People come to crypto for many reasons, but they stay for the culture.
Binji Pande isn’t just building partnerships at The Optimism Collective; he’s building bridges—between protocols, communities, and most importantly, people.
Binji’s onchain journey has been more of a wild adventure than a straight line—from the peaks of Nepal, to the beaches of Costa Rica and the busy streets of NY. Charged with partnerships and growth at Optimism, he has been rallying communities from all over crypto’s frontlines with an infectious and optimistic energy that makes everything feel somehow possible.
Binji’s story begins in Nepal, where he was born and raised. At 14, his childhood took an unconventional turn, as he left home to attend a boarding school in Costa Rica through a program that aimed to bridge divides post-World War II by bringing together students from around the globe.
This was no ordinary school—it was a melting pot of cultures, backgrounds, and, crucially, economic statuses, where students often struggled with basic issues like transferring money internationally. This exact struggle was actually Binji’s first exposure to the difficulty of value transfer across borders using traditional rails, planting the early seeds of his future passion for decentralized finance and onchain technology.
Fast forward to his college years, where he dabbled in crypto as a curious economics student, fascinated by the promise of a new kind of financial system. But it wasn’t until he stumbled upon behavioral economics and learned about the deep inefficiencies in traditional incentive structures that his interest in crypto became something more—a calling, maybe.
For Binji, crypto wasn’t just about making a quick buck on a trade; it was about completely rewriting the rules of economic engagement and coordination on a global scale.
His early career saw him diving into product management at Coinbase, where his passion for onchain communities deepened. But it was the ethos of Optimism—an Ethereum L2 protocol focused on rewarding impact over profit and building for the long term—that pulled him in completely. Binji saw in Optimism a rare alignment of values, with a mission that went beyond tech and profits.
It was about fostering collaboration, inclusivity, and a genuinely optimistic vision for the future of Ethereum and beyond.
From day one at OP Labs, Binji’s focus has been on tearing down the walls of tribalism that have historically plagued the crypto space. When, he joined me and Prof Werder on my ZEROPOD podcast last year, he drew parallels between the rivalries in crypto and sports fandoms: fun, energizing, but sometimes petty.
For Binji, the key is channeling that energy positively—celebrating the competition without letting it hinder the broader mission of scaling onchain technology.
You can be rivals with other teams... as long as you don’t stop the game.
One of the biggest themes Binji likes to champion is interoperability—both technical and social. He believes that as the underlying protocols become more modular and interoperable, so too should the cultural layers built on top of them. It’s this spirit of openness and modularity that defines his work at OP Labs and Optimism, where he’s helping drive the vision of the Superchain, an interconnected network of Layer 2 chains designed to make blockchain as seamless and accessible as the internet itself.
For Binji, the overarching goal is simple: help create a blockchain ecosystem that doesn’t just work technically, but that feels alive, human, and connected. “People come to crypto for many reasons, but they stay for the culture,” he says, capturing the essence of why he’s so committed to this space. With each partnership and every initiative, Binji is working to ensure that crypto’s next chapter is one that anyone can be a part of—regardless of which tribe, chain, or subculture they happen to belong to.
To this end, Binji has made waves over this past year with the innovative community-building initiatives that he has spear-headed, like the “We Love The Art” contest in the Spring, (which awarded a total of 1.25M OP tokens as prizes to the winning entries, celebrating the creativity and contributions of artists within the Superchain community) and now The SUNNYs Awards, an upcoming “Onchain Emmys” in collaboration with Chris Carella and Charmverse, designed to recognize and honor outstanding builders of all kinds in the Optimism ecosystem. You can still apply to The SUNNYs for a couple more days HERE.
Binji Pande’s journey is a testament to what’s possible when you blend onchain conviction with unbridled optimism.
And he’s not just betting on the future of onchain; he’s actively building it, one bridge at a time. Get a front-row seat for the action by following him on Farcaster.
If you made it this far, thank you for reading! And if you are enjoying this series, please drop a comment and share it with your network on Warpcast and X. Together, we can make it known that there is no shortage of Very Interesting People on the Purple App!
Binji has been a guest on my podcast about Enjoying Ethereum, ZEROPOD, as reference in today's article, and he was also recently a guest on our "Based Builders" Live stream with Chris Carella, where he spoke about The SUNNYs. I'll embed both of these appearances here below for anyone who wants to give them a watch:
