Sentiment High in the Shadow of FTX: Event Recap for the Texas Blockchain Summit

Although the mood among the many who showed up to Austin was optimistic, most commented on FTX's collapse and declining of the Bitcoin price.

Apparently not everything is bigger in Texas. At least not in the days after a major crypto exchange declared bankruptcy.

The collapse of FTX and the repercussions of former CEO Sam Bankman-Fried in the crypto space were on many people's lips during the Texas Blockchain Summit held November 17-18 in the capital of Austin State. Unlike the Texas Blockchain Council's inaugural conference in October 2021 which was held over a single day, there were plenty of open seats at the 2022 event, which included speakers on energy, mining crypto, regulation and innovations in the space.

“Two years ago, this audience was packed,” Chad Harris, chief commercial officer at crypto miner Riot Blockchain, said at the summit — perhaps confusing the year of the last event. "Today is an audience full of passionate people who believe they can actually make what they say to the public easier [...] Every time one of us fails disastrously, it affects everyone of us in this room.”

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U.S. lawmakers and regulators including Texas Senator Ted Cruz and Commodity Futures Trading Commission Commissioner Summer Mersinger were in attendance, as were household names in the crypto space like the host of podcast Anthony 'Pomp' Pompliano and former presidential candidate Andrew Yang. The October 2021 summit saw three US senators speak, including pro-crypto lawmaker Cynthia Lummis.

"Texas is a free state, and it attracts a lot of businesses [...] I think we're seeing the results of that," Perianne Boring, founder of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, told Cointelegraph at the summit. .

Lummis Senior Policy Advisor Kelsey Pristach attended the 2022 summit to speak on a panel on digital asset policy. However, some speakers who were scheduled to appear in panels on November 17 were not present for unknown reasons. Minnesota Rep. Tom Emmer, announced as a confirmed speaker for the May summit, was not on the final agenda.

While there are telltale signs of native Texans in the audience - a few cowboy hats and...