Crypto Trade-R
See crypto hype before the price moves.Our dashboard makes it simple, clear, and easy for anyone to use.
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Blog Posts
Follow along as I build
Crypto Trade-R, sharing progress, lessons and early ideas.
Behind the Radar:
Notes from my journey of building Crypto Trade-R.
Can We Spot Crypto Hype Before the Price Moves?
My journey building CTR + Cortex (so far)
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | September 21, 2025
The Prep Work That No One Talks About
Laying the Foundations of CTR
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | October 1, 2025
Why a Crypto Radar Matters: Cutting Through the Noise
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | October 6, 2025
Bringing Shanthi On Board: The Next Chapter for CTR
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | October 18, 2025
Can We Spot Crypto Hype Before the Price Moves?
My Journey Building CTR + Cortex
By Thina Chelvam - September 21, 2025
When I first started playing with this idea, I had one simple (and slightly ridiculous) question stuck in my head:Can we spot crypto hype before the price moves?It sounded obvious enough, markets move on sentiment, traders live on Twitter/X, Reddit never sleeps, surely you could measure the chatter and see the pump coming? Right?Well… not exactly.
The Scrappy Start: Google Sheets as a “Database”
Like any sane person trying to solve crypto sentiment, I opened up… Google Sheets.Yep. I hacked together some code, tried pulling in posts from social sites, and convinced myself I’d built the foundation of the next Bloomberg Terminal.What I actually built was:1. A shrine to error messages.2. A graveyard of half-working API calls.3. A spreadsheet that looked more like spaghetti than usable sentiment data.I restarted the project maybe 15 times. Every time I thought I’d cracked it, something else broke:- API rate limits.- Bots shouting “XRP to $10,000!!!” on repeat.- Data that made zero sense once you actually looked at it.At one point, I was literally scraping posts into Sheets and wondering why it felt like duct-taping the internet to a calculator.But I kept going.
Lessons in the Chaos
I’ll be honest: most of the time I didn’t really know what I was doing.I was impatient, frustrated, and had no clue how best to analyze what I was pulling. Half the time I wasn’t even sure what I should be analyzing.But those messy experiments taught me a lot:- Data integrity matters. If you don’t clean and filter properly, you’re just charting noise.- Bots are everywhere. If your system can’t handle that, it’s useless.- Free tools are gold. Google Sheets and free APIs got me far enough to prove something was possible.And most importantly: hacking was fun, but if I wanted to build something real, I needed to step back and design it properly.
The Turning Point
That’s when I asked myself: What’s the actual end goal here?It wasn’t just to pull random data into a sheet. It was to help traders see real sentiment clearly, hype vs credibility, signal vs noise.That meant building something more ambitious. Not just a dashboard. Not just a spreadsheet.I realized I needed to build… a brain.
Enter CTR + Cortex
That’s where things started to click.- Crypto Trade-R (R = Radar): The dashboard I want to build, clean, retail-friendly, no clutter, no overload, just clear signals.- Cortex: The AI “brain” I’m designing to sit behind it, something that learns, filters the hype and shows what’s real.Institutions already use advanced sentiment platforms. Retail tools exist, but most are noisy, costly, or hard to trust. CTR + Cortex is about bringing clarity and accessibility.
The Journey Ahead
So that’s where I’m at now. I’ve gone from messy Google Sheets experiments to a much clearer vision of what CTR and Cortex should become.This time around, I’m starting fresh, properly designing the foundations, instead of duct-taping APIs into a spreadsheet.Over the next months, I’ll be:- Building CTR into its first live dashboard.- Training Cortex to get smarter at filtering out noise and bots.- Sharing weekly progress updates, the wins, the fails, and the lessons.If you’re curious to follow along (or want early access once the first version is live), you can join here: (CTR waitlist.)This is just the beginning. The question that kicked it all off still drives me:Can we spot crypto hype before the price moves?I don’t have the answer yet, but I’m building towards it.
Not financial advice. Just one person, a lot of coffee, and way too many error messages.
The Prep Work That No One Talks About
Laying the Foundations of CTR
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | October 1, 2025
When I wrote the first blog, it was about the question that kicked this whole thing off: can we spot crypto hype before the price moves? That wasn’t just a thought experiment. I tested it, hacked together spreadsheets, pulled data, and proved there was something real here.Now it’s time to move from testing into building. And before you can build something that lasts, you need solid foundations. Otherwise it’s like trying to build a house on sand. You can have the fanciest designs in the world, but if the foundation isn’t there, it’s just going to sink.
Trello: My Second Brain
Trello has basically become my second brain. Every random thought, bug, or “wouldn’t it be cool if…” goes straight into a card. If you imagine a wall covered in sticky notes, this is that, but way more organised and way less likely to fall off and get lost under the couch. It keeps me honest and makes sure nothing slips through the cracks.
GitHub: The Giant Locker
GitHub is where all the real magic will live. It’s like a giant locker that keeps every version of CTR’s brain safe. Think of it like a timeline of progress. No more random files sitting in folders with names like “final-final-v4-FIXED.xlsx” (we’ve all been there). With GitHub, I can track changes, roll things back if something breaks, and keep everything in one clean place.
