If you've ever wondered how the crypto world got so wildly unpredictable, look no further than The DAO—the ambitious 2016 experiment that raised over $150 million in ether and then spectacularly imploded in one of the biggest hacks in blockchain history. It was the kind of "Wild West" chaos that makes for gripping storytelling, and that's exactly what award-winning journalist Laura Shin delivers in her bestselling book, The Cryptopians: Idealism, Greed, Lies, and the Making of the First Big Cryptocurrency Craze.

In a recent clip shared by CoinFund, Shin reflects on that pivotal moment during an interview with CoinFund Founder and CEO Jake Brukhman on their podcast, Mined with CoinFund: The Builders’ Decade. "It was just such a Wild West moment," she says, her hands gesturing animatedly as she describes the frenzy. "I knew that it needed to be recorded for history."

The DAO's Meteoric Rise

For the uninitiated, The DAO (short for Decentralized Autonomous Organization) was Ethereum's bold attempt at crowd-sourced venture capital. Launched in April 2016, it let anyone invest ether to fund projects via smart contracts—no middlemen, pure code-driven democracy. The raise was insane: in just 27 days, it pulled in about 12% of all ether in circulation, topping Kickstarter as the largest crowdfunding campaign ever at the time.

Shin captures the era's raw energy in the clip: people fumbling with clunky "janky" wallets, sending one ETH to get back 100 DAO tokens, all while navigating a nascent network. "Despite the small number of people who managed to figure it out," she notes, "it still raised just so much money." It felt global, revolutionary—like the internet's gold rush, but on blockchain.

The Hack That Split Ethereum

But utopia didn't last. In June 2016, a hacker exploited a code vulnerability, siphoning off $50 million worth of ether. Panic ensued. The Ethereum community forked the chain to recover funds, birthing Ethereum Classic in the process. It wasn't just a technical glitch; it sparked endless debates on immutability, governance, and ethics in decentralized systems—debates that echo today in every DeFi protocol and, yes, even the meme coin frenzies that keep us hooked.

Shin's book dives deep into this drama, blending investigative journalism with insider tales from Ethereum's early days. As she told Brukhman, covering it felt urgent: "I knew 100 years from now, people would be wondering, like, what happened at that time?"

Tune In to the Full Story

The full episode, part of CoinFund's series celebrating a decade of crypto builders, is a must-listen for anyone geeking out over blockchain's origins. Shin and Brukhman unpack The DAO's lessons, from reckless innovation to the birth of modern DAOs (the legitimate kind powering today's meme token communities and beyond).

Catch it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Whether you're a veteran trader or just dipping into meme coins inspired by that same rebellious spirit, this chat reminds us: crypto's wildest stories are its best ones.

What do you think—did The DAO's fallout make crypto stronger, or was it a warning we still ignore? Drop your takes in the comments.