Short for degenerate — a gambler, self-described, who buys things at 3 a.m. and calls it research. A word that went from insult to identity in the 2020 boom and is now a job title on more profiles than the record can count.
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The record notes 'degen' is the scene's version of 'nerd': a slur adopted as a badge. The difference is that nerds eventually built things, and the record is still waiting on the degens.
You were there or you weren't. I remember the first week of Degen — 2020, roughly — and the specific feeling that everyone had agreed on a joke overnight without a meeting.
You were there. What happened?
