NFT.NYC Events Head to Dive Bars and Apartment Buildings as Crypto Crashes

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NFT.NYC, an annual crypto conference that even last year showed the decadence of a billion-dollar industry, took a decidedly low turn this week.

Since it first aired in 2019, providers of so-called NFTs, or non-fungible tokens, have spent millions on sensational events. They’ve hired celebrity DJs like Diplo and rented expensive venues like hip downtown club Tao, Dream Hotels’ rooftop PHD and members-only club Spring Place.

This week, NFT.NYC held from Wednesday to Friday was more of a low budget affair. Most events had multiple sponsors to share the costs, and some events were held in free or low-cost venues, such as common areas in apartment buildings or dive bars.

Although there is an official conference being held at the Javits Center, NFT insiders say outside events are much more important. Still, insiders say that all the money companies have spent over the past few years hasn’t necessarily helped the cause of Web 3.0.

I went to something last year for Quentin Tarantinos NFT and it was hilarious to see everyone trying to spin what they’re doing and explaining it, a source told On The Money. Everyone would be much more confused about what was going on after hearing the panel. It was pure comedy.

You had random people talking about democratizing art and no one could answer questions about what they were doing, even the smartest minds couldn’t quite explain it, the source added.

While some outside NFT observers mourn the free cocktails, others say a toned down NFT week is good medicine.

Tons of stuff is still being built, it’s just the manic speculative bubble that’s burst, an industry source said.

This year is certainly less exuberant, but it’s a coming of age that focuses on creating new technologies with less speculative use cases. Hugh Renaudin, co-founder of token platform P00LS, told the Post.

Speculation has sparked a lot of interest in cryptocurrency and Web 3.0 has gone bad, so everyone is trying to be more private now, Hugh added.

While NFT volumes reached around $2 billion in February, this is still a dramatic drop from the number of transactions just a year ago. Bloomberg reports that in January 2022 there were $17 billion in NFT sales in December 2022, this volume had fallen 97% to $466 million.

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