“We all feel that the products and services we offer are now firmly woven into the fabric of financial services,” Michael Sonnenshein, CEO of Grayscale Investments, said of the large crypto companies based in Davos. His firm led the lawsuits that led to the SEC's approval of Bitcoin investment funds.
It highlights how cryptocurrencies are moving toward a level of global credibility despite the cloud of fraud, mismanagement, and reckless speculation that has hung over the space in the past few years. The approval of bitcoin investment funds in the United States — a push backed by some of Wall Street's most powerful speculators — is just one example of moves governments around the world are making to give legitimacy to digital asset offerings. It's a sign that the remains of Sam Bankman-Fried — the FTX founder convicted of defrauding clients and investors of billions of dollars — are gone.
“The funeral service is over,” Anthony Scaramucci, the cryptocurrency financier and advocate, said in an interview in Davos. “This is the Year of Lazarus.”
The talk around cryptocurrencies around the World Economic Forum is about how digital assets can be more integrated into traditional finance and how the underlying blockchain technology – essentially an augmented spreadsheet – can be used to track more traditional assets.
AI is definitely ahead of cryptocurrencies on the Davos agenda. Artificial intelligence is dominating the conversation among business leaders. This is all over the corporate branding that adorns the shops along Davos' main promenade, as cryptocurrencies once were.
“There is an AI house on every block, whereas historically there was a blockchain house or a web3 house or a crypto house,” Dante Disparte, chief strategy officer at Circle, told POLITICO. “I take it to mean that the technology stack has arrived, whereas technology can somewhat recede into the background.”
Many cryptocurrency executives wouldn't mind a less flashy approach in the wake of Bankman-Fried's dramatic rise and fall.
As Rob Grant, head of global public policy at Ripple, said: “Boredom is good.”
As cryptocurrencies continue to battle with SEC Chairman Gary Gensler and Sen. Elizabeth Warren over consumer protections and financial crime concerns, industry executives in Davos say the environment at the World Economic Forum is more attractive. It's an opportunity for them to showcase the benefits of digital assets to other world leaders who might be more open-minded.
Faryar Sherzad, chief policy officer at Coinbase, said on Monday that the cryptocurrency exchange had meetings scheduled with three prime ministers and 10-15 ministers.
“The governments that we are interested in talking to, the level of interest on their part is usually very high,” he said. “It's not as if Elizabeth Warren's attack on us defines how we deal with most governments.”
