Reimagining the Future of Money at Consensus

CoinDesk’s Consensus festival in late-May promises a rich discussion about the institutional adoption of digital assets in all its forms.

The Resurgence of Cryptocurrency

In November 2022, following a series of major scandals in the ecosystem, crypto was on its knees. Investors were pulling out of the space. Everyday participants were turned off by falling prices and many stories of greed and incompetence. Lawmakers and regulators were on a warpath, seemingly prepared to eviscerate crypto as much as they could. 

Fast forward to April 2024 and the picture looks quite different. Bitcoin is trading around $70,000 (an all-time-high), other digital assets are springing to life, and whole new categories of crypto are emerging fast, from DePIN to Real World Assets (RWAs), to a whole spate of activity around artificial intelligence.

Institutional Adoption and Market Evolution

Driving all this has been a renewed faith in the sector particularly among institutions. The adoption, starting in January, of bitcoin ETFs by trusted financial names like BlackRock and Fidelity has been essential for legitimizing Bitcoin and the entire crypt…