Supabase: The Filing Cabinet
Supabase is my filing cabinet. A very big, very organised one that doesn’t complain no matter how much stuff I throw into it. All the signals CTR needs will flow into here. It’s the place Cortex will dig into when it starts figuring out what’s buzz and what’s just noise.
Bringing It Together
Putting these three together gives me the structure I need. Trello keeps the ideas moving, GitHub protects the build, and Supabase stores the information. It’s not glamorous, but it’s the kind of groundwork that makes sure I can actually scale this thing later without it falling apart.
What’s Next
Next up is feeding CTR its first taste of real crypto chatter. That’s when it gets exciting. Once the pipes are connected and the data starts flowing, we’ll see the first raw signals start to appear. They won’t be polished yet, but they’ll be real, and that’s the step that turns groundwork into momentum.There’s still a lot to build, but the direction is clear and the foundations are ready to carry it.
I’d Love Your Input
I’d love to bring you into this journey as I build CTR, step by step, and hear your thoughts along the way.- What’s the most frustrating thing about following crypto right now?
- If CTR could make crypto easier, what would you want it to do for you first?You can reach me through the contact section below. I read everything and your input will help shape the way this radar works.
Why a Crypto Radar Matters: Cutting Through the Noise
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | October 6, 2025
Lately, I’ve been thinking about how easy it is to get lost in the noise of crypto.Everywhere you look, there’s a new chart, a hot take, or a bold prediction. It’s exciting but also exhausting.That’s really why I started building Crypto Trade-R, to make sense of the chaos and give beginners and traders a clear radar instead of just more noise.
Crypto Is Everywhere
Crypto is in the news, all over Twitter, in Telegram groups, on Reddit threads, and even in casual chats with mates who swear they’ve found the “next big thing.”At its core, crypto is digital money built on blockchain. It trades 24/7, across the globe, and it moves fast. Sometimes insanely fast.But it’s not just fundamentals that drive prices. It’s sentiment, hype, buzz, and fear.The mood of the market can send coins flying or crashing within hours.
The Problem: Too Much Noise
There are thousands of coins out there. Every day you’re hit with a flood of opinions, charts, memes, and “breaking news.” It’s overwhelming.Questions like these come up constantly:- Which coins are actually being talked about?
- Is that Twitter thread just shilling, or is it picking up real traction?
- Is this headline important, or just filler content?Even if you’ve been in crypto for years, keeping up with all of it is a full-time job. For anyone starting out, it’s basically impossible.
The Value: What CTR Brings
This is where Crypto Trade-R comes in. Think of it like a radar screen. Instead of drowning in endless data, you get a clear view of the signals that actually matter.
CTR isn’t financial advice. It’s a filter.It shows you where attention is going, whether the market mood is bullish, bearish, or neutral, and which coins are worth keeping on your radar.The goal is simple: save time, cut out the noise, and make crypto trends understandable without needing to live on charts around the clock.
A Sneak Peek: What the Dashboard Looks Like
Here’s how the CTR dashboard is shaping up:- A high-level summary of the overall market mood
- Coin-by-coin signals: which ones are buzzing, what the sentiment looks like, and how price is trending
- Alerts for when something big shifts, such as a surge in hype or a sudden sentiment dropIt’s designed to give you a quick, simple snapshot so you can focus on what matters instead of wading through endless chatter.
Why It Matters to You
If you’re new to crypto, CTR helps you understand the market without getting lost.If you’re experienced, it surfaces signals you might miss. For everyone, it’s about trading smarter, not louder.This is why I’m building CTR. Because crypto doesn’t need to be overwhelming. It just needs a radar.
Bringing Shanthi On Board: The Next Chapter for CTR
By Thina Chelvam, Founder | October 18, 2025
Over the last few months, I’ve been shaping Crypto Trade-R into something that feels bigger than just an idea. It’s becoming real, a platform built to help traders cut through the noise and see the market with clarity.And now, that mission just got a major boost.
I’m beyond excited to share that Shanthi Murugan has joined us as Head of Marketing and Growth.We caught up recently to talk about the future, where CTR is heading, how to grow it with purpose, and how to make it stand out in a space that moves fast and changes even faster. That conversation reminded me why the right people matter more than anything else.Shanthi isn’t just another marketing lead. She has spent over 18 years driving e-commerce and brand growth across Australia’s beauty, wellness, and lifestyle industries, leading creative and digital strategy at places like Adore Beauty, A-Beauty, and Haircare Group. She has helped build movements around inclusivity, customer experience, and storytelling that reach deeper than metrics.What stood out to me most is her ability to blend strategy with heart. She knows how to grow brands that people actually believe in, the kind that earn trust, not just clicks.CTR has always been about clarity, making crypto simpler, smarter, and more human. Shanthi brings that same energy: calm, values-driven, and relentlessly focused on purpose and progress.As we move toward our MVP and start building the community around it, her leadership will shape how we connect with people, not just traders, but anyone who believes that technology and intuition can work together to make sense of the chaos.Welcome aboard, Shanthi. Let’s build something people feel proud to be part of.