Crypto

Announcing the agenda for TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto 2022

Comment

The crypto industry seemed to age several decades over the past bull run, maturing in some places while barreling ahead in ambitious new pursuits, including DeFi, NFTs and web3. And while scams continued to proliferate and hacker heists became a weekly occurrence, the space onboarded an onslaught of retail investors and fostered feverish excitement among young technologists eager to bet their careers on the blockchain.

We’re thrilled to tap into this controversy and excitement once again as we announce the star-studded agenda for TechCrunch Sessions: Crypto 2022.

The event — taking place November 17 in Miami — will offer an opportunity for founders and investors to hear war stories from some of the crypto world’s most powerful decision-makers, while also picking up learnings from industry veterans who have weathered a crypto winter or two. Take advantage of our special launch pricing — save $250 on General Admission passes while supplies last. Buy your pass today, and then join the web3, DeFi and NFT communities to keep up with the ever-evolving and always exciting cryptoverse.

We’re so excited to hold this event in the city of Miami, which has encapsulated so much of the recent excitement surrounding emerging tech development and investment in the crypto sector. Our guests at this event have some of the brightest minds in the business and have intimately shaped crypto as an asset class and cultural touchstone.

We have lots more news and speakers to share in the coming weeks, but here is a first peek!


November 17

Live onstage: TechCrunch’s Chain Reaction

Join us for a live podcast recording of Chain Reaction as TechCrunch’s crypto team dives into lively discussions on the latest blockchain news, drama, and trends.

Keeping the Web3 Dream Funded

with Michelle Bailhe (Sequoia), Tom Schmidt (Dragonfly)

Billions in capital were raised by crypto native funds and web3 VCs during an unprecedented bull run, but as the crypto markets turn bearish, how will investors keep their web3 dream alive? We talk to some of the most influential investors in the crypto space about which potential bets are too early, too late and right on time.

Bringing Crypto to the Crowds

with Amy Wu (FTX)

Former Lightspeed partner Amy Wu made waves this year when she left the VC firm to lead startup investments out of a new $2 billion fund at Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto powerhouse FTX. Since then, the Coinbase challenger has become a critical presence in the crypto M&A world as it has sought to offer a lifeline to blockchain finance businesses wrecked by the sudden downturn all while backing young, ambitious efforts in the consumer web3 space as well. Hear from Wu on how her firm is helping guide the crypto industry through uncertainty while betting on its next class of winners.

Building for Normies

with Alex Adelman (Lolli), Devin Lewtan (Mad Realities), and Brandon Millman (Phantom)

The most-hyped decentralized apps have typically been built for crypto speculators or decentralized finance acolytes, but a new breed of products are being crafted with the common internet user in mind. Join us as we chat with the founders of some of web3’s most exciting consumer apps, and pick their brains on mainstream audience opportunities and the challenges of building consumer crypto businesses in a bear market.

Building a Blockchain Behemoth

with Changpeng Zhao (Binance)

Binance is the largest crypto exchange in the world, and its founder and CEO, Chinese Canadian billionaire Changpeng Zhao, is so well-known that he’s often referred to by his initials alone — “CZ.” Binance’s scale has attracted scrutiny from regulators across the globe, yet the exchange has managed to maintain a cult-like popularity among its customers. Zhao will give us a rare peek behind the curtain at Binance, sharing his insights on what it takes to run the company in a choppy market and his biggest hopes, fears and predictions about its future.

TechCrunch Crypto Pitch-Off

The industry’s brightest entrepreneurs will take the stage in front of a live audience and a panel of industry experts, pitching revolutionary technologies.

Is Crypto Regulation Ready?

with Katherine Dowling (Bitwise Asset Management), more speakers to be announced

As crypto markets continue to gain mainstream adoption, regulators globally are watching the young industry with laser focus. But which crypto companies, protocols and projects will be compliant within the current regulatory framework? And how will the crypto industry respond when government agencies start providing new guidelines? We talk to some of the brightest people in the space, who will dig into what regulation means for the industry in 2022.

