, and using the Twitter crypto community.

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Eve #WealthWednesday Highlight #33: Regan O’Malley, Community - Opyn

What was your first investment?

It was my Intro to Finance class at USC where the professor said, “I'm going to make you read the Wall Street Journal every morning.” It's such a great habit to get into.?

We learned about her portfolio of investments. I remember just divesting and diversifying. And I thought to myself, maybe I'll just throw in $500 in ETFs. That was a lot for me, as a college student, but I wanted to passively investigate that. I thought to myself, it's really beginner friendly. And especially back then, I was a lot more risk-averse. I like to take risks, but educated ones. And so when I'm less educated, I'll just go with risk averse choices.?

And then it was actually a friend who sent me crypto as a gift when it was low. He sent me to Ethereum a couple of years ago.?

Coinbase and Robinhood were my first platforms. So those were my two first investments, which I was either passively managing or fumbled.

How/why did you get into your space?

That's a great question. I had no idea how Discord works. I just created it and joined it and I just wrote something like “Hi, I'm Regan. I'm a senior at USC. I'm about to graduate. I don't know anything about blockchain.” It was thekindeagle who was like, “Hi, feel free to reach out for a one-on-one if you want to chat.” So firstly, someone responding to me was huge. I wasn't in it enough, even with my brother directing me to have taken the leap, but I didn't realize you can reach out. So I had an audio call with him and theyoungcrews that day. They convinced me to make a Twitter. I just had four followers. But you need a crypto Twitter to learn. I went to bed posting this little tweet like, “Hey, to my four followers, tweeting is so awkward, but I'm so glad my four followers are in Web3 with me” or something like that. And I went to a business development meeting the next day, and I was just sitting in the meeting, listening, about to introduce myself. And I got a DM from kindeagle and he's like, “Hey, did you realize you're blowing up on Twitter?” You've got 300 followers. I was like, what? And that's how it started.?

But now in Index, my role is more low touch because I'm doing a lot of things. But I help out a lot with women and index and that community. The community is why I'm here. And it's so it's so valuable. Whether you're low touch or high touch or full-time in a DAO. It's so valuable. And I know for me personally, I come from a finance background. It’s an easy pipeline for me to be here. The stars aligned for me to be here. So hopefully it will be easier for people to get onboarded, but I got so lucky.

What role do you play in the wealth space and why is it important?

I remember speaking with someone who was early, like 2018. She was in college and she was saying, there were no resources out there. Like nothing on the internet that you could find about wallets and stuff that we now take for granted, But I still kind of realized to myself, yes, there's a lot of information, but a lot of it's not digestible and not a lot of it is where, even if they're able to read it, they may not have actionable steps to take after it. There needs to be a proper pipeline or a proper setup where people feel like they either have a community or a support system to actually get involved. And so I think that's what I've wanted my Twitter to be. I've always tried to keep my DMs up and sometimes I get overwhelmed, but I try to respond to everyone that I can. I try to point people in the right direction. I write to synthesize hard topics because I always say, I'm not a dev. So I just want to make it friendly and fun, but also I always am envious of people that love to read. I'm trying to get more back into it, but I have a short attention span. So I thought to myself, when I was learning about all this. I was like, gosh, this is a lot of words. What if I can make this a little easier to read? The value that I've been able to add to the space or cultivate because of the incredible people that I've met and that have mentored me has been really incredible. So many people have just become incredible friends of mine. And they really have just pushed me to try new things and to constantly just be honest and vulnerable on my Twitter. It's been a really great experience.

What do you believe is the most exciting thing you’ve learned and want others to know?

I think the most exciting thing that I've learned is that when you imagine the world around you, it also can be the world in which you create here. And so often I felt things were inaccessible to me. When I was 18 I picked business, almost arbitrarily. And then my school was really focused on banking so I've learned banking technical skills.?

When I entered web3, I felt like what I had could not really be transferable and I truly do believe the best thing that I've learned is that every single person can bring up a sense of value into the space in very different ways. The way I add value or that you add value are different. The way that anyone adds value is different. It may be on the influence level or not at all. Some people who I know are some of the most incredible people in the space have zero Twitter presence or they don't write or they aren't hosting Twitter spaces.?

I think there is a space for a lot of people, because I think there's just so much room for creativity, for growth and for ideas. And I think people are really bullish on ideas in the space. Come as you are. Because, yes, you can learn skills to help you actually optimize it, like learning about DAOs. Yes, their background can or can not help, they may use or not. But I think it's people. I think people are so much more capable than we give ourselves credit for. And we know a lot more or we're able to learn more than we give ourselves credit for. So long story short, constantly learning and constantly realizing that I'm not defined by my formal education. As much as someone who did not graduate college is not defined by their lack of thereof.

Who is a person or company that inspires you in the space and why?

she256. They're a group of girls who were talking about web3 before anyone else had before. They do this incredible mentorship program. And I think that they're just really incredible with their work. They have helped onboard so many women into the space. I take so much inspiration from that. I think that they're just incredibly inspiring. I love the work they do.?

And another one is crypto besties. They are really incredible. I love their idea. They’re actually raising right now. They will be a makeup brand. I think that they are fun and they give this space where you can be whoever you want to be and help, however you want to contribute. So those two.?

What advice would you give to someone getting started?

Introduce yourself. I know it can be hard for people because it does put you in a vulnerable position. Like sometimes you're going to be in the introductions channel of a DAO and we're reaching out to someone's DMs and people may not say anything and it's not a great feeling. But introduce yourself, reach out to people, say hi to schedule one-on-ones because there is a wealth of really incredible people in the space. More than there are bad actors.?

Unless they really don't have time, for the most part, we'll respond. Especially in a DAO setting. Just introducing yourself because it puts you in that position where it humanizes you and humanizes people that you talk to. It's like the best way to start without even really starting. Everyone knows how to introduce themselves. Everyone knows how to say hi and maybe one little paragraph, like I'm a student, I do this, I'm that, I'm just excited. I'm excited about this. I'd love to learn more about that. And you may have to reach out to someone like, “Hey, I hear that you do a lot of marketing in this DAO, do you have 15 minutes to chat.” And if a DAO keeps not being receptive that doesn't mean that you don't work. It means that that's just not the place for you. And that they should probably improve their onboarding,?

But just introduce yourself. That's the biggest thing.

Anything else we should know? How can we stay connected?

Yeah - my Twitter, I post updates about what I'm up to. I have a Medium and a Mirror where I went along with my really good friend, Alli. We're doing this fem3 interview series, which is all about interviewing powerful women in this space on Twitter Spaces and then doing a write-up on our mirror about the women. And then I also am helping launch an NFT project dedicated to onboarding women into the space called Astro Girls. You can follow them on Twitter. And in general, the best way to follow up is wherever I have any kind of social handle, particularly Twitter, or my Discord or Telegram. I'm always available to reach out to, and I like to talk, so I will be talking a lot in the next coming weeks and months.?

Have thoughts on this week’s topic or questions for me or Regan O’Malley? Post your thoughts in the comment section. Until next week. ??

You can connect with Regan on LINKEDIN

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