When, earlier this year, executives at an Ethereum project called Arbitrum joined a business call with a buzzy new investment firm, they didn’t mind that one of the firm’s partners was using a filter to make him look like a cat. (Yes, just like that viral video, but different!) Arbitrum’s delegates, according to people at the meeting, treated the cat as a valued and respected business partner, and proceeded as if nothing was off. 

Indeed, it was ultimately the cat who made the final call—and decided not to invest! 

The “cat” is the pseudonymous identity of “CL,” a popular crypto trader who is a member of eGirl Capital, a recently established investment firm that is staffed and run almost entirely by anonymous cartoon characters.