Attendance at World’s Largest Bitcoin Conference Down by Half as ‘Crypto Winter’ Drags On
Frederick Munawa is a Technology Reporter for Coindesk. He covers blockchain protocols with a specific focus on bitcoin and bitcoin-adjacent networks.
Bitcoin faithful are making the annual pilgrimage to Miami Beach by the thousands for the third year in a row, for an industry conference set to feature speakers including the U.S. presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy and the author Michael Lewis.
Organizers of the conference, Bitcoin 2023, call it the “world’s largest Bitcoin gathering,” starting Thursday and ending with an exclusive afterparty on Saturday night. A general admission ticket costs $999 and an “Industry Pass” with exclusive access to the “Official Networking App” goes for $2,299.
More than 35,000 people attended last year, according to the conference website. Speakers included tennis legend Serena Williams, controversial psychologist Jordan Peterson and MicroStrategy (MSTR) co-founder Michael Saylor.
This year, the website says approximately 15,000 devotees of the dominant cryptocurrency – fewer than half as many as last year, likely a symptom of crypto winter – will descend on the Miami Beach Convention Center to listen to the U.S. presidential candidates Kennedy and Vivek Ramaswamy, along with Lewis and U.S. Representative Patrick McHenry, the North Carolina Republican who heads the House Financial Services Committee.
The conference, organized by BTC Inc. and BTC Media, LLC (owner of Bitcoin Magazine), will feature over 180 talks, with session names including “Boom to Bust: Wall Street & the FTX Aftermath,” “The Great Ordinal Debate” and “Bitcoin-Powered Nuclear Energy.”
“Bitcoin winter is heating up in Miami,” reads one banner on the conference website.
The price of bitcoin (BTC) has risen to about $28,000 from around $15,000 in November, but it’s still well off the all-time high around $69,000 reached in late 2021.
The market malaise has triggered a slew of corporate bankruptcies and failures in the crypto industry along with widespread layoffs, leading analysts and executives to describe the current phase of the business cycle as “crypto winter.”
Edited by Bradley Keoun.
DISCLOSURE
Please note that our
privacy policy,
terms of use,
cookies,
and
do not sell my personal information
has been updated
.
The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a
strict set of editorial policies.
CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of
Digital Currency Group,
which invests in
cryptocurrencies
and blockchain
startups.
As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of
stock appreciation rights,
which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG
.
Frederick Munawa is a Technology Reporter for Coindesk. He covers blockchain protocols with a specific focus on bitcoin and bitcoin-adjacent networks.
Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.
Frederick Munawa is a Technology Reporter for Coindesk. He covers blockchain protocols with a specific focus on bitcoin and bitcoin-adjacent networks.