Ben Strack

This is a segment from the Forward Guidance newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/forwardguidance" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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With Circle’s IPO <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/circle-ipo-acquisition">in progress</a> and the wrap of yesterday’s inaugural Stablecon event in NYC, it’s a great time to talk about stablecoins.



If you haven’t <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/stablecoins-tokenization-blackrock-galaxy-das">heard of them</a>, the living-under-a-rock quip is probably warranted. I bet that’s a peaceful life, though, so in some ways I envy you.&nbsp;



But a misconception from those in the know? “To say that stablecoins are simply a new form of payment or a new digital currency would be like saying that the internet is a better version of the fax machine,” said Spencer Spinnell, an Americas VP at Circle.



Sitting next to Spinnell was Catherine Gu, Visa’s head of institutional client solutions. She was blunt: “Whether you’re a bank or an asset manager or a financial institution of any sort, I think everyone needs a stablecoin strategy in 2025. That’s kind of imperative.”



You might recall Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan’s <a href="https://x.com/BloombergTV/status/1894417091765121172?utm_source=forward-guidance.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=last-week-today">comments</a> in February about the company entering the stablecoin business upon more regulatory clarity. We then saw the WSJ <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/crypto-stablecoin-big-banks-a841059e?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=AerBZYPFX5a2haacTA5iq7AwIojtxkoHTgqgW6QyYg8lA6-Bm7HnO_KoE507zbgMOa4%3D&amp;gaa_ts=683071d0&amp;gaa_sig=69JEfMxC0kpfln3wX2SssXBckLi76bJzgXQyYbpX26PakTRi7zhDkxoP7enJLe-Agdy4vTSHEQO7qODwVEvLmg%3D%3D&amp;utm_source=forward-guidance.beehiiv.com&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=last-week-today">report</a> that several large commercial banks were considering issuing a joint stablecoin.&nbsp;



While the profits of stablecoin giant Tether (~$1 billion in Q1) are juicy to those considering an entrance, M0 CEO Luca Prosperi said TradFi players might want to focus on the distribution layer.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mastercard’s Raj Dhamodharan said the key is solving for end-to-end utility while abstracting away the complexity of multiple stablecoins and networks. Moving in and out of fiat will be part of that (as seen in the payment giant’s <a href="https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2025/may/mastercard-and-moonpay-team-up-to-mainstream-stablecoin-payments/">partnership</a> with MoonPay).



Not just a payment rail, industry watchers argue, stablecoins are rewiring backend financial infrastructure. They’re the foundational layer for <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-rwa-segments-will-boom-next">tokenizing anything</a>.



Financial firms leaning into stablecoins/tokenized RWAs — i.e. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, etc. — see “a giant opportunity” for so-called shadow banks to displace the banks themselves, Sardine strategy head Simon Taylor told Blockworks co-founder Jason Yanowitz on the Stablecon stage.



Jonathan Steinberg, CEO of WisdomTree — a $120 billion asset manager that offers clients a platform to access tokenized funds and assets — called <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/tokenized-yield-funds-complement-stablecoins">onchain money market funds</a>, for example, “very competitive to a banking experience.”&nbsp;



“I expect we will see a better user experience taking money from the traditional banking system,” Steinberg noted. “For the large banks, how they deal with this new platform — blockchain — maybe is their single most important issue.”&nbsp;



While stablecoin market cap predictions in the trillions get thrown around (up from ~$235 billion today), Chainalysis CEO Jonathan Levin looks at the segment outlook differently.&nbsp;



“I think that stablecoins fail if [they replace] ACH and Fedwire,” he said. “Stablecoins succeed if new business models on the internet are unlocked [and] if new types of payments that otherwise couldn’t happen are unlocked.”



