DAVOS, Switzerland – Crypto-related technology companies have been active at the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, even after the recent market crash that has wiped out billions of dollars from the digital currency market.
Promenade, a major strip where companies and the government occupy the shops and bars of the forum week, is dominated by crypto companies, located between large corporations such as Salesforce and Facebook-owner Meta.
“It’s a big step for the crypto industry, they’ve always been anti-Davos,” a spokesman told CNBC.
On Sunday, Tether, the company behind Stablecoin USDT, set up a stand to offer free pizza at Promenade for Bitcoin Pizza Day. On May 22, 2010, a programmer bought a pizza using Bitcoin and it was widely seen as the first transaction using cryptocurrency. The day is celebrated every year by the crypto community.
Another representative commented that crypto companies were “scattering cash.”
Non-fungible tokens are a big topic during discussions at the World Economic Forum. RollApp, which runs an NFT store, sets up a location in Davos to promote digital collections.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Fernando Verbunen, co-founder of Rollup, a non-fungible token (NFT) store that occupied a store in Promenade, estimated that about 60% of the street space was owned by crypto-related companies.
“They’re basically occupying Davos,” he said.
Non-fungible tokens are digitally collectible. RollApp is trying to turn real-world resources like cars into NFT.
‘Crazy Weeks’
Despite the recent market crash, Davos has a strong industry presence. More than $ 500 billion was removed from the crypto market last month, as Stablecoin Terra has sent shockwaves across the USD collapse industry.
Those in Davos are probably committed to occupying a place in the promenade of the Alpine Ski Resort before the recent market collapse.
“It was a crazy few weeks at Crypto. We promised to come here a long time ago but it is not going to change. We are in a position where we are going to resist the bear market and there will be a bull race again.” Clifford Sarkin, blockchain start-up The CEO of Caspar Labs told CNBC:
Circle, one of the companies behind USDC stablecoin, owns a store in Davos Promenade.
Arjun Kharpal | CNBC
Caspar Labs has a blockchain product for business purposes. Blockchain is predominant with Bitcoin but its definition has expanded. It’s effectively a shared account of activities that can underpin business applications, such as cross-border money transfers, advocates say.
Sarkin said the crash was positive for companies like his who focus on selling blockchain to business customers rather than consumers.
“It’s easy to do business in the bear cycle. Many of those who came last year and tried to make money on crypto are leaving now because they say crypto is dead, out of place for a while now and we’re going to do real business,” he told CNBC.
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