Realm of the Coin

In a financial system upended by cryptocurrencies and meme stocks, where value is detached from utility and the loudest voice gets richest, ZOË BERNARD tours a brave new world in Bel Air that is part Bravolebrity, part Wolf of Wall Street, and all casino

- By ZOË BERNARD

On a recent afternoon in otherwise sleepy Bel Air, where multimillion-dollar mansions disappear behind walls of tangled bougainvillea, two security guards, handguns at their hips, pace before a tall black gate, keeping watch over a cutting-edge social experiment: the marriage of influencer culture and meme coin speculation.

Inside, caterers pass out coconuts to Love Island cast members who lounge in glittering bikinis, prepping to film sponsored content. Everyone is beautiful, bronzed, and carefully composed for the camera. At the head of a long table sits Jade Watson, a redheaded content producer, drafting a prediction-markets-for-dummies campaign based on the long-term romantic prospects of the reality show's couples: Buy, hold, or sell?

“What we’re doing is simplifying trading terms,” Watson says. “But we’re using the language Gen Z already speaks.”

Downstairs, in a room of wall-to-wall windows overlooking dusty canyons sloping out to the Los Angeles skyline, four traders sit before massive monitors. The screens are filled with charts and numbers. It looks like a tiny Wall Street trading floor with a patio bar and infinity pool attached. Webcams are fixed on the traders, livestreaming to an invisible online audience. There’s a DJ. Welcome to Meme House LA.

While the reality stars upstairs possess the hyperreal beauty bestowed by an Instagram filter, these traders look like regular people. But they, too, are participants in a reality show: a 24/7 livestream about themselves—the meme coin traders live in a mansion that reportedly sold two years back for some $18 million. The goal of the project is to turn each of these traders into what is called a KOL, or key opinion leader: an influencer who moves markets. One of the most famous KOLs was Roaring Kitty, the red-headband-wearing YouTuber who made millions rallying his followers, like Reddit’s r/wallstreetbets, to invest in Gamestop.