[GUEST ACCESS MODE: Data is scrambled or limited to provide examples. Make requests using your API key to unlock full data. Check https://lunarcrush.ai/auth for authentication information.]

![KevinWSHPod Avatar](https://lunarcrush.com/gi/w:24/cr:twitter::1328652802344833024.png) MR SHIFT 🦁 [@KevinWSHPod](/creator/twitter/KevinWSHPod) on x 54.2K followers
Created: 2025-06-22 18:00:17 UTC

Welcome to the TikTok of Crypto. Hana Is Betting That Users Just Want to Have Fun

In this episode of DROPS, I sit down with Kohei Hanasaka, better known by his nickname Hana, the 25-year-old founder of Hana Network (@HanaNetwork), to unpack the making of what he calls the “TikTok of crypto.”

@0xJeek isn’t just building another app. He’s designing a crypto-native, mobile-first platform that fuses finance, entertainment, and community into one seamless experience. 

It’s part exchange, part live-streaming app, part social game, and all designed to make crypto finally feel like something people want to use, not just something they do to earn or because they're told it's the future.

From Kyoto to Crypto: Why Hana Dropped Out to Chase a Shift

Hana was raised in Japan and was originally on track to become a chemical engineer, but he left university for a conviction. A pivotal moment came when a beloved professor passed away young, prompting Hana to question the traditional “wait-your-turn” approach that defines Japanese career culture. 

“It was a sad thing for me…He told me: the young guys have to be in the paradigm shift—from minor to major,” Hana recalls. “It’s not too early to start something important.”

His first attempt at entrepreneurship came from solving a very local problem: the inability of Japanese citizens to easily convert yen into major cryptocurrencies. Regulation made on-ramping and off-ramping a nightmare, and popular exchanges like Binance and Bybit were out of reach. 

Hana built a workaround that gained traction despite high fees, but the effort was quickly hampered by regulation. Rather than wait on policy reform, he handed the business off and moved to Dubai, where setting up a crypto company was simpler, faster, and frictionless.

This decision marked a turning point both logistically and philosophically. Hana began to see how geography, user experience, and regulation were all interconnected in crypto. If you wanted to build for the world, you couldn’t afford to be stuck in places that weren’t ready for the future.

Why Privacy Failed, and What He Learned From It

Interestingly, Hana Network didn’t begin as an entertainment app. It was originally a privacy protocol and was even selected for Binance Labs’ incubation programme. The team was technically sound, but as Hana realised at a privacy conference, the focus was misplaced.

“At the privacy conference, everyone was talking about technology. No one was talking about users,” Hana says. “Privacy is not a user motivation. It’s a result of usage. It only emerges after liquidity and volume.”

That realisation was so eye-opening, the team pivoted from infrastructure to application. From “build it and they will come” to “build what they already want.”

What Users Actually Want: Crypto That Feels Like Fun

While 2021 was the age of professional traders reading DeFi documentation, 2025 is shaping up to be the era of meme coin speculators, small investors, and mobile-native users who care less about gas fees and more about dopamine.

So what do users want?

“They want fun. They want to share their fun with others,” Hana explains.

Hana Network takes a creator-first approach including features like live-streaming, chatting, tipping, earning, and yield, all directly on mobile. No clunky wallets, no complex onboarding flows. He calls it “Hyper-casual finance,” where you earn without even realising you’ve crossed into Web3.

This isn’t abstract. According to Hana, users have spent up to eight hours a day on early prototypes. “They’re not coming for finance. They’re coming for entertainment. Retail is moving from finance to entertainment to business,” he says.

Building a Frontend, Not a Protocol

Hana believes most of crypto got distracted. Layer 1s, rollups, infra plays, they’re all focused on TPS, decentralisation, and long-term roadmaps. But users don’t care about that.

“Users don’t care about TPS. They don’t care about UX. They care about whether it’s fun. Whether it’s easy. Whether their friends are there.”

Hana Network is inspired by the viral success of platforms like Pumpfun and focused on the ideology that ‘whoever owns the frontend, owns the user. That’s why he’s obsessed with localisation, building teams and communities in Vietnam, Nigeria, and Indonesia instead of just Silicon Valley or Tokyo. He insists that crypto might be global, but adoption has to be regional-first.

Why Hyperliquid Matters: The Builder’s Code Advantage

Hana Network runs on Hyperliquid, a decentralised exchange known for its open “builder’s code” which is an API-like infrastructure that lets anyone plug directly into its liquidity layer.

“It’s like Binance’s API, but fully on-chain,” Hana explains. “You don’t need your own exchange backend. Just plug into Hyperliquid, set up your front end, and you’re ready.”

That openness is why he calls Hyperliquid the “CEX killer.” While centralised exchanges focus on control, Hyperliquid focuses on innovative leverage.

A Vampire Attack on TikTok?

Hana Network doesn’t hide its ambitions. Hana calls it a “vampire attack on the TikTok creator economy.” The idea is to offer something TikTok can’t, from token incentives, real-time community ownership, to the ability to earn from content in ways that Web2 can’t match.

“We can’t beat their data,” Hana admits, “but we can offer tokens, immediate community building, and viral speed.”

At the heart of Hana Network’s product design is a radical simplicity. Wallets are invisible. Onboarding feels like any other mobile app. The user doesn’t even need to know they’re using a blockchain. “My mother can’t find a PWA,” Hana joked. “Every crypto app should be in the App Store.”

“We want to onboard users hyper casually,” he said. That means streaming, chatting, tipping, and earning all have to feel as natural as scrolling Instagram or watching Twitch.

Hana in Three Powers (and One Weakness)

When I asked Hana about his strengths and weaknesses if he were a game character, he said his powers would be flexibility, surprise, and smell. He spoke about his ability to pivot fast and adapt to reality, surprise users with unexpected experiences, and bring a new flavour to crypto.

His weakness?
Brutal honesty. “Sometimes I say what others don’t want to hear,” he shrugs. “That can get me in trouble.”

Final Takeaway: The TikTok-ization of Crypto

If there’s one phrase that lingers after this episode, it’s this: “The TikTok-ization of crypto is coming.”
Not just gamification or earning. But the transformation of crypto into something dynamic, fast, dopamine-filled, and native to the next generation. 

Hana Network isn’t building for OGs. It’s building for the next billion, starting with the first million who just want to have fun.

![](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GuEP0ZnW4AArWbP.png)

XXXXXX engagements

![Engagements Line Chart](https://lunarcrush.com/gi/w:600/p:tweet::1936846721184580092/c:line.svg)

**Related Topics**
[have fun](/topic/have-fun)
[welcome to](/topic/welcome-to)
[drops](/topic/drops)
[tiktok](/topic/tiktok)

[Post Link](https://x.com/KevinWSHPod/status/1936846721184580092)