Finally, it appears we were first to report some news out of Stablecon:&nbsp;



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">NEW: REVOLUT TO RE-LAUNCH ITS CRYPTO PRODUCTS/SERVICES IN THE U.S. &quot;VERY VERY SOON,&quot; MAZEN ELJUNDI SAID AT STABLECON &#8211; PER BLOCKWORKS&#39; <a href="https://twitter.com/strack_ben?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@strack_ben</a> <a href="https://t.co/tgd6dFWVfP">pic.twitter.com/tgd6dFWVfP</a>&mdash; DEGEN NEWS (@DegenerateNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/DegenerateNews/status/1928169379826463027?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 29, 2025</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



The neobank halted its US crypto services in 2023, citing regulatory uncertainty. And so it’s fitting the announcement came the same day the SEC offered clarity on whether certain protocol staking practices constitute securities offerings under US federal law.&nbsp;



The staking practices the SEC mention <a href="https://www.sec.gov/newsroom/speeches-statements/statement-certain-protocol-staking-activities-052925">here</a> don’t. The industry <a href="https://x.com/crypto_council/status/1928440924083794399">considers</a> this statement a win.



There’ll be more to unpack there and other regulatory developments to come. Until then, enjoy the weekend.



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conference

Digesting Stablecon: Execs bullish on imminent financial infrastructure revolution

David Canellis

This is a segment from the Supply Shock newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/supplyshock" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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After Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht dialed into the Bitcoin Conference from prison in 2021, he quickly found himself in solitary confinement.



It was obvious punishment. Ross was then placed under increased surveillance for the rest of his time behind bars — a direct result of his communication with the Bitcoin community.



Four years later, on Thursday afternoon, Ross stood on the conference stage in Las Vegas for Bitcoin 2025, in what he described as a “mirror image of that day.&#8221;



“You know what, I&#8217;m glad I did it [dial into Bitcoin 2021]. I am. Connecting with you that day felt so, so good, because it was like a small part of me had broken beyond the prison walls and escaped only for a little while.”&nbsp;



Well, the rest of Ross finally caught up.



Poetically enough, yesterday was 10 years to the day that Ulbricht was handed a double life sentence (plus 40 years) without parole.&nbsp;



“I was just 31 years old. If [the judge] and all the others behind my prosecution had their way, I would have grown old and eventually died still in prison. Instead, I&#8217;m here with you,” Ross said.&nbsp;



He wore a formal black suit, white shirt, red tie and shiny black shoes. But he was comfortable.



Bitcoin is, of course, very different now than when Ross was arrested in October 2013.&nbsp;



There were no Strategys buying up hundreds of thousands of coins, or government-controlled strategic bitcoin reserves. No CoinJoin or Lightning Network, either, and definitely no Ordinals.



Not to mention, there were <a href="https://coinmarketcap.com/historical/20130929/">fewer</a> than 40 cryptocurrencies on the market at the time, with bitcoin dominance at more than 90%. The price of each coin was around $120, giving BTC a $1.6 billion market cap. Number-two XRP was far off in the distance with $100 million.&nbsp;



“I effectively went into a time capsule in 2013, and now I&#8217;m coming out like Rip Van Winkle. I mean, just a few months ago when I walked out of prison,” Ross said. “I&#8217;d never seen a drone. I had never experienced AI. I still haven&#8217;t [experienced] VR, the headsets, yeah, I haven&#8217;t done that yet. I had never chatted with AI.”



“It&#8217;s all hitting me at once, freedom. The new technology, the fact that I have a future again. It&#8217;s a lot. It&#8217;s a lot. I mean, I was in prison and now I get to live through this incredible time with you. What a blessing. What a miracle. What a gift.”



<iframe loading="lazy" width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8ZZGRA-8ZMU?si=wM-rUAJy_iQDVacr" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>







With deep gratitude, Ross recounted the ways that the Bitcoin community fought for his release. He received letters and funding for his legal defense, and they defended his legacy while he couldn’t.&nbsp;



He said: “You even got President Trump to see that Bitcoin is the future. Yeah, you did that. You got him to see that decentralization and freedom are our future. You said, ‘Ross is one of us.’ You stayed united. You said, ‘We want Ross out here with us.’ You said, ‘Free Ross.’ You did this.”



But Bitcoin was simply paying it all back. Silk Road was arguably Bitcoin’s <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/silk-road-ross-ulbricht-history-bitcoin-crypto">first killer app</a>. It was Ross and Ross alone who showed the world the power of Bitcoin, both as magic internet money and a tool for freedom without compromise.



