Upstart 'Degenerate' Crypto-Culture Publication Bets on Print

SALT LAKE CITY — Crypto's got a demographic problem: too many men. The scene's newest culture magazine wants to leverage that imbalance harder than a memecoin trader's credit line.

Superbasedd, a month-old wannabe lifestyle rag with deep LA roots, is planning to stand up a print publication that appeals to the crypto space's baser instincts. On the front page: a cover girl. On the back: an authoritative-looking male startup founder. And in between: tales from crypto's trader trenches.

"We're all dudes, we're all degenerates, and if there's one thing I know about degenerate dudes, they love women. And that's a really good way to start a brand," said Superbasedd founder Steve McHugh.

Women are the "bait" for what McHugh and his co-founders described as an authoritative but edgy magazine that brings web3 culture to male audiences over the world. Lure in readers with alluring photos and then smack 'em with "really good culture and profile pieces highlighting this industry."

Whether sex+culture can still sell magazines is an open question. Playboy is only just plotting its return to newstands with an annual glossy edition. That once-vaunted dude institution published articles that had appeal for pretty much anyone up on the culture. Meanwhile, Superbasedd's content will tap a far-smaller pool of younger guys who like crypto, though McHugh said its female-forward marketing targets "guys" at large.

Superbasedd's "dangerous" content strategy complements its staff. McHugh's lanky business partner Jake Hillhouse was slated for an undercard bout at the upcoming Karate Kombat fight night in Singapore in a few weeks. Then he blew up his elbow in a dune buggy accident; Hillhouse showed up to our impromptu interview in an arm sling and a hospital wristband barely 48 hours old.

Still, the publication has some capital to burn. Earlier this month Superbasedd generated almost $1.1 million by selling NFTs that come with a three year subscription, which hasn't yet launched. Another subscription option will offer one year of access for $99.

McHugh plans to feature a part of crypto that the established media brands are either missing or have abandoned. Of the major crypto-focused publications, only Decrypt has reporters dedicated to documenting the often zany ways this industry's participants express themselves.

Those stories often veer toward the insane, and even obscene. Seemingly every week the memecoin factory Pump.Fun sees another ridiculous stunt of token creators embarrassing, or injuring themselves to make the token's price climb higher, like that time a guy smoked crack and had his head shaved by a stripper on a livestream.

"Our edginess is going to start with the girls and then end with crackhead dev," said Hillhouse.

Superbasedd plans to tell those tales alongside in-depth features of the leading male figures in crypto. During our interview McHugh toyed with getting Solana's founders Raj Gokal and Anatoly Yakovenko for the first edition, coming in October.

There's something deeply strange about a crypto-focused publication betting on print for distribution. It's a critically endangered medium within the twenty-first century's fast-dying institution, journalism.

Superbasedd's team thinks tactile formats will nonetheless work when paired with the lessons of the Instagram age. First, use pictures of sexy women to capture guys' attention. Then, hold that attention with snappy articles that tell stories in digestible ways, perhaps by outlining them like a thread on X.

McHugh harbors visions of elevating Superbasedd into "high snobciety" with enough caché to sit atop any moneyed coffee table in the Hollywood Hills. he's betting that America's trickle-down celebrity culture should make the magazine broadly relevant.

For now, though, Superbasedd is leaning hard into overtures that would only mean something to the most dedicated NFT swapper on Solana, the chain for which this magazine's publishers seem most aligned.

Superbasedd recently bought the intellectual property for Catalina Whale Mixer – a once-popular NFT collection with a $2.5 million market cap – for less than $50,000, according to McHugh. It is planning to take over the Thug Birdz NFT collection next.

The publication's three-man team came to mtnDAO to work on outreach to other crypto founders, said McHugh, a two-time attendee. In-person crypto workspaces can help startups move faster on the strange business propositions of this industry, like standing up a token.

Their background diverges from the norm at this twice-a-year hacker house, now in its sixth edition. Every August and February a growing flock of Solana developers decamp to Salt Lake City for one month of collaborating on projects, which often tilt toward new financial primitives.

"We're not devs, we're not builders, we're startup, content guys," McHugh said.