You'll Never Know What It's Like to Trade Against Plumbers
Summary
• On August 11, Frank DeGods joked that crypto veterans used to trade against “plumbers,” referring to regular retail traders who would finish work and buy into crypto.
• The comment sparked a wider argument about whether traders from earlier crypto cycles had it easier, with people debating the competition and risks of that era while the “plumber” joke spread across CT.
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Plumber started with a discussion about how difficult crypto trading was in earlier cycles. On August 11, Frank DeGods joked that crypto veterans were once trading against “plumbers,” meaning regular retail traders buying crypto after finishing work.
Threadguy then added to the discussion on stream. He argued that some legendary traders from that period were competing in an easier market and claimed they would struggle against today's traders. That sparked pushback over whether the 2017 era was actually easier.
Agent Chud defended the older era. He agreed there were fewer tokens and more chances to get into things early, but pointed to the large number of scams and other ways traders could lose money. Based16z also mocked the idea that crypto veterans simply had easy competition.
The argument quickly became a plumber meme. Cobie posted a meme set in a plumbing school where the characters were deciding what to buy, and Pattyice posted a cartoon plumber as a joke about being part of the 2017 class.
Dior replied to Cobie’s post and suggested seeing old crypto traders and newer traders compete on the Plumber chart, while describing the token as a spontaneous narrative that came directly from CT.
Plumber launched on August 11 as the plumber joke was spreading across CT, reaching an ATH of $5.51M within 24 hours.