“[David Bailey] said, ‘Ross, you took Bitcoin from 0 to 1. And while you were in prison, we, the community — all of you — we took it from 1 to 10. But we still need to go from 10 to 100,’” he said.



There were three core principles of Bitcoin that Ross championed in his speech: freedom, decentralization and unity. Each one reinforces the other, making them critical to maintain as Bitcoin evolves through its next great epoch.



“We can argue all day, but please, never see each other as enemies. Those that oppose decentralization and freedom love it when we&#8217;re divided, I promise you. So stay united. So long as we can agree that we deserve freedom and that decentralization is how we secure it, and we can be united, we can have each other&#8217;s backs. Just like you had mine,” Ross said.



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Stay united: Ross Ulbricht’s heartfelt message for Bitcoin

Jack Kubinec

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I spent much of last week running between conference venues and side events during Solana Accelerate in New York City.&nbsp;



Conferences tend to be announcement-heavy affairs, and Accelerate didn’t disappoint, bringing major updates on Solana’s core infrastructure, Solana’s phone startup and tokenized equities.&nbsp;



And as I <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-accelerate-day-one-etfs-firedancer">pointed out last week</a>, change is in the air. Competition is heating up, and formerly-hyped areas of Solana’s ecosystem are starting to lose their luster.&nbsp;



To elucidate some of that potential change, here are four big questions I have after Accelerate.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">1. What’s the deal with Firedancer?</h2>



Jump <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-solana-firedancer-testnet">released Frankendancer</a>, a halfway version of Firedancer that makes some performance improvements to the existing Solana client, last September. It began <a href="https://x.com/whosknave/status/1894134153446031532">rolling</a> out Jito bundle support — allowing validators to more efficiently MEV — earlier this year.



Today, Frankendancer <a href="https://app.blockworksresearch.com/analytics/solana?dashboard=131">commands</a> just 6% of Solana’s total stake (that proportion is up slightly from around 5% last week). This from-scratch Solana client project has been talked about in hallowed terms for years, but for one reason or another, most validators aren’t currently using Frankendancer.&nbsp;



One Accelerate attendee mused to me that Jump and Solana may have hyped up Firedancer too much, too soon, and perhaps building and rolling the software out more quietly would have been the better move.



Frankendancer’s key catalyst could be financial incentives: The client’s developer announced a stake delegation program similar to what the Solana Foundation offers during Accelerate.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">2. Has Kraken become the Solana-favored exchange?</h2>



One major news item from Accelerate was Kraken’s <a href="https://www.wsj.com/finance/currencies/kraken-crypto-exchange-stock-tokens-e4fc1bb9?gaa_at=eafs&amp;gaa_n=ASWzDAgyoeZEozJQPCzOiVx9Ta6nVeJba4g_rjkkAHNtpnkllIWhV6juu0nX1eeMX2U%3D&amp;gaa_ts=68360099&amp;gaa_sig=wHrVyKYN3BI0rBGsrl6J2vapDwzPavSgAl9B751UK0uhotgqYLUM7wWH0UJr1C-ZBKd6vUEYctiviq1qRDn3XA%3D%3D">launch</a> of xStocks, tokenized equities —&nbsp;including Apple, Tesla and Nvidia — that will trade on Solana.



It’s an interesting development in international investors’ ability to invest in US stocks, but more interesting was the decision to launch on Solana. Kraken has an in-house <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/kraken-ethereum-layer-2-superchain">layer-2 blockchain</a> named Ink, which would have been a natural fit for the new product, but I think the exchange sees business upside in Solanaland.



As a US-based exchange operating in Coinbase’s shadow, Kraken may spy opportunities in the former exchange’s sometimes-contentious relationship with the Solana community, which has <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/solana/comments/1h1m4ut/coinbase_is_intentionally_making_solana_look_bad/">expressed</a> consternation over Coinbase’s penchant for nudging users to use its layer-2, Base.



