“Jihoz” is the community name used by Jeffrey Zirlin, a co-founder associated with Axie Infinity and Ronin. He is a different person from Nguyen Thanh Trung, the Sky Mavis co-founder who is also known as Trung and served as the company’s CEO. Older Axie team material described Zirlin as a growth lead; a 2025 OpenSea interview identifies him as a co-founder of Axie Infinity and Ronin. This page avoids assigning him a current company title that recent official pages do not clearly confirm.
Identity and Role
Axie Infinity’s team page separates Trung Nguyen, the company’s CEO, from Jeffrey Zirlin, also called Jihoz, who was responsible for growth and community development in that profile. This distinction matters because some summaries incorrectly conflate the two co-founders. Zirlin’s public work has focused on community, growth, product direction, and game-related storytelling rather than being described as the sole technical developer of Axie.
Axie Infinity and Ronin
Axie Infinity is a blockchain game in which players collect and use Axie creatures represented by NFTs. The game’s economy has included tokens such as AXS and SLP, and Ronin was developed as a network optimized for gaming activity. Zirlin’s 2025 interview with OpenSea describes Ronin’s early app-focused strategy and the later presence of other games and applications. Axie’s player activity, token prices, and revenue have changed substantially across market cycles; peak-era metrics are historical and should not be presented as current.
Scholarships and Play-to-Earn
During the 2021 boom, some Axie owners lent game assets to players through informal or guild-managed “scholarship” arrangements, often dividing token rewards. The model lowered some up-front barriers but exposed players to NFT and token prices, game-rule changes, and the risk that reward income would fall. The public evidence reviewed here does not establish that Zirlin personally designed the entire scholarship system. It is safer to describe it as a community practice that grew around the game.
Criticism and Context
Axie participants debated how the team communicated about SLP supply, token incentives, and changes to the game economy. Those are legitimate product and governance topics, but Reddit comments are anecdotal and often reflect a particular price or gameplay moment. A criticism of a policy or a public post should not be treated as proof of an individual’s intent, and the game’s collapse-era financial losses should not be generalized to every player.
Social Media Sentiment
A September 2021 r/AxieInfinity thread shows sharply divided reactions to Jihoz’s public communication: some users criticized its tone and how player concerns about SLP were addressed, while others argued that development timelines and market pressures were difficult. It is one older, highly engaged discussion—not a representative survey or a statement about his character. Read the cited Reddit discussion.
Last updated: 2026-10
Related Terms
See Also
- NFTs and Digital Game Ownership: What Actually Changes?
- How Do Crypto Bridges Work—and Why Are They a Hack Target?
- What Is Tokenomics?
- Swap crypto with ChangeNOW
Sources
- OpenSea: In Conversation with Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin — profiles Zirlin as an Axie Infinity and Ronin co-founder and records his 2025 comments about Ronin.
- Axie Infinity: Team — distinguishes Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin’s growth role from CEO Trung Nguyen in the project’s team history.
- Ronin: The Bridge Is Open — documents the 2022 bridge exploit and company-level response; it does not attribute all response work to Zirlin.
- Reddit: Axie Community Discussion — is a dated, mixed but critical thread about public communication and in-game economic concerns.