Crypto crowd dominate Davos main street despite price crash

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A free bit­coin piz­za stall and a “Liq­uid­i­ty Lounge” were among the treats on offer for atten­dees at this year’s meet­ing in Davos, where blockchain and cryp­tocur­ren­cy firms have tak­en over its main street, despite a recent crash in dig­i­tal coin values.

Exec­u­tives from the cryp­to sec­tor have descend­ed on the annu­al gath­er­ing of busi­ness lead­ers and politi­cians in the Swiss Alpine resort, seek­ing to encour­age faster adop­tion of their tech­nol­o­gy, which is large­ly unregulated.

The cryp­to crowd’s promi­nence at Davos, while large­ly on the side­lines of the main event, comes as cryp­tocur­ren­cies shed $800 bil­lion in mar­ket val­ue ear­li­er this month.

Small traders have flocked to cryp­to in the hope of quick returns, despite warn­ings from reg­u­la­tors that the emerg­ing assets can be high risk. Luna, until recent­ly the eighth-biggest dig­i­tal coin and backed by insti­tu­tion­al cryp­to investors, has shed near­ly all of its value.

“What sur­prised me was just how fast it com­plete­ly implod­ed into noth­ing,” Jere­my Allaire, CEO and cofounder of Cir­cle Inter­net Finan­cial, whose USDC sta­ble­coin is pegged to the U.S. dol­lar, said of Luna’s collapse.

“To see some­thing that seemed like an appar­ent, high growth com­pet­i­tive thing just com­plete­ly implode to zero in 72 hours, I’ve have nev­er seen any­thing like that,” he told Reuters.

But recent loss­es have not dent­ed the cryp­to com­pa­nies’ plans to show off their prod­ucts and services.

Secur­ren­cy Inc, a dig­i­tal mar­ket infra­struc­ture backed by Abu Dhabi, came to Davos for the first time this year “to build rela­tion­ships and net­work” and show how it can bridge new tech­nolo­gies and tra­di­tion­al finance, said CEO Dan Doney.

The com­pa­ny has set up its own agen­da of pan­els on dig­i­tal cur­ren­cy, in the style of the World Eco­nom­ic Forum’s, just out­side the secu­ri­ty cor­don for the main con­fer­ence centre.

Teth­er, one of the world’s largest sta­ble­coins, offered passers-by free slices to cel­e­brate Bit­coin Piz­za Day on May. 22, when in 2010 Laz­lo Hanyecz paid for two piz­zas with 10,000 bit­coin, worth about $41 at the time.

Bit­coin, which was worth $30,332 on Mon­day, fell to its low­est lev­els since Decem­ber 2020 ear­li­er in May. The world’s largest cryp­tocur­ren­cy had hit a record high of $69,000 in November.

“We’re used to this, and as the mar­ket gets big­ger, the peaks and val­leys will be smoother,” said Cliff Sarkin, chief oper­at­ing offi­cer of Casper­Labs, a provider of blockchain tech­nol­o­gy to busi­ness­es, which is host­ing speak­ers and events.

The token tied to Casper’s tech­nol­o­gy has also tak­en a hit, Sarkin told Reuters.

The WEF, which typ­i­cal­ly caters to the finan­cial elite includ­ing major banks such as Cit­i­group (C.N) to Cred­it Suisse, is hold­ing pan­els on cyrp­tocur­ren­cies’ car­bon foot­print and future and one on decen­tral­ized finance.

“It’s been ris­ing out­side and inside the gates,” said Stan Stal­nack­er, chief strat­e­gy offi­cer at social net­work Hub Cul­ture, which also oper­ates a dig­i­tal cur­ren­cy, refer­ring to crypto’s pres­ence in the con­fer­ence and on its sidelines.

Stal­nack­er esti­mat­ed that about 50% of the town’s store­fronts have been occu­pied by blockchain or cryp­tocur­ren­cy firms for the dura­tion of the event.



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