Strike Raises Money Again To Contribute To Bitcoin With More Watermarked Gifs

Disruptive KYC Bitcoin exchange Strike has announced that they would be raising $200m in a Series D fundraising round, in order to hire memers to make watermarked gifs and memes on all the platforms. "It's the beginning of the bull market, and we need all Bitcoin related gifs on all social media platforms to have the Strike watermark on them," Jack Mallers said on CNBC discussing the companies raise. The company hired memers to tag their watermarks everywhere last bull market, before laying them off to focus on building a real product. "I told our investors that this hill is worth dying on. Memers are worth $200m easily. I will die on this hill because this cycle will be different," he continued. Investors were reported to have asked Mallers, "Why does Strike needed such a big round for this endeavor?" Mallers responded with, "do you know how many French fries Greg Zaj eats?"

Mallers has shown that he is a master marketer, and his public comments will likely have other Bitcoin related companies competing to hire memers in order to watermark gifs. The influencer market is becoming increasingly commoditized following Bitcoin Magazine's announcement of an influencer clearing house allowing companies to bid to buy influencers. While the clearing house initially was going to have a focus on thinkboy podcasting influencers, it seems like it's expanding to other types of influencers, including memers and clubhouse influencers. In anticipation of companies pursuing the services of memers, different meme gangs are shifting operation to resemble unions for memers, with the Meme Factory being described as the, "Teamsters of Bitcoin meme gangs." Many are fearful of what it could look like if memers strike en masse at the peak of the bull market over pay and benefits.

Memers like Dan Held and East Side Tony have expressed concern about watermarking memes, suggesting that memes should be easy for individuals to steal and claim it to be their own work. "If memes are all watermarked, how will I be able to get Twitter engagement," Held whined on a Twitter space. Others are concerned that this will give Greg Zaj and the Meme Factory way too much power. An anonymous source reached out to the bugle to share a concern that, "This means Gregzaj and rd_btc will be able to start their efforts of vandalizing bitcoin Twitter again."

Strike moving into the business of watermarking memes is great for memers who have been seeking to work in the industry, yet will cause disruptions for other influencers who have been reliant on utilizing memers memes. Whether or not the company will be able to achieve the $200m raise during a time where it seems like VCs are running out of money is unknown.