OURGRASSROOTSCOALITION.

A 25-year career in software development, from web1 to web2 to web3. Marlon discovered Bitcoin in the summer of 2009 and has been crypto-native ever since. He went on to co-found Telos blockchain, served as chair of inspector general for WAX blockchain, and built Starter Labs in DeFi summer 2020. By 2022, Starter Labs had raised $45M+ for 60+ projects and, at its height, was ranked the #1 IDO launchpad by ROI.

During the pandemic, Marlon moved from Miami to Atlanta. In 2022 he founded the Atlanta Blockchain Center, which began as the nation's first physical crypto-only coworking and incubator space. He's a proud Morehouse graduate with a degree in Business Administration, Cum Laude.

A formative chapter shaped what ABC became. In his anonymous era, building relationships in Satoshi's pseudonymous spirit, Marlon befriended a developer, slowly handed him more and more work, and watched him rise to CTO. By March 2022 it collapsed: a series of hacks totaling more than $1.1M. In June 2025 the FBI revealed he was Kim Kwang Jin, a North Korean spy funneling the stolen funds to the regime. The Wall Street Journal documented the arc. The lesson became infrastructure: verified relationships, real-world legitimacy, community-first operating.

In 2026, ABC moved into Atlanta's vibrant West End, closer to where the city's future gets decided. Four years in, the best chapter's the next one.