The San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup Holiday Party

The San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup holiday party in December 2017 was packed with crypto hopefuls.

Bitcoin had just hit nearly $20,000, and Ethereum was holding steady above $700. Under the glow of fluorescent lights and an air of optimism, two young men posed for a photo that would become one of crypto’s most enduring snapshots.

Frédéric Fortier wore an Ethereum sweater, while Mathieu Baril wore a Bitcoin one. Their image landed in a New York Times feature published weeks later under the headline: Everyone Is Getting Hilariously Rich and You’re Not.

The Great Crypto Crash

Weeks later, the market began to crack and experienced one of its steepest declines in history. The 2018 crypto meltdown, dubbed the “Great Crypto Crash,” saw Bitcoin fall over 80% from its all-time high, triggering a broader wipeout across nearly all digital assets.

The downturn began in January, accelerated by regulatory fears, a $530 million hack at Coincheck, and ad bans from Facebook, Google, and Twitter. By December, Bitcoin had dropped to around $3,100, an 84% drawdown from its peak, surpassing the scale of the dot-com collapse.

What Happened to the Duo?

For years, not many knew what happened to the sweater-clad duo. Threads on X sporadically resurfaced the image, with some joking that the Ethereum guy “slow rugged,” while others speculated they had cashed out and disappeared.

But they may be wrong. Fortier is now listed as a co-founder and lead contributor at DerivaDEX, a decentralized derivatives exchange, according to profiles reviewed by Decrypt. He built trading infrastructure at Enigma and helped launch Catalyst, one of the earliest algorithmic crypto platforms, remaining active in the Ethereum ecosystem through multiple boom-and-bust cycles.

Notably, Fortier’s first name was misspelled as “Fredric” in the original New York Times piece, not Frédéric as his LinkedIn profile suggests.

Baril, on the other hand, took a different path. He’s now CEO of Octav, a Web3 analytics startup specializing in on-chain transaction labeling for DAOs, crypto treasuries, and institutional clients. He also teaches treasury strategy at the Crypto Accounting Academy.

“Oh shit, my photo again! Is it the top?” Baril tweeted recently, showing awareness of their past fame.

Legacy of the Photo

Although neither has made a huge deal of their early crypto fame, the legacy of that photo remains. Just two guys in Hodlmoon holiday sweaters during the 2017 euphoria still find their image surfacing in memes, explainer decks, and nostalgic Twitter posts. Some have reworked the iconic photo to reflect the current hype cycle, suggesting new platforms like Pump.fun and Hyperliquid as the new Bitcoin and Ethereum.

Ultimately, their paths reflect an observable split in the crypto space itself: spectacle versus substance. While others vanished, they continued to build.