Thoughts from on the ground at the Bitcoin Miami Conference

Crypto markets have remained relatively quiet (although Elon Musk hasn’t) and stable this week. Last week, we wrote several notes about why we thought the market may have found a bottom due to the massive deleveraging, that a falling BTC VIX is indicating peak fear fading, and how news getting “less bad” is good for the market. We didn’t expect the weekend sell-off that many were fearful of, and once that didn’t materialize, we’ve seen investors start to get more optimistic.

We’re at the Bitcoin Miami conference this week and decided to move our weekly note to this Friday to give clients a sense of what we’re hearing from on the ground.

For background, this conference has been a favorite of mine for years. Ethereum was announced here in 2014 and many would consider it a “crypto OG conference.” I’ve been attending the conference since 2016. Back then, it looked like nothing more than a half full community college classroom on a Saturday. It has been amazing to see the growth ebb and flow with the growth of the market over the years.

While here, we’ve been talking with existing institutional and retail crypto whale investors, newcomer traditional funds and Main Street retail, and industry insiders at leading crypto businesses to get a sense for what folks are thinking.

Here are several of our takeaways:

1. General energy and tone of conference is very positive and sentiment overwhelmingly bullish
2. Although this is a Bitcoin conference, many investors are more interested and excited about the opportunity for crypto in general
3. Many crypto die-hard high risk takers were rocked by the sell off in recent months and their open question is if this was a mid 2017 reset or Dec 2017 end of the bull market
4. Crypto has gone mainstream with retail newcomers from all corners now familiar with and holding some crypto
5. Large traditional investors adding outside capital personally, through crypto funds and fund of funds
6. Smart money crypto insiders still lean bullish over the balance of the year but think the macro will drive if crypto remains in a bull market, and have slightly more outlook uncertainty
7. New and existing crypto businesses are continuing to raise capital and build & grow rapidly, with the quality and adoption of projects now the highest I’ve seen in my years in the space
8. Crypto investment banking M&A and capital advisory market is heating up now that many crypto companies are maturing and starting to consolidate markets or maintain competitive advantages
9. There is a huge demand for hiring in crypto, but there’s a lack of highly qualified talent and many people from outside crypto are attempting to cross over into the industry 
10. There’s questions regarding how new regulation might impact the space but people are taking an optimistic view

The one thing that seems to be universally agreed upon is that crypto is here to stay and long term outlook is overwhelmingly bullish.