Solana is the hottest blockchain ecosystem of the moment, so becoming the favored exchange for Solana investors could prove lucrative for Kraken. In the past few months, the exchange has brought back staking for US users, <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/janover-to-receive-kraken-staked-sol">parked some</a> of its own money in a Solana treasury vehicle and now will launch tokenized equities on Solana. Kraken appears to be well on its way.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">3. What’s the thinking behind the SKR token?</h2>



The Solana Labs-supported mobile phone startup Solana Mobile made three big announcements at Accelerate, which were:



<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>A) the Seeker phone will ship in August</li>



<li>B) with a new decentralized architecture to rival Android and iOS, and&nbsp;</li>



<li>C) it will have a token with the ticker SKR.</li>
</ul>



I found this last announcement somewhat surprising. As an entity with some presence in a New York City office, I’m sure Solana Labs has to be reasonably careful with compliance — and launching tokens can create legal headaches. Just look at <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bakkt-delist-cardano-polygon-solana">some of the fallout</a> from when the SEC deemed SOL a security.&nbsp;



My guess is that Solana Labs — which currently develops companies including Solana Mobile — thinks a friendlier legal environment can shield SKR from too much scrutiny, and it knows token incentives <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-phones-sold-out">drove a chunk</a> of the demand around the last Solana phone.&nbsp;



Disrupting the App Store duopoly, as Solana co-founder Anatoly Yakovenko likes to say, will be no easy task. Maybe SKR will make things a bit easier.&nbsp;



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">4. Is the Trump-crypto marriage growing strained?</h2>



Leadership at the newly-formed <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-policy-institute-ceos-political">Solana Policy Institute</a> was visible in and around Accelerate, as Solana looks to grow its political footprint. To that end, there’s one political post from the conference that caught my eye.



“Congressman @RitchieTorres just got cheers from the crowd at Solana Accelerate for saying ‘We should not be selling access to Congress or the White House,’” the journalist Veronica Irwin, formerly of Unchained, wrote on X last week.



She went on to add: “I was surprised by the cheers — disapproval of President Trump is not something you see often at crypto conferences these days.”



President Trump held a dinner for holders of his Solana memecoin last week, a move that <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/05/22/trump-meme-coin-dinner/">raised</a> ethics concerns. As <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/senate-advances-genius-act">legislation</a> on stablecoins and crypto market structure works its way through Congress, I’m wondering whether Trump’s crypto profiteering may cost the industry legislative wins if Democrats <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/legislative-speed-bumps-genius-act-sec">turn against</a> crypto.



Still, Trump’s SEC dismissed a number of burdensome lawsuits against crypto companies. If I were a betting man, I’d say that in combination with the president’s other overtures to the industry would be enough to keep the union intact.



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4 big questions following the Solana Accelerate conference

This is a segment from the Lightspeed newsletter. To read full editions, <a href="https://blockworks.co/newsletter/lightspeed" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">subscribe</a>.



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As the Solana community descended on Pier 36 in New York for the Accelerate conference, the feeling in the air was one of reset expectations.



Propositions about Solana’s tech and investment prospects that seemed like consensus just six months ago have now gone out of style.&nbsp;



For one, there’s the muted impact of Firedancer. The Jump-developed client was once spoken of in quasi-religious terms by Solana fans. The software’s launch was going to let Solana <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/lightspeed-newsletter-blockchain-tps-testing">hit one million</a> transactions per second — a nice and round, if meaningless, figure.&nbsp;



A partial Firedancer implementation called Frankendancer is live but so far has struggled to gain adoption. Just 5% of Solana stake currently <a href="https://reports.firedancer.io/?tab=versions">runs</a> on the client. Firedancer is launching a stake <a href="https://delegation.firedancer.io/delegation-program">delegation program</a> similar to what the Solana Foundation offers for Agave, perhaps in hopes of growing its slice of the pie.



