Reimagining the Future of Money at Consensus

The Resurgence of Cryptocurrency

In November 2022, following a series of major scandals in the ecosystem, crypto was on its knees. Investors were pulling out of the space. Everyday participants were turned off by falling prices and many stories of greed and incompetence. Lawmakers and regulators were on a warpath, seemingly prepared to eviscerate crypto as much as they could. 

Fast forward to April 2024 and the picture looks quite different. Bitcoin is trading around $70,000 (an all-time-high), other digital assets are springing to life, and whole new categories of crypto are emerging fast, from DePIN to Real World Assets (RWAs), to a whole spate of activity around artificial intelligence.

Institutional Adoption and Market Evolution

Driving all this has been a renewed faith in the sector particularly among institutions. The adoption, starting in January, of bitcoin ETFs by trusted financial names like BlackRock and Fidelity has been essential for legitimizing Bitcoin and the entire crypto industry. ETFs provide a bedrock for growth and acceptance of crypto around the world.

CoinDesk has seen all this up-close over the last two years and for eight years before. It’s certainly been a rollercoaster ride and sometimes things move so quickly that it’s hard to keep up. But now is a good time to take stock: to see where the industry has come from and where it’s going.

Consensus Festival: A Decade of Crypto Innovation

To do that, you can’t find a better place than CoinDesk’s Consensus festival, which, in 2024, is now in its tenth year. Bringing together 15,000 people to Austin, Texas, in May, the event will cover the key developments of the crypto space and look at where the future of money is headed next.

The Money Reimagined Stage, one of a dozen stages at the event, features speakers from Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, PayPal, Citi, DTCC, CBOE, the SEC, the CFTC, and many other storied traditional institutions. These Tradfi players will share the spotlight with many big names from crypto, including Kraken, Ondo and Wintermute.

Industry Insights and Regulatory Discussions

Matthew McDermott, GS’s head of digital assets, will discuss the firm’s approach to tokenization of RWAs. JP Morgan’s Umar Farooq, PayPal’s Jose Fernandez da Ponte and Ryan Rugg of Citi will explore the future of stablecoins. DTCC’s Nadine Chakar joins the stage to discuss crypto asset clearing systems with Jonathan Steinberg from WisdomTree. There are sessions on custody, M&A in crypto, how TradFi, following the success of bitcoin ETFs, could further expand into digital assets, regulation in Europe, DePIN, memecoins, and much more.

A highlight from the stage is a fireside chat with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce (aka “Crypto Mom”) and Summer Mersinger, Commissioner at the CFTC. Both are known for being more favorable to crypto than their employers as a whole and they’ll shed light on how U.S. regulators might treat crypto going forward.

Experience the Future of Finance at Consensus

Consensus features the biggest names in digital assets including Chris Dixon from a16z, Jenny Johnson, the CEO of Franklin Templeton, Michael Sonnenshein of Grayscale, and Brendan Eich, the CEO of Brave. It is the only event on the Web3 calendar bringing together all parts of the crypto ecosystem, not least the institutions that are now driving the industry’s revival. If you want to know what’s happening in crypto, and could happen in the future, there’s no better place to be.

Consensus takes place May 29-31 based in the Austin Convention Center, in Texas. Use code: COINSTACK for 15% off. Register for the event by clicking the link here.