Jeff Cangialosi

The ETHCC conference has been around since 2018. It has grown from a niche conference with a couple hundred attendees to a marquee event with 6k+ people in attendance this past week in Brussels. A number of people had hot takes on Brussels and seemed a little salty to not be in Paris due to the Olympics; however, I wanted to reflect a little more of the substance of the conference and where it feels like we are as industry.

This was my first year attending ETHCC, so I have no reference point. Here are a few quick thoughts:

1. Side events and more side events: It seems like we are beyond max capacity for side events at this point. I will say I got tremendous value from several of the side events, and they were the best opportunities to meet people and open up new business opportunities. With that said, the small coffees and group meetups were still the best part of the conference. I had the chance to coordinate a business operations meetup in the park, and it was a great experience with real conversations and people actually connecting rather than lightening-pitching each other.
2. Might as well build an L2. It’s chain building summer. Literally 8 out of 10 projects you talked to were launching a chain. Some had a reason for doing so, others not so much. The app specific chain thesis does seem to have merit, but it’s exhausting hearing about project after project are launching chains just because that’s what everyone is doing or that’s what investors are rewarding.
3. More DeFi protocols. If one more person pitches me a lending protocol and tells me that their key differentiator is their deep liquidity, that may be it for me lol. I want to DeFi figure out real consumer and SMB lending cases. I think blockchains offer massive potential to improve credit markets, but it still feels like most of the DeFi innovation is around providing leverage for onchain trading.
4. Stablecoin innovation. There is a ton going on right now in terms of crafting new stablecoins and thinking through how yield-bearing instruments work. There are obviously a ton of regulatory hurdles on this front, but it’s interesting to see more capital markets infrastructure come on chain. We are starting to see a world where treasuries are coming on chain, and where large corporates can manage payments and liquidity on chain without needing to on and off ramp to gain exposure to yield bearing instruments.
5. Progress on the regulatory front. I had the opportunity to hang out with a bunch of lawyers for a morning at a Zerio event. We spent a lot of time talking about MICA, and it’s broader implications. There was a general sense that the EU is out in front on much of this regulation and is setting standards that many other markets including the US are likely to follow.

Those are all my quick thoughts for now. Overall, it was a great opportunity for me to meet existing and new Loop clients. Our brand recognition is slowly growing, and that’s always encouraging to see.