Jump’s head of R&amp;D, Kevin Bowers, gave a talk to kick off Accelerate, but it was overshadowed by a talk from a different client developer: On Monday, Anza’s head of research Roger Wattenhofer gave a talk announcing Alpenglow, a major overhaul of Solana’s consensus protocol that could greatly <a href="https://www.anza.xyz/blog/alpenglow-a-new-consensus-for-solana">reduce</a> Solana’s latency.&nbsp;



In short, some in Solana’s validator community are finding, to paraphrase Taylor Swift, that the client they’ve been dreaming of has been here the whole time — in Agave.&nbsp;



I ran into Anza’s lead economist, Max Resnick, at Accelerate. He said the developer shop had to spend time pruning and ironing out bugs in the original Solana client’s code — longtime readers will remember last April, when it became <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/solana-bug-patch-zero-knowledge-proofs">difficult to land</a> transactions on the network at all — before it could test out more frontier ideas like Alpenglow.



It also used to seem obvious to many in Solana-land that ETF approval was going to prove a <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/bitwise-ceo-solana-ncredible-emerging-asset">major tailwind</a> for the asset. That no longer seems to necessarily be the case, as MicroStrategy-like companies make major SOL <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/smallcap-stocks-solana-treasury-buys">treasury purchases</a>.&nbsp;



Some investors made a lot of money by taking a non-consensus bet on SOL following the FTX collapse. Now, as the Solana network looks more consensus than before, conventional wisdom within the ecosystem is starting to be turned on its head.



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Solana Accelerate Day 1: Time to challenge assumptions

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Starting in June of 2022, Solana Spaces operated a brick and mortar store for Solana-branded merchandise and user onboarding in New York’s Hudson Yards development. The venture’s biggest financial backer then was FTX, and it (along with a second store in Miami) <a href="https://decrypt.co/121863/solana-spaces-closing-stores-in-nyc-and-miami">folded</a> in early 2023 following the exchange’s implosion.



This week at Solana’s Accelerate conference, Solana Spaces returned as a pop-up store with a new core team. The project doesn’t have FTX backing, but the reboot began with a very “2025” source of funding — a memecoin.&nbsp;



Solana Spaces season 2 has more limited ambitions than the original, running pop-up stores for crypto merchandise alongside crypto conferences. For the faithful who descended on the New York pop-up, there was a general sense of pleasant surprise that a memecoin team pulled off a brick-and-mortar store activation.



The lower east side pop-up was bustling with crypto natives on Tuesday morning. Merch was on sale from a variety of Solana-based projects and NFT collections. I purchased a mug and checked out by paying with stablecoins from the Phantom app on my iPhone.&nbsp;



When another customer came up to check out, Amol Gharte — a Solana Spaces core team member who was working the register — didn’t have the item’s price handy and joked that he could make one up.



“It’s all made up anyway,” the customer responded, and Gharte and I shrugged and nodded our heads at the vague declaration. A second customer stepped up to pay but somewhat sheepishly pulled out a credit card, explaining that he wanted to get credit card points from the purchase.



<figure class="wp-block-image"><img decoding="async" src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/docsz/AD_4nXeguOGCVPG75tSFwgJsfh0IiJacxE54B_7EJLZ12By9nBeX9kIadmIP3vYLi4lsT4RQ7Icv3BFgwjDCLp28-Xds-lF-A8bScXcYVwA9tl9U-H1hTGgRqS-fJZIOBZ-F9mQKJOHP?key=-IwutMucqNNqfC1Y2f6sRg" alt=""/></figure>



A fan of the old Hudson Yards store launched a memecoin called STORE in January which briefly eclipsed $12 million in market capitalization, according to DEX Screener data. Some early buyers of the token — which is now closer to $3 million in market cap — came together to try and revive Solana Spaces, Gharte told me. He added that the Solana Spaces team hasn’t sold its tokens and has self-imposed a vesting period.



The project is partly self-funded but also has inked sponsorship deals and received grant funding from the Solana Foundation, Gharte said.



The vision for Solana Spaces is to continue running pop-ups during crypto conferences, where Spaces gives crypto teams a place to sell their merchandise, and Solana Spaces collects 20% of the profit, Gharte said. He estimated 70% of sales volume is paid with credit cards compared to 30% in stablecoins.



I found Vibhu Norby, who was founder and CEO of the original Solana Spaces before building a Jupiter-acquired NFT app named DRiP, steaming a cloth banner in the back of the store. He told me he was “skeptical” when he saw a memecoin community crop up around reviving his deprecated business, but he gave the team some initial capital, support and introductions, and he hoped they could figure it out.



