The Wassie is a round-headed, wide-beaked, webbed-footed platypus-duck abomination beloved by Crypto Twitter. While the creature has become a mascot in the community, very few understand the origin of it—its appearance, name, creators, and the lore that developed alongside it. This article explains the origins of this mysterious creature within the crypto scene, some of its most notable lore, and its allure as a representation of crypto enthusiasts everywhere.

Emergence of the Wassie

The Wassie first made its appearance on Crypto Twitter sometime in 2017. Twitter user Maru (@wasserpest) is credited with the discovery of an art piece by Japanese artist Tukinowa Gamo (@tukinowagamo [NSFW]), and christening the creature as a “wassie”, derived from his Twitter handle @wasserpest, meaning waterweed in German. Without insight from the user himself, it is difficult to identify which piece Maru first identified with, but it is clear that Tsukino had been drawing the wassie protoplast since at least 2016, when he posted a Pokemon Go meme featuring ‘a funny looking penguin’ in a derelict, and seemingly abandoned building—this is likely the first time the wassie protoplast that was ever posted online.

Maru first used the term as a nickname on Twitter in early 2018 and explained the relation of the nickname to Tsukino’s critter on January 2nd, 2019.

Maru and his Twitter circle are credited with the initial lore development and popularization of the “wassie” within the crypto twittersphere. smolting (originally known as @cryptostardust, now @inversebrah) is one such member of the aforementioned Twitter circle, adopting the Wassie as their persona sometime in 2019, and is now often regarded as the “face” of Wassies. While the Wassie steadily gained popularity amongst Twitter users since it’s formation in 2019, it was still relatively underground, with only a few tweets referencing the critter gaining any heavy traction from early 2019 to late 2020—this would soon change with a series of events in mid-2021 boosting the Wassie’s popularity to unprecedented heights.

Wassie Goes Worldwide

In August 2021, the August/September 2021 issue of Fortune magazine, “Crypto vs. Wall Street” was released, featuring an illustration of the Wassie on its cover. This was likely the Wassie’s first official appearance outside of Twitter. This also may have been when the original artist, Tsukino Wagamo, became aware of the Wassie meme, as he first referenced the meme on his primary Twitter account on September 3rd 2021, and later posted the exact issue of Fortune magazine eight days later on a secondary account directly referencing the Wassie (@GamoWassie).

The following July, loomdart (@loomdart), creator of the loomlocknft project (@loomlocknft) was faced with a problem. He had the concept of a lock business that had been rummaging around in his brain for a few years, and wanted to bridge it into reality with another concept for expanding NFTs into kickstarting real-life products. The issue was that production of hardware is something that takes time, and he wanted to provide something to engage the contributors until the physical locks were ready. So, he decided to bring Wassies into the fray, bringing Tsukino into the light and helping cement Wassies as a mascot beyond the crypto community.

The Lore of the Wassie

Wassies are the result of a terrible radioactive incident. Not much is known about them, only that they seem to keep multiplying and only have a short lifespan of fourteen days. While initially they were treated as cool pets, people soon realized they were truly good for nothing. They are foul, disgusting creatures that leave a horrible stench when they’re gone.

Wassies are commonly believed to weigh a few grams each and reportedly nest in cold stark environments, such as the fridge of your average Crypto Twitter user. A spiritual descendent of the lemming, the Wassie is naturally a bit braindead as well as suicide-prone—however, the Wassies also exist as a part of a hivemind, and grow more and more intelligent with each cycle of Wassies birthed. They can be ritually sacrificed to pump or dump your token of choice. They can also alternatively be fried, sautéed, baked, sous vided, or frozen solid to be used as a bottle opener.

The Lure of the Wassie

Twitter is home to hundreds of artists, and hundreds more doodles of funny little creatures like Tsukino’s work—what makes the Wassie so popular? Frankly, it’s funny looking. It’s pathetic. There’s even a Wassie Abuse Manual (WAM) out there. Is it good at trading? It’s a duck (probably)—it doesn’t know what trading is (even though it seems to have an effect on the market).

But it’s a mastermind. A crypto prodigy. The Wassie is an enigma. It contradicts itself, but as Walt Whitman says, to contradict yourself is a necessary side effect of being so colossal. Its origin is even contradictory—despite being created by a man who largely illustrates beautiful anime women—it is stinky, unshapely, and completely unerotic. However, there’s something lovable about it nonetheless. Namely, it’s relatable. After all, there’s a reason why so many chose to adopt it as their online identity—from Tsukino himself labelling the little animal with his username way back in 2016, to Maru adopting and redubbing it in 2018, and even to smolting taking on the Wassie mantle today (his Wassie being the Eve to Maru’s Wassie Adam). The Wassie isn’t an animal native to any real world biome—it is a creature of the internet, and aren’t we all?

Links

https://twitter.com/tukinowagamo/status/754286781218983937?s=20
https://twitter.com/wasserpest/status/961760961492287488?s=20
https://twitter.com/wasserpest/status/1080598860219760640?s=20 https://twitter.com/tukinowagamo/status/1433705943917744129?s=20 https://twitter.com/GamoWassie/status/1436692468775337991/photo/1 https://twitter.com/bryptotrader/status/1173981234629734401?s=20
https://twitter.com/wasserpest/status/1407188738418094080?s=20

– ellie