A Non-Fungible Empire

with Devin Finzer (OpenSea)

Few in the crypto space saw the explosive adoption of NFTs happening this quickly this soon, but NFT marketplace startup OpenSea, which was founded back in 2017, was waiting in the wings. Fast forward to present day, and there have been tens of billions of dollars in NFT transaction volume with OpenSea handling the lion’s share of those sales. CEO Devin Finzer has so far fended off marketplace competitors from well-funded public behemoths and upstart threats, but can the $13.3 billion startup hold its lead through a bear market?

Fundraising in a Crypto Winter

with Flori Marquez (BlockFi), Nikil Viswanathan (Alchemy), and John Wu (Ava Labs)

The days of flashy deal terms for pre-product crypto startups may be a thing of the past as the industry stares down an uncertain next few years. We talk with a number of veteran crypto founders on how young founders can keep a steady source of funding during the bear market and what their investors might like to see.

Apeing into the Metaverse

with Nicole Muniz (Yuga Labs)

There’s never been anything quite like the rise of Bored Ape Yacht Club. The pricey monkey JPEGs have inspired endless incredulity among crypto outsiders while owners of the NFT collection have showcased a devotion uncommon outside of religious groups. Yuga, the startup behind the collection, is eager to turn this cultural anomaly into an empire. After raising a seed round this year at a mind-boggling $4 billion valuation, Yuga CEO Nicole Muniz has been focusing her efforts on building Otherside, an NFT-centric metaverse aiming to challenge the efforts of Meta, Roblox and others.

Don’t miss your chance to catch all of this amazing content and mine for prime networking opportunities at TC Sessions: Crypto on November 17 in MiamiBuy your pass now and save — before the special launch pricing disappears. We’ll see you in November!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at TC Sessions: Crypto? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

More TechCrunch

Four-year-old Mexican BNPL startup Aplazo facilitates fractionated payments to offline and online merchants even when the buyer doesn’t have a credit card.

Aplazo is using buy-now-pay-later as a stepping stone to financial ubiquity in Mexico

We received countless submissions to speak at this year’s Disrupt 2024. After carefully sifting through all the applications, we’ve narrowed it down to 19 session finalists. Now we need your…

Vote for your Disrupt 2024 Audience Choice favs

Co-founder and CEO Bowie Cheung, who previously worked at Uber Eats, said the company now has 200 customers.

Healthy growth helps B2B food e-commerce startup Pepper nab $30 million led by ICONIQ Growth

Booking.com has been designated a gatekeeper under the EU’s DMA, meaning the firm will be regulated under the bloc’s market fairness framework.

Booking.com latest to fall under EU market power rules

Featured Article

‘Got that boomer!’: How cyber-criminals steal one-time passcodes for SIM swap attacks and raiding bank accounts

Estate is an invite-only website that has helped hundreds of attackers make thousands of phone calls aimed at stealing account passcodes, according to its leaked database.

2 hours ago
‘Got that boomer!’: How cyber-criminals steal one-time passcodes for SIM swap attacks and raiding bank accounts

Squarespace is being taken private in an all-cash deal that values the company on an equity basis at $6.6 billion.

Permira is taking Squarespace private in a $6.9 billion deal

AI-powered tools like OpenAI’s Whisper have enabled many apps to make transcription an integral part of their feature set for personal note-taking, and the space has quickly flourished as a…

Buymeacoffee’s founder has built an AI-powered voice note app

Airtel, India’s second-largest telco, is partnering with Google Cloud to develop and deliver cloud and GenAI solutions to Indian businesses.

Google partners with Airtel to offer cloud and genAI products to Indian businesses

To give AI-focused women academics and others their well-deserved — and overdue — time in the spotlight, TechCrunch has been publishing a series of interviews focused on remarkable women who’ve contributed to…

Women in AI: Rep. Dar’shun Kendrick wants to pass more AI legislation

We took the pulse of emerging fund managers about what it’s been like for them during these post-ZERP, venture-capital-winter years.

