January 28, 2019 – St. Moritz:
- 260 investors and industry leaders attended the Crypto Finance Conference
- Regulatory topics and questions dominated discussions on and off stage
- Ryan Zinke, former US Secretary of the Interior attended as a special guest
- Majorty of conference attendants combined CFC and WEF visit
From January 16th to 18th, right before the World Economic Forum, 260 guests attended the highly anticipated Crypto Finance Conference St. Moritz 2019. Despite the arrival of the crypto winter in the scene, the conference was completely sold out at the end of the first day. The CFC is the world’s most exclusive investor conference on cryptocurrencies and blockchain investments, and took place in St. Moritz in the Swiss mountains for the second time. The three-day event, previously hosted in St. Moritz and Geneva, Switzerland, as well as in Half Moon Bay, CA, USA, brought together top-notch speakers and carefully selected participants at the prestigious Suvretta House in St. Moritz. Special guest at the conference was Ryan Zinke, former US Secretary of the Interior.
Tobias Reichmuth, President of the Board of the CFC says: “We are very happy with the high number and outstanding quality of the participants. In discussions on and off stage, it became once again clear that the whole industry is becoming more professional and that we can expect many interesting and promising investment opportunities to come up in 2019.”
“Over the last few months, the industry and many blockchain events truly felt the negative impact of the crypto winter. But with the Crypto Finance Conference, we’ve created an event of such high quality by bringing together the right people in one place, that many chose it as one of only a few conferences they still want to attend,” reflects Nicolo Stoehr, CEO of the CFC.
Participants and speakers at last week’s event—who were all hand-picked by the conference board—expressed their continued bullishness on the crypto industry. Special focus was put on regulatory topics. Mentionable quotes from speakers include:
Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg: “The international harmonization of Blockchain regulation won't come that quickly." While the US does too little and Europe isn't able, the Chinese had understood that the Blockchain technology had created the precondition to achieve economic and therefore geopolitical dominance. So the Crypto and Blockchain community have to get ready for huge risks: Regulation of Blockchain based businesses and artificial intelligence as a battlefield of global powers. Zu Guttenberg is a former Minister of Economics & Technology and former Minister of Defense of Germany and founder of Spitzberg Partners.
Sterling Witzke, Partner at Winklevoss Capital, said that people tend to think the space moves at lightning-speed because of how 2017 ended. She predicts that the next big rise in crypto will come, but most likely not in 2019: “The space lacks regulatory clarity, and many investors and institutions still have concerns regarding security.”
Philipp Roesler, former Vice-Chancellor of Germany, stated: “If you don‘t care [about regulations], the politicians will take care of it” and encouraged Blockchain industry leaders to actively work with regulators to build the right framework.
Ruedi Noser: On a panel discussing The regulation maze - comparing global perspectives and the challenges in achieving international alignment, the member of the Swiss Parliament noted that “Winners don’t have the time to be talking to politicians. So there is a risk that politicians are listening to losers” to stress the importance of continuous dialogue between the right people in politics and the industry.
"Too much regulation is patronizing. Regulation should enable people and not patronize them”, said Aviya Arika, Head of Strategic Initiatives of the Israeli Blockchain Association, who is advocating for useful regulation.
Emilie Raffo, who is co-organizing Blockchain 4 Humanity, stated: "What amazes me with tokenization, is the ability to transform any illiquid asset into a liquid one and ensure seamless transferability of all the goods in the world. However, as long as we don't have a legal framework recognizing tokens as titles of property for their underlying assets, the state cannot fulfill its main duty: Protecting the private property of its citizens."
Other notable speakers at the Crypto Finance Conference include: Charles Hoskinson (IOHK), Maja Vujinovic (OGroup), Dr. Thomas Dünser (Senior Advisor to the Prime Minister of Liechtenstein), Kahina Van Dyke (Ripple), Helen Hai (Binance Blockchain Charity Foundation), Bill Tai (ACTAI Global), Andy Bromberg (Coinlist), Donna Redel (Fordham Law-Business School), Flore-Anne Messy (OECD), Ted Rogers (Xapo), David Wachsman (Wachsman PR) and many more. The full list of speakers is available here.
Facts & Figures
- This was the 4th Crypto Finance Conference within one year
- The anniversary conference took place in St. Moritz, where it all started in 2018
- 260 guests attended the conference (60 speakers & 200 participants)
- 30 panels, keynotes and fireside chats took place over three days
- On each panel were one to four women – no manels
- 31% of speakers were female
- Multiple billionaires attended the conference
About CFC
The Crypto Finance Conference (CFC) is the world’s most exclusive investor conference about cryptocurrencies and blockchain investments. The CFC is connecting private investors, institutional investors and family offices with leaders in the blockchain industry. The three-day conference offers expert education, investment opportunities and excellent networking. The list of participants of each conference is strictly limited, application-based and curated by the board to enable the participating experts to build a unique network. In 2018 the CFC has proven itself as an important platform and gathering for serious investors and blockchain enthusiasts. Shortly after the overwhelming success of the inaugural conference in St. Moritz, Switzerland, in January 2018, the exclusive investor event expanded to Geneva, Switzerland and later California in the US.
Media Contact
Sarah Jordi, CMO Crypto Finance Conference
Phone: +41 79 626 86 47 / Telegram: @saraxjo