‘Davos for Degens’ vibes as Bitcoin and Ethereum plummet

If there’s one thing WallStreetBets loves to do, it’s marvel at the losses other members of the community suffer by placing outsize bets on stocks and cryptocurrencies. But at a recent conference in Miami, not many degen traders were left standing during the final day of the conference.

In [REDACTED] Live, a conference dedicated to the most reckless financial traders, dealers were ready at the blackjack and roulette tables, waiting for conference attendees to try their luck. They didn’t have much to do, and meanwhile, Bitcoin and Ethereum sank along with precious metals, starting a cryptocurrency market crash that would get much worse in the days to come.

Despite a last-minute name change, the conference formerly known as WallStreetBets Live was still scheduled to host names like Jordan Belfort, the former stockbroker who inspired a generation of so-called degens through his portrayal of his life in “The Wolf of Wall Street.”

In the end, the character who became synonymous with charismatic persuasion and unapologetic greed in finance was unable to attend. Martin Shkreli’s scheduled session also fell through, leaving attendees without the controversial investor known as “Pharma Bro.”

In some ways, the lack of conference attendees showed how niche the fandom had grown toward the bombastic Reddit community (and cryptocurrencies by extension). Some attendees recalled how difficult it was to navigate the floors of the Miami Beach Convention Center in 2021, when a Bitcoin conference made it feel like the industry was leaning toward the mainstream.

From many points of view, digital assets have been legitimized in traditional finance since then. But after a series of booms and busts in the cryptosphere (from NFTs to meme coins), digital assets have yet to be widely adopted by the general public.

An event organizer said Decipher that around 1,300 attendees registered for [REDACTED] Live.

“Core value”

Some speakers attending the conference described a shift from speculation to tokenization, allowing people to access real-world assets as digital tokens in a way that fits with the community that serves as a digital breeding ground for meme stocks.

Gracy Chen, CEO of Bitget, said on stage that meme coins lack “fundamental value.” And while the Seychelles-based exchange has listed several popular meme coins, including the official token of Pepe and President Donald Trump, it said that doesn’t mean it’s generally bullish on them.

Mezcal, the pseudonymous founder of token launch platform America.Fun, structured his presentation for the platform that allows users to create and trade meme coins around the notion that the so-called Solana trenches are dead. But by charging users $200 per meme coin created, it argued that its platform is less likely to support a mix of low-quality tokens on similar platforms that essentially amount to spam.

According to your documentationAmerica.Fun uses only World Liberty Financial’s $1 stablecoin, and trading fees collected by the platform can be used for buybacks of WLFI, the token offered by the DeFi project backed by President Donald Trump and his children.

Ogle, a pseudonymous advisor to World Liberty Financial, is an advisor to the United States. It’s also fun, Mezcal said. Decipher. Mezcal added that it was the first time he visited the country.

The Davos of the degens

Although enthusiasm for assets trading on the vibes and bluster associated with WallStreetBets had dimmed, as far as the conference was concerned, the same mental “us versus them” that defined the GameStop saga of 2021 still burned.

At least, that was from the perspective of WallStreetBets founder Jamie Rogozinski. Instead of waging war on Wall Street short sellers, he said Decipher that his side was now at odds with Reddit after it forced the event to change its name through a cease and desist letter.

With days left, the conference went from “WallStreetBets Live” to “[REDACTED] Live.” Throughout the place, all mentions of the name were patched with new signs.

US courts ruled that Reddit owns the WallStreetBets trademark, and in December the Supreme Court declined to review a lawsuit filed by Rogozinski, according to Bloomberg Law.

That didn’t stop Rogozinski from continuing to hold the title for months. And he argued that Reddit is primarily concerned with how WallStreetBets has expanded beyond its platform.

“There is a resounding demand for this collective mentality to be able to unite,” he said. “I think the reason Reddit is doing what they’re doing specifically against me is because they fear that’s precisely what’s happening.”

A Reddit spokesperson said Decipher which “occasionally trademarks the names of certain communities to protect the creativity and interests of users.”

Martin Masser, head of growth at the TON Foundation, said Decipher The outcome of Rogozinski’s legal dispute with Reddit sets a “dangerous precedent” because it creates the perception that people have no right to ownership of their data or the social media communities they create.

He wondered if YouTube might try to assert its ownership of Beast’s media empire, for example. The sentiment was shared by AlphaTON Capital CEO and whistleblower Brittany Kaiser, who previously wrote amicus curiae briefs in support of Rogozinski’s case.

“A lot of the people here used to be considered rebellious, deviant or people who did something specific,” he said. Deciphernoting that he had just returned to the United States from his twelfth trip to Davos, Switzerland. “Now what we’re doing is not niche at all.”

FTX Memories

For South Florida locals like Alex Hochberger, founder and CEO of crypto startup Web3 Enabler, [REDACTED] Live felt like a mixed bag.

The bar was open at 9 a.m., as it should be at any gathering in Miami, he said. Decipher. But there was something about an “anti-establishment conference.” [being] with a price for people with corporate credit cards” that did not sit well with him at all.

Hochberger argued that general admission should have been free. Still, a couple dozen people had shown up early on the final day of the conference to see former White House Communications Director and SkyBridge Capital founder Anthony Scaramucci give the opening shot.

Like Belfort and Shkreli, Scaramucci was unable to appear in person. Still, he offered wisdom through a pre-recorded video, including that “you have to get up.”

As Scaramucci recalled the biggest falls of his life, including losing his high-profile White House job after just 11 days, a short clip of Sam Bankman-Fried shuffling in handcuffs played, showing the former FTX CEO’s arrest in 2022.

When FTX still had the naming rights to the stadium where the Miami Heat plays professional basketball, it was celebrated as someone who could turn the city into a major crypto hub. His conviction for orchestrating a massive billion-dollar fraud would later tarnish the industry.

Scaramucci admitted that he allowed Bankman-Fried, who received a 25-year prison sentence for orchestrating a multimillion-dollar fraud, to acquire a 30% stake in Skybridge weeks before its collapse. But Scaramucci noted that the setbacks may be temporary.

“We looked very bad,” he said. “But if you operate with integrity, even when a bad situation happens to you, you can survive, and there are many opportunities.”