A reckoning is coming for emerging venture funds, and that, VCs say, is a good thing

It’s been a busy weekend for union organizing efforts at U.S. Apple stores, with the union at one store voting to authorize a strike, while workers at another store voted…

Workers at a Maryland Apple store authorize strike

Alora Baby is not just aiming to manufacture baby cribs in an environmentally friendly way but is attempting to overhaul the whole lifecycle of a product

Alora Baby aims to push baby gear away from the ‘landfill economy’

Bumble founder and executive chair Whitney Wolfe Herd raised eyebrows this week with her comments about how AI might change the dating experience. During an onstage interview, Bloomberg’s Emily Chang…

Go on, let bots date other bots

Welcome to Week in Review: TechCrunch’s newsletter recapping the week’s biggest news. This week Apple unveiled new iPad models at its Let Loose event, including a new 13-inch display for…

Why Apple’s ‘Crush’ ad is so misguided

The U.K. Safety Institute, the U.K.’s recently established AI safety body, has released a toolset designed to “strengthen AI safety” by making it easier for industry, research organizations and academia…

U.K. agency releases tools to test AI model safety

AI startup Runway’s second annual AI Film Festival showcased movies that incorporated AI tech in some fashion, from backgrounds to animations.

At the AI Film Festival, humanity triumphed over tech

Rachel Coldicutt is the founder of Careful Industries, which researches the social impact technology has on society.

Women in AI: Rachel Coldicutt researches how technology impacts society

SAP Chief Sustainability Officer Sophia Mendelsohn wants to incentivize companies to be green because it’s profitable, not just because it’s right.

SAP’s chief sustainability officer isn’t interested in getting your company to do the right thing

Here’s what one insider said happened in the days leading up to the layoffs.

Tesla’s profitable Supercharger network is in limbo after Musk axed the entire team

StrictlyVC events deliver exclusive insider content from the Silicon Valley & Global VC scene while creating meaningful connections over cocktails and canapés with leading investors, entrepreneurs and executives. And TechCrunch…

Meesho, a leading e-commerce startup in India, has secured $275 million in a new funding round.

Meesho, an Indian social commerce platform with 150M transacting users, raises $275M

Some Indian government websites have allowed scammers to plant advertisements capable of redirecting visitors to online betting platforms. TechCrunch discovered around four dozen “gov.in” website links associated with Indian states,…

Scammers found planting online betting ads on Indian government websites

Around 550 employees across autonomous vehicle company Motional have been laid off, according to information taken from WARN notice filings and sources at the company.  Earlier this week, TechCrunch reported…

Motional cut about 550 employees, around 40%, in recent restructuring, sources say

The company is describing the event as “a chance to demo some ChatGPT and GPT-4 updates.”

OpenAI’s ChatGPT announcement: What we know so far

The deck included some redacted numbers, but there was still enough data to get a good picture.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Cloudsmith’s $15M Series A deck

Unlike ChatGPT, Claude did not become a new App Store hit.

Anthropic’s Claude sees tepid reception on iOS compared with ChatGPT’s debut

Welcome to Startups Weekly — Haje‘s weekly recap of everything you can’t miss from the world of startups. Sign up here to get it in your inbox every Friday. Look,…

Startups Weekly: Trouble in EV land and Peloton is circling the drain

Scarcely five months after its founding, hard tech startup Layup Parts has landed a $9 million round of financing led by Founders Fund to transform composites manufacturing. Lux Capital and Haystack…

Founders Fund leads financing of composites startup Layup Parts

AI startup Anthropic is changing its policies to allow minors to use its generative AI systems — in certain circumstances, at least.  Announced in a post on the company’s official…

Anthropic now lets kids use its AI tech — within limits

Zeekr’s market hype is noteworthy and may indicate that investors see value in the high-quality, low-price offerings of Chinese automakers.

The buzziest EV IPO of the year is a Chinese automaker