Norby told me he was initially drawn to starting Solana Spaces by a belief that blockchain communities can form network states, a Balaji Srinivasan-coined term for digital communities forming their own real-world communities. Norby added that in crypto, traditional identity markers tend to be replaced by things like profile pictures or merchandise.&nbsp;



“To me, there is a higher meaning to it. It’s not just a merch shop. Here you come and you find your home, and you walk away with a piece of that,” Norby said.



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Solana Spaces comes back to life in NYC

Molly Jane Zuckerman

<figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=1024&amp;h=1024" alt="" class="wp-image-60166" width="840" height="210" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=1024 1024w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=300 300w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=768 768w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=428 428w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=470 470w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=389 389w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Off-Topic-with-Molly-Jane_20230616a-1.png?w=80 80w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 840px) 100vw, 840px" /></figure>



People talk about getting invites to crypto conferences with the same hushed reverence as celebs talk about getting invites to the Met Gala.



The difference? Crypto conferences have much, much worse fashion, as <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cryptocurrency-blockchain-fashion">I’ve already addressed here</a>.



Oh, and they are also work conferences. There’s not even anything fun in the name. Work. Conference. A conference about work. Yippee.



The leadup to these events, due to the ever-growing creativity of crypto marketing campaigns, can be quite genius in instilling that feeling of “I just HAVE to be there or I’ll die.” With native apps that add a social media aspect to connect attendees, NFT giveaways just for showing up, <a href="https://twitter.com/Permissionless">entire parody Twitter accounts</a> dedicated to the proliferation of conference-specific memes, not being there can feel as bad as not getting an invite to the cool girl’s sleepover birthday party.



And this strange allure of the crypto conference manages to persist across both bull and bear cycles.



Back when Bitcoin was weird, crypto events themselves were the news story. If you worked at a news outlet, your entire pitch could just be: “Let me attend this conference.”&nbsp;



The Cut had a hellish <a href="https://www.thecut.com/2021/10/partying-with-blockchain-bros-and-crypto-socialites.html">NYC crypto bro party story</a> in 2018. Breaker Mag (rest in peace) had one of my favorites, an even more hellish <a href="https://lauriepenny.substack.com/p/ship-of-fools">extended crypto conference party feature</a> on an actual cruise ship, also in 2018.



These types of stories contributed to the myth of the crypto conference, a magical, unhinged place filled with easy-to-write-about personalities like Brock Pierce and John McAfee, or get-rich-quick bros and their Lambos. When Bitcoin was still niche, crypto conferences as THE places to be made sense — you got to observe extravagant amounts of wealth being thrown around by people who didn’t fit in anywhere else.



But Bitcoin is more mainstream now, and conferences are following suit. The mechanical bull at last year’s Bitcoin Miami felt forced (and wasn’t even <a href="https://twitter.com/nvk/status/1127258403708002304">real!</a>), without crazy announcements like the president of El Salvador accepting Bitcoin as a national currency to accompany it.



But no matter — it’s crypto conference season again, and the appetite for attending these events has not been dampened in the slightest. Even though Bitcoin is nowhere near $70,000, even though crypto companies are being sued for securities fraud left in right, even though the possibility of another authoritarian country accepting Bitcoin as their national currency is essentially zilch.



I bet your entire Twitter feed right now is filled either with photos of people’s feet resting uncomfortably on the back of an airplane chair with the caption “gm from X conference, Crypto Twitter!” or tweets like “you conference goers are making me mute my feed out of FOMO #cryingemoji.”&nbsp;



