Real combat in the crypto world, Bankless founder beats up Synthetix founder
Su Zhu was also challenged to a fight, but didn't dare to go.Author: Azuma, Odaily Planet Daily
On October 11 local time (October 12 morning Beijing time), Synthetix founder Kain Warwick and Bankless founder David Hoffman engaged in an offline real-life fight in Salt Lake City, Utah.
This match was co-hosted by Permissionless and the fighting live-streaming platform Karate Combat. Permissionless is a cryptocurrency-themed conference co-hosted by Bankless and Blockworks, which offered free tickets to the fighting event to users holding tickets to the conference.
From a marketing perspective, it is easy to understand why David chose to participate; as for Kain, he had previously reached a $500,000 bet agreement with David regarding Bankless's sponsorship (essentially an investment) of his new project infinex.
Around 10:40 Beijing time, both fighters entered the arena. From the player data and the crowd's reaction, Kain appeared to be significantly larger, but David had higher popularity.
At around 10:44, the two officially began fighting. The match lasted two rounds, and excluding the breaks, it was not long, finishing at 10:52 in less than 8 minutes, but the match was described as "full of ups and downs."
In the first round, both fighters appeared relatively cautious at first. The stronger Kain (in white pants) had a slight advantage, at one point overwhelming David (in black pants).
However, entering the second round, perhaps due to David's more specific advantages, he managed to knock Kain down twice and ultimately secured victory in the match.
The duel between these two well-known figures in the industry attracted widespread attention from the market. In addition to a large number of community users cheering for both fighters in the live-streaming channel (the cheering style in the crypto world is also unique, with someone shouting "You're about to get liquidated" when one side is knocked down…), the prediction market Polymarket opened a betting pool on their duel as early as September 24, and as of the publication of this article, the trading volume in that pool had approached $60,000.
From historical data, Kain Warwick, who has long cultivated the persona of a "fighting maniac," consistently had higher odds, with pre-match win probability predictions exceeding 60%.
As early as August this year, Kain had invited his "old rival" Su Zhu to a fight, but the latter declined.
Odaily Note: The conflict between Kain and Su Zhu has a long history; back in 2021, when Su Zhu announced his abandonment of Ethereum, the two had a dispute on X.
Before the match began, Kain had posted a photo of his physique yesterday, stating that he had completed the weigh-in and was ready for battle. This fighting spirit also encouraged Kain's supporters on Polymarket.
In contrast, David seemed to be a man of few words—although he did not post a photo of his muscles, he stated on X: "Everyone overlooks the fact that I have more fighting experience and training time."
The final result proved that David was not boasting; he took home the victory, and David's supporters on Polymarket achieved a stunning comeback. (The author personally made a small profit of 5 U and can now go for the next meme coin.)
After the match, David also gave a victory speech and announced that he would review the fight next Monday, indicating that he now had the capital to boast for a year.
