Hall of Flame – Cointelegraph Magazine

Will Clemente III has 680,200 followers on Twitter thanks to his viral crypto analysis content. He co-founded blockchain research firm Reflexivity Research with Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano while still a teenager.

Who is this guy anyway?

Will Clemente III is still only 21 years old, but his keen insights into the industry mean he’s followed by some of the biggest names in crypto and 680,200 others.

But what’s the “III” thing all about?

“Yes, I am a third,” he laughs about his family name.

He explains that he “dropped out of school in August 2021 while in sophomore year to work in crypto.”

Clemente’s decision has paid off, as the 21-year-old now boasts influential industry figures like MicroStrategy co-founder Michael Saylor, Messari CEO Ryan Selkis and Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal among his large follower count.

A bit like a teenage pop sensation being discovered by Simon Cowell, Clemente was originally discovered by Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano, the venture capitalist and podcaster who proposed they start a blockchain research firm together, before Clemente was even legally allowed to take a sip of beer.

“Pomp said, ‘Why don’t we start a research firm?’ so we launched Reflexivity Research in September 2021,” Clemente explains.

Clemente explains that, as he gained an obsession with crypto, he lost a girlfriend — but not before she bought Bitcoin herself, in the hope Clemente “would pretty much shut up about it.” It didn’t work.

“After learning that Bitcoin is probably the thing you want to own most, I became obsessed, and my girlfriend said you need to find a group of people to ramble on [about it], as she was getting sick of it.”

What led to Twitter fame?

Early on, Clemente recognized the importance of grabbing the attention of prominent figures in the crypto industry to get his content out to a wider audience.

“I wrote a report on Bitcoin’s role in the financial system, published it, and tagged all the crypto influencers I knew. Preston Pysh found it, retweeted it, and shouted me out. I owe him credit to go from 300 followers to 3,000 followers,” Clemente says.

After Pysh retweeted Clemente’s report, Pomp stumbled upon it and invited Clemente to be a guest on his podcast – The Pomp Podcast – which boosted his follower count to 5,000.

“From there, it gave me the confidence to go from 5,000 to 10,000, and it just took off after that,” he says. “I owe Preston and Pomp big time.” 

Clemente appears unfazed by the enormous size of his audience online.

“600,000 — it’s just numbers on the screen,” he declares.

That said, he’s even getting recognized on the street these days. 

“When you see people recognize you, that is weird. Four people recognized me, while I was on a walk. That’s when it hit me… this is actually real.”

What to expect on his Twitter?

Clemente tweets almost every day, sharing a combination of crypto-related news and insights and retweeting trusted content from others.

“My Twitter is a combination of Bitcoin and crypto data points, cool data points, different data sources, other research, whether it’s coming from me or others I’m endorsing.”

Clemente doesn’t consider it beneath him to take the free quizzes on crypto exchanges to earn altcoins for himself, either.

Twitter beefs

Mild beef: Bitcoin maxis

Clemente is a polite young man who actively avoids conflicts.

Despite emphasizing his respect for the perspective of Bitcoin maximalists, he has faced criticism from the community after shifting from talking solely about Bitcoin on Twitter.

“I came in as a hardcore Bitcoin maximalist, then I shifted from Bitcoin as the only thing to look at, which is when I started copping it from the Bitcoin maxi community,” Clemente states.

But he was prepared for the backlash and decided it was worth it in the long run.

“I thought I’ll probably take the shit for a month or two, and then it’ll slowly fizzle out,” he says.

Twitter likes?

Clemente says he treats his Twitter feed like a crucial data source and carefully chooses who he follows.

“I follow a little bit of everything, I view my Twitter account as a Bloomberg terminal,” he says.

“I also follow meme accounts for fun I guess amongst the serious stuff,” he says.

He’s a fan of accounts that share on-chain analysis insights, including Dylan LeClair and the lead on-chain analyst for Glassnode, Checkmate.

Predictions?

Clemente isn’t one to get easy likes with big price predictions but anticipates that the price of Bitcoin could reach six figures sometime between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the first quarter of 2025.

According to him, the “market has bottomed on a multi-year view.”

Clemente also believes that the majority of those who are buying Bitcoin at lower prices are in it for the long haul.

“People buying down there aren’t looking to sell at a double, they are looking to hold at a multi-year,” he says.

“We’re going to see major price appreciation over the next two years,” he says.

Clemente says it’s important to consider that countries will “begin to take steps towards moving off of dollar system reliance.”

“If that’s true, in my view, it gives a high probability that they may take at least a small position or conduct a small portion of trade in Bitcoin, given it’s the purest decentralized bearer asset on Earth,” Clemente says.

“Most market participants base their expectations of Bitcoin adoption on the future outlook of the global macroeconomic landscape, but I think people underestimate the geopolitical significance of Bitcoin.”