And as the day goes on, you might see more and more photos of blurry panelists taken in darkened amphitheaters. Sometimes, someone posts a photo of an <a href="https://twitter.com/DrNickA/status/1588836869382754305?lang=en">empty room</a> and mockery descends in the comments. Other people are <a href="https://twitter.com/madladshad/status/1681206783539290112">angry</a> about the exclusivity or <a href="https://twitter.com/rossreports/status/1681368676270735367?s=20">cost</a> of afterparties —&nbsp;after all, hundreds of attendees paid full price for unlimited access to sit inside rooms and listen to panels of three to five men and one woman, usually the moderator, talk about crypto all day. Occasionally, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/aug/17/edward-snowden-speaking-fees#:~:text=Edward%20Snowden%20has%20taken%20%241.2,says%20%7C%20Edward%20Snowden%20%7C%20The%20Guardian">a highly paid celebrity</a> zooms in to give a <a href="https://www.coindesk.com/business/2022/06/11/edward-snowden-says-use-crypto-dont-invest-in-it/">virtual talk</a>. Doesn’t anyone subjected to that deserve a free cocktail in a rooftop bar?



Conferences in and of themselves are just as important to the crypto world’s sense of self as blockchain technology, NFTs, altcoins, DEXes. We as a society have made what is essentially several days of school&nbsp;followed by shuttles to a series of party prisons (sorry, afterparties) an integral part of our lives.



Read more Off Topic: <a href="https://blockworks.co/news/cryptocurrency-blockchain-fashion" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Crypto&#8217;s next top model doesn&#8217;t exist</a>



And at the end of the day, if we can believe social media and what people shout to us over the loud music at conference afterparties, we do seem to actually be having a good time.



Is all of this a giant lead-up in the weirdest advertisement ever to convince you to buy a ticket to Permissionless II? Nope (but click <a href="https://blockworks.co/event/permissionless-2023" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">here</a>).



Does my classification of crypto conferences as party prisons mean that I don’t actually want to go to anymore events? Also nope.



Because working in crypto while not caring that much about either technology or finance (if you’re shocked, read the tagline to this column at the bottom of the page, please), is about getting all of the perks that I can get. And if that means flying to Lisbon/Paris/Austin for a few days of highly air-conditioned lectures, free socks and a chance to meet many of my internet friends in person?&nbsp;



I’m guilty of falling for the crypto conference allure, guilty even of feeling like a “moderator” role confers some minor “status” even though I know better. I will continue to thoroughly enjoy a chance to “not work” while working, aka secure my media pass and spend several days wandering around a conference hall looking for free socks.&nbsp;



I am essentially a giant hypocrite.



So please, don’t read this op-ed and start revoking my media passes. You’d be condemning me to a life without new socks.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



I don’t care much about tech, I don’t care a whole lot about finance, either. I care about writing stories and watching weird things unfold. And that’s why I’ve ended up in crypto. But because I’m missing that passion for what crypto and blockchain are all about — finance, tech, privacy, yadda yadda — I’m going to write instead about what I am actually interested in. Everything about crypto that has very little to do with crypto. That’s what this column will be about. All the tangential stories that come out of the blockchain and crypto space, what I think about them, and how I navigate it all as a skeptical former Russian literature major. It’s precisely my perch as an outsider that lets me do what I do: Opine on all sides of any crypto issue, no strings attached, no skin in the game. If you want to talk crypto with me, let’s go off topic.

The most hypocritical article you will ever read about crypto conferences

Shalini Nagarajan

<div id="highlights-block_62ac587927134" class="highlights">
 <ul>
 <li>A fourth annual NFT (non-fungible token) event featuring 1,500 speakers will take place next week across seven venues in New York City</li>
 <li>“We don&#8217;t allow people to come and talk about crypto because we don&#8217;t want that,” the event producer told Blockworks</li>
 </ul>
 
</div>



NFT.NYC is an annual conference aiming to thrust new projects into the spotlight by providing a stage for <a href="https://www.nft.nyc/speakers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">speakers</a> from various domains and disciplines.



This year’s event takes place June 20-23 across seven venues in New York City. General admission tickets are priced at $849, while VIP access costs $1,999.



Slumping cryptocurrency prices in recent weeks appear to have sparked renewed interest in snapping up NFTs (non-fungible tokens) at a bargain price. Trade <a href="https://cms.blockworks.co/bored-ape-yacht-club-nft-prices-slump-along-with-market/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">volumes</a> for some of the most popular collections surged earlier this month following a broad market sell-off, which pushed some floor prices down 30% in US dollar value.



