Crypto Connection 2021 — Day One

Three takeaways from Tabb Forum’s crypto conference

I couldn’t afford a ticket to Miami for the hot-hot-hot Bitcoin conference last weekend so I settled for the next best thing: #cryptoconnection2021 from Tabb Forum and the Global Digital Asset & Cryptocurrency Association this week. It was a bit like a music festival in reverse: the bigger acts came first rather than serving as the grand finale.

Here are my three takeaways from the first day of this two day conference:

1. I went into the event thinking that it had a “celebrity problem” but I was quickly disabused of that notion. Specifically, the event led off with a panel that was moderated by Kapil Rathi from CrossTower and featured crypto heavyweights Mike Novogratz and Mark Cuban. I was especially wary of Cuban after our country’s recent experience with the star of a reality TV show but I quickly learned that I was wrong to think that way: Cuban as well as Novogratz brought the goods. In the case of Cuban, he called out the SEC for their tendency to conduct “regulation through litigation” and dismissed the recent negative testimony to Congress from top bankers, saying that TV execs laughed at him when he talked to them about his early forays into streaming. Both men have their finger on the pulse and should be heeded.
2. The second panel was also celebrity focused, although these were “smaller c” celebs: Matt Roszak and Sam Bankman-Fried. It seemed like Roszak was nominally interviewing Bankman-Fried but he is so much more loquacious that he led the conversation more than he followed. No matter: both men provided stellar insights. From Roszak I learned about Carlson’s Law, which posits that innovation that happens from the bottom up tends to be chaotic but smart while innovation that happens from the top down tends to be orderly but dumb. (Guess which applies to crypto.) Bankman-Fried, for his part, took an interesting tack with his focus on UI/UX as an important next step for the development of defi and his focus on building the brand of his company, FTX. In that regard, they bought the naming rights to the arena where the Miami Heat play basketball.
3. The balance of the day yielded rapidly diminishing returns for me as the conversation turned to investor protection, prime brokerage and regulation. Rather than spout a few random facts, here are a few of the speakers that I believe deserve further attention: Nathan McCauley from Anchorage Digital, Jerome Dwight of Brane Capital, CrossTower’s Greg Bunn, Roger Brown of Lukka and Aqsa Zubair from the Bermuda Monetary Authority.

Day two of the conference has less star power but more focus on three interesting case studies: BitStamp, Jewel and Anchorage. I’ll let you know how it goes and also tell you what I learned about crypto by having my day interrupted by the local gas utility installing a new meter at my house today. Stay tuned.

Chuck Mackie is a principal at Fathom Communication. Fathom provides thought leadership strategy and content that delivers both depth and understanding for financial services and technology innovators.