The crypto industry had attracted attention at the World Economic Forum’s annual conference in May 2022. Eight months brought many bankruptcies and then a major collapse. That’s why cryptocurrencies have a milder presence in Davos, Switzerland. Still, various altcoins are making their presence known in Davos. Here are the details…
Altcoins and Bitcoin were in Davos
Compared to last year, there are far fewer crypto companies in Davos, according to Coindesk’s report. There are platforms such as Circle, the issuer of USDC, the Global Blockchain Business Council, Casper Labs behind CSPR, and Filecoin Foundation, the creator of the FIL coin, Ripple. There are also altcoins such as Ankr (ANKR), Tether (USDT), Polygon (MATIC). In 2022, crypto panels were everywhere. However, in 2023, the crypto industry is blending seamlessly with the major financial and tech giants around them. Brooks Entwistle, Ripple Senior Vice President, said, “It was realized how much of a difference eight months made.” “You couldn’t walk in 2022 without seeing a crypto brand,” he said.
The market can have a role here. Entwistle said that most of the crypto projects that advertise or operate in 2022 have booked their crypto booths well in advance, considering that the annual meeting of the forum was originally scheduled for January 2022 but was delayed due to the increase in COVID-19 cases worldwide. In other words, these companies probably booked their homes and ads while the crypto industry was still in the last bull market.
The cryptocurrency space is quieter this year
In contrast, reservations for 2023 likely took place after prices began to drop, which may have led to tighter budget controls. Entwistle said, “We’ve seen a lot of turmoil since we’ve been here in May. There are no NFT galleries… we are here to work and chat,” he said. Those left behind do not. Marta Belcher, head of policy at the Filecoin Foundation, stated that she believes there is less noise at the event this year and more conversation focused on real technology.
As in past years, crypto is at the main forum’s own conference with a series of panels covering different aspects of the industry – but focusing specifically on a narrow topic: central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), digital identities, tokenized economies. The official conference began Tuesday morning in Switzerland. Unofficially, the crypto industry began holding its own events on Monday, with panels from Circle, the Global Blockchain Business Council, Casper Labs, and the Filecoin Foundation covering all things FTX.
Editors also joined the conversations
Even more unexpected is the active participation of regulators and policy makers in these panels. Multiple United Nations representatives, US Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) commissioner Christy Goldsmith Romero and Johannes Duong of Oesterreichischen Nationalbank (Austria’s central bank) on their work on a panel hosted by GBBC on Blockchain use by public institutions spoke.
Advit Nath of the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a United Nations agency, said that his group actively uses Blockchain tools to track the flow of funds donated in certain regions, while Goldsmith Romero praised the fact that Blockchains inherently record every transaction. Events hosted by crypto companies are also heavily attended. Casper Labs had a packed platform on Monday evening, and a reception hosted by Filecoin was also noteworthy.
Big FTX impact for Bitcoin and altcoins
Despite all that, it’s unclear what the industry might take after this week. Entwistle said he and his colleagues were mainly at the conference to meet with potential clients. Jonathan Dotan of Starling Labs echoed Entwistle’s comments, saying that “little has changed”, at least from his point of view. Dotan said that Starling Labs does not offer anything similar to financial services and therefore does not have to deal with the consequences of the crypto crash like other companies.
Of course, as everyone knows, it was obviously real FTX. The FTX crash had an impact on crypto’s relatively weakened presence in Davos this year. Entwistle said the conversations were dominated by discussions about FTX’s collapse, and the panels at least touched on the stock market’s decline. cryptocoin.comAs we reported, the industry was stunned after FTX disbanded, and the amount of interaction between different now-bankrupt crypto lending platforms fueled widespread contagion fears.
Speaking with Ferguson at a panel hosted by the Financial Times, Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire said that the industry’s path to recovery is to distinguish between good and bad players. Lynn Martin, Chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, said that the lack of regulation will continue to deter more traditional institutions from considering dealing with cryptocurrencies. Speaking at the panel, Goldsmith Romero said it was up to Congress to pass legislation explaining the roles regulators could play. Also, Anthony Scaramucci said he would “probably remake” the mistake of trusting someone like Sam Bankman-Fried, the founder of FTX, again. “I’m not going to stop taking risks,” he said.