Crypto Kid’s Efe Kelemci on Gen Z, Money, and Bitcoin

We met Efe Kelemci, co-founder of Crypto Kid, during Bitcoin MENA in Abu Dhabi, where he spoke on the panel “The Gen Z Awakening” (Proof of Work Stage, Tuesday, December 9, 2025, 3:00–3:30 pm), alongside Madeline Morning (Moderator), Rohan Hirani (BitcoinQuant), and Fin Creighton (Bitcoin Success School).

Kelemci is a teen Bitcoiner, macro analyst, and educator who started exploring crypto at 12 while still in school in the UAE. Today, he helps run Crypto Kid, a channel that’s grown into a community of more than 100,000 followers combined.

A few days after the conference, we sat down in Efe’s studio at The Moon’s office in Dubai Media City for an audio interview. What follows is an edited, narrative-style Q&A, built from that conversation.

Listen to the full interview (audio): You can also hear the complete conversation on our YouTube channel here: https://youtu.be/QyopSq4_UlM

From musical theatre to markets

Before crypto, Kelemci’s world revolved around performance. He was a musical theatre and voice actor from a young age, and he loved the adrenaline of being on stage.

He also noticed something early: creative work was demanding, and often financially uncertain.

He recalls looking at friends pursuing drama school and auditions, working hard but not getting paid well. That pushed him to think differently. If he wanted long-term independence, he would need “a business, an income, the capability of investing and producing.”

Then the pandemic hit, and everything paused.

With shows stopped, he started searching YouTube for finance videos, curious about how to invest the money he had made from voice acting. That led him to macro voices and crypto research, and to the moment that pulled him into the rabbit hole.

He discovered technical analysis, and for him it felt like the first “real” skill he could learn and apply immediately.

By 13, he says he was spending serious time studying charts after school. And because Dubai had an active crypto scene, he started attending meetups and conferences, often as the youngest person in the room.

That’s where the shift happened.

Why money is the missing subject in school

Kelemci’s obsession with Bitcoin wasn’t just about price. It was about the question most people never ask until much later: what is money, really?

In his view, it’s strange that society pushes everyone toward earning money, yet rarely teaches how money works.

He credits part of his curiosity to his family environment. His father worked in the FMCG sector and would talk about the economy and global events, which helped Efe build context and ask deeper questions.

When he did, he didn’t like what he found.

For him, that’s the point where Bitcoin stopped being “an investment” and became a lens on the world.

Bitcoin as an “education tool” beyond finance

One of the most interesting parts of the conversation was how he describes Bitcoin as something bigger than money.

He claims learning Bitcoin helped him understand political and philosophical concepts too, from free-market principles to the difference between economic schools of thought.

His message is not just for young people, but also for parents.

How he’d explain Bitcoin to a complete beginner

If he had to explain Bitcoin to a 16-year-old who has never invested, Kelemci wouldn’t start with blockchain jargon. He’d start with questions.

His point is simple: Bitcoin looks “obvious” only after you understand the problem.

He also framed it in a way young people instantly understand, using the cultural reference of “the Matrix,” that moment where you choose to see the system clearly.

Gen Z, digital money, and the freedom question

Kelemci believes younger generations are naturally more open to innovation, because they didn’t grow up locked into one “default” worldview.

At the same time, he’s skeptical that most Gen Z investors truly understand what they’re buying.

When the conversation moved to digital money, he made a clear distinction between systems that are merely digital, and systems that are permissionless.

His core belief is that access to finance should not be conditional on identity or beliefs.

His Bitcoin outlook for 2026 and beyond

Kelemci follows cycles, but not in a simplistic way. He argues Bitcoin’s supply schedule matters, but that altcoins behave differently because their dynamics are tied more directly to liquidity and broader business cycles.

On Bitcoin for 2026, he expects volatility, but also sees macro conditions potentially reducing the chance of a deep 2021-style collapse.

For major altcoins, his base case is higher prices, but later.

Dubai’s influence: optimism, entrepreneurship, and speed

Kelemci grew up in the UAE, living in Sharjah before spending the past years in Dubai. He says the environment mattered.

For him, Dubai’s visible transformation over time reinforces a belief that rapid progress is possible, and he draws a parallel with crypto’s short history.

What he wants to build next

Despite a large audience, Kelemci says most of his viewers are older than he is.

That’s what he wants to change: more youth-focused content, possibly more short-form, mixing entertainment and education.

His advice to young people starts with fundamentals: invest in skills first.

And his definition of success has matured too.

One piece of advice for young people feeling financially lost

Kelemci ended on a message that felt less like finance, more like mental health.

Money matters, he says, but it’s not the whole story.

This article was originally published as Crypto Kid’s Efe Kelemci on Gen Z, Money, and Bitcoin on Crypto Breaking News – your trusted source for crypto news, Bitcoin news, and blockchain updates.