How a spelling mistake sparked a storm on the US outskirts: a wave of attention from politics to the crypto world

In the US fringe public opinion arena, a seemingly insignificant spelling mistake recently became a trigger point. The story began with an investigative video, ultimately involving Elon Musk and Vice President Vance, and sparked a new experiment in creator monetization within the cryptocurrency world.

A Daycare Fraud Suspicion Sparks Nationwide Attention

Independent investigative journalist Nick Shirley posted a video on social media that quickly went viral. He exposed suspicious operations at a daycare in Minnesota: the facility kept its doors closed during normal business hours, had 99 students listed on the registration, but no trace of any children, yet received $1.9 million in funding from government agencies.

Notably, the daycare’s promotional materials misspelled “learning” as “learing”—this typo subsequently became a symbolic tag for the entire incident. Local residents interviewed said they had lived in the area for 8 years but had never seen any children, further confirming possible fraud at the daycare.

After the video was released, it drew widespread attention across American society. In just two days, the investigative videos accumulated hundreds of millions of views across major social platforms. The full 42-minute investigation video on X alone garnered over a hundred million views.

A Delicate Scene in the US Political Ecosystem

The reason this incident caused such a stir is closely tied to the US political landscape. Minnesota has traditionally been considered a Democratic stronghold, but this pattern is quietly changing in recent years. More critically, the current governor, Tim Walz, was a running mate to Democratic candidate Harris in the 2024 election, and could have become Vice President.

Against this backdrop, Vice President Vance began sharing Nick Shirley’s investigative videos multiple times and publicly praised their value—stating that this investigation’s worth exceeds all the Pulitzer Prize-winning works of 2024. Meanwhile, Elon Musk also followed Shirley’s account and expressed support, jokingly calling the misspelling “learing” the “word of the year.”

This is not just recognition from two American political and business leaders for an investigation; it’s a clever move in the broader political game outside the US—by supporting this investigation, they indirectly criticized their party rivals’ governance capabilities.

Rapid On-Chain Follow-up: From Meme to Creator Tokens

Within the crypto community, the topic’s heat is also rising. On-chain communities quickly seized the “learing” meme element with the most meme potential, creating a meme token on the Solana chain, which once reached a market cap of $3.34 million.

But what’s even more interesting is what happened next. Nick Shirley was found to have issued a personal creator token, $thenickshirley, on the Base chain. An interaction between Coinbase founder Brian Armstrong and Shirley confirmed that this was indeed the journalist’s official token.

As of the latest reports, the creator token’s market cap reached $5.65 million, peaking over $9 million. Even more noteworthy, Shirley has already earned over $40,000 directly through royalties from the token.

Brian Armstrong expressed full support for this phenomenon, believing it demonstrates the potential of content monetization on the Base chain. Shirley later thanked Armstrong, praising the Base and Zora platforms as “legendary” innovations. He even publicly shared his Venmo and crypto addresses on social media, opening multiple channels for supporters to tip.

Deep Reflection: A New Exploration of Creator Economy Outside the US

On the surface, this appears to be a media feast about a political scandal; but from a deeper perspective, it’s a real-world experiment in “creator economy + on-chain content monetization.”

In this experiment, a content creator like Shirley, with strong dissemination power and influence on public issues, does not rely on sponsors, platform revenue sharing, or advertiser income. Instead, they directly leverage decentralized on-chain tools to convert attention into capital.

This case validates not just the speculative question of “how high can this token go,” but addresses a more fundamental issue: can content creators truly monetize on decentralized platforms at lower costs and with higher transparency?

The entire chain of events—from initial social issues, media attention, to innovative financial tools—is building a new creator empowerment ecosystem. This may well be a glimpse into the future evolution of the media and content industries—more creators might bypass traditional distribution and monetization channels, directly engaging with users and markets.