Despite sinking valuations, Twitter is abuzz with NFT cheerleaders calling on each other to attend NFT.NYC. While 70% of the event’s attendees are expected to come from the US, 30% will be from 80 other countries, according to the event’s organizers.



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">🚨 NFT NYC Security Tips 🚨 I&#39;ve seen a couple posts about NFT NYC and keeping your digital assets secured while there&#8230; Honestly I don&#39;t think most of the posts or threads go nearly far enough. You are a major target, and here is how you can protect yourself:&mdash; Jon_HQ (@Jon_HQ) <a href="https://twitter.com/Jon_HQ/status/1537491373888536576?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 16, 2022</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



Jodee Rich launched NFT.NYC in 2019 as part of a joint effort with top collectibles marketplace OpenSea. Currently wearing the event producer cap, Rich is a long-time innovator who wants to build out the practical and mainstream uses of the technology to power commerce and strengthen global brands. 



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



Blockworks interviewed Jodee Rich, NFT.NYC’s executive producer:



Blockworks: What triggered your interest in NFTs?



Jodee: In 2018, [OpenSea co-founder] Devin Finzer and I were having lunch at Bar Pitti in New York, and we were both wondering how to communicate something that used initials like NFT. We decided on a conference, reached out to the community and ended up with about 100 speakers. At one point, in February 2019, there were more speakers than attendees. We&#8217;ve always wanted to be very community-focused and put as many thought leaders on stage as possible. That is why we have 1,500 people on stage this year. It was 600 last year, the year before I think it was 300 and the year before that it was 100.



Blockworks: What are some NFT projects that stand out to you?



Jodee: I like what Ticketmaster is doing. They&#8217;re giving people live stubs, commemorative stubs — things to remember the events people go to. A number of brands such as PwC, SAP and Coach are releasing collectible NFTs. I think the idea of NFTs doubling as awards is really fun. We’ll be giving awards at the NFT.NYC award night, and those will be both physical and in NFT form.



Blockworks: How do you see NFTs evolving going forward?


<div class="wp-block-image">
<figure class="alignright size-full is-resized"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg" alt="" class="wp-image-23048" width="179" height="268" srcset="https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=555 555w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=200 200w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=171 171w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=174 174w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=146 146w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=53 53w, https://blockworks-co.imgix.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/NYC-NFT.jpg?w=33 33w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 179px) 100vw, 179px" /><figcaption>NFT.NYC Executive Producer Jodee Rich | Source: NFT.NYC</figcaption></figure></div>


Jodee: My friend Jehan Chu [managing partner at blockchain venture capital firm Kinetic] and I are soon talking on stage at Radio City about “dynamically compositing” NFTs, which sounds like a mouthful. But it really interests me. I think the next phase for NFTs sees tokens grow, evolve and morph with external inputs. An NFT doesn&#8217;t have to be static. It doesn&#8217;t always have to look the way it does. It can carry metadata. Compositing means overlaying different images on NFTs as it evolves and is passed from one person to another. 



My personal favorite NFT evolution would be identity. I look forward to the day when my NFT controls advertising and social network access to me. I look forward to the day where Google properly indexes NFTs so that when people search for me, they see all of the NFTs I&#8217;ve touched and that I&#8217;m interested in. I think NFTs will become a way of expressing both our brand identity and our personal identity.



Blockworks: Do you have tips for NFT buyers who are only looking to trade their collectibles?



Jodee: I don&#8217;t think about that very much. For me, it&#8217;s the least interesting part of the ecosystem. We don&#8217;t allow people to come and talk about crypto because we don&#8217;t want that. We want thought leadership around NFTs. The trading part of it is probably the least interesting. This year we have a stage where people can come and talk about their drops, and we&#8217;re helping them by putting them on stage.&nbsp;



Blockworks: Is it still early days?



Jodee: If you say there are 1,000 days in the life of NFTs, I think we&#8217;re really only at day one. We are barely at the beginning. The good news is that your taxi driver probably knows what an NFT is.&nbsp;



This interview was edited for length and clarity.



<hr class="wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity"/>



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