Crypto firms take over main street in Davos, even after market crash

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DAVOS, Switzer­land — Cryp­to-relat­ed tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies are out in force at the annu­al World Eco­nom­ic Forum in Davos, even after a recent mar­ket crash that has wiped off bil­lions of dol­lars of val­ue from the dig­i­tal cur­ren­cy market.

The Prom­e­nade, a main strip where com­pa­nies and gov­ern­ments take over shops and bars dur­ing the week of the forum, are dom­i­nat­ed by cryp­to com­pa­nies, nes­tled between major firms like Sales­force and Face­book-own­er Meta.

“It’s a big step for the cryp­to indus­try, they were always anti-Davos,” one del­e­gate told CNBC.

On Sun­day, Teth­er, the com­pa­ny behind the sta­ble­coin USDT, set up a stand giv­ing away free piz­za on the Prom­e­nade for Bit­coin Piz­za Day. On May 22, 2010, a pro­gram­mer bought piz­za using bit­coin and it is wide­ly seen as the first trans­ac­tion using the cryp­tocur­ren­cy. The day is cel­e­brat­ed every year by the cryp­to community.

Anoth­er del­e­gate remarked that cryp­to com­pa­nies were “splash­ing the cash.”

Non-fun­gi­ble tokens is a big top­ic dur­ing dis­cus­sions around the World Eco­nom­ic Forum. Rol­lApp, which runs an NFT store, set up a loca­tion in Davos to pro­mote the dig­i­tal collectibles.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

Fer­nan­do Ver­boo­nen, co-founder of Rol­lApp, a non-fun­gi­ble token (NFT) store, which took over a shop on the Prom­e­nade, esti­mat­ed about 60% of the venues on the street were cryp­to-relat­ed companies.

“They are basi­cal­ly tak­ing over Davos,” he said.

Non-fun­gi­ble tokens are dig­i­tal col­lectibles. Rol­lApp is try­ing to turn real-world assets such as cars into NFTs.

‘Crazy few weeks’

The indus­try’s strong show­ing at Davos comes despite a recent mar­ket crash. More than $500 bil­lion has been wiped off the cryp­to mar­ket in the last month, as the col­lapse of sta­ble­coin ter­raUSD sent shock­waves across the indus­try.

Those who are at Davos like­ly com­mit­ted to tak­ing over a space on the Prom­e­nade in the Alpine ski resort before the recent mar­ket fall.

“It’s been a crazy few weeks in cryp­to. We com­mit­ted to com­ing here a long time ago but that was­n’t going to change. We are in a posi­tion that we are going to with­stand the bear mar­ket and there will be a bull run again,” Clif­ford Sarkin, the COO at blockchain start-up Casper Labs, told CNBC.

Cir­cle, which is one of the com­pa­nies behind the USDC sta­ble­coin, took over one of the shops on the Davos Promenade.

Arjun Kharpal | CNBC

Casper Labs has a blockchain prod­uct aimed at busi­ness­es. Blockchain came to promi­nence with bit­coin but its def­i­n­i­tion has expand­ed. It is effec­tive­ly a shared ledger of activ­i­ty that could under­pin appli­ca­tions in busi­ness such as cross-bor­der mon­ey trans­fers, pro­po­nents say.

Sarkin said the crash had been pos­i­tive for com­pa­ny’s like his that are focused on sell­ing blockchain to busi­ness cus­tomers, rather than consumers.

“It’s eas­i­er to do busi­ness in a bear cycle. A lot of the peo­ple who came last year and were try­ing to make mon­ey in cryp­to that are now leav­ing because they’re say­ing cryp­to is dead, are now out of the space for a while and we are going to get to do real busi­ness,” he told CNBC.

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