CoinMarketCap held a Twitter Spaces, gathering some of the leading voices in crypto to discuss how we can rebuild and move forward as an industry.
For the last ten days or so, one topic has ruled them all in the crypto space:
How the &§%@ did FTX collapse and where do we go from here?
CoinMarketCap Academy covered the bank run on FTX in great detail:
- In the Glassnode on-chain report The Fall of FTX.
- In our deep dive explainer of the FTX collapse.
- In our weekly Twitter round-up titled "Bankrupt Altruism".
That answers the first part of the question. So, where do we go from here?
That was covered on yesterday's CoinMarketCap Twitter Space #REBUIDL Crypto. CoinMarketCap’s mission has always been to provide fair data and education to the masses. With the recent FTX crisis affecting many, confidence in the industry has taken a hit. To help rebuild crypto together and support the community going through hard times, CoinMarketCap has gathered some of the industry-leading voices to discuss the path forward.
If you missed it, we have a TLDR of the most important talking points from this illustrious line-up of guests:
On lessons from the previous bear market
Most guests were around for the previous bear market, so everyone knows the drill. Eowyn pointed out that a bear market is the best time to see what remains and has value. It's also the best time to build new features and capabilities (something that TrustWallet plans to do).
On the importance of self-custody
Self-custody has been a major talking point since the FTX fiasco. Particularly, bitcoiners have been steadfastly reminding everyone of the importance of self-custody — can't get liquidated from a cold wallet after all! Pete reinforced that point: self-custody is the number one lesson and the reason why crypto exists in the first place.
Still, the consensus was that custodians aren't going anywhere. Eowyn pointed out that centralized exchanges are here to stay since they provide the most liquidity. But even centralized exchanges have something to gain here. They can leverage on-chain verification of assets for audits (and, by extension, build trust with users), as Dyma from Hacken reminded listeners.
On moving on from FTX by building
The mood on Crypto Twitter ever since the bankruptcy has been defiant. This 'we ain't leaving' attitude is backed up by a focus on building, another big talking point of the Space. Two major points emerged as consensus:
Building more on-chain audits and self-regulation.
Bitcoiners have a natural tendency for skepticism, as Pete explained, so "promoting a culture of scrutiny" will do the space a lot of good. Andrew from Nansen agreed that more self-correction in the industry is necessary because regulators won't do a better job.
Besides on-chain audits for CEXes, the robustness of DeFi proved itself to be a useful asset for the future. As Andrew rightly explained, DeFi overcollateralization and automatic liquidations have their strengths.
Meanwhile, Austin Adams pointed out that with Uniswap, you don’t need to put your trust in people, but instead “you just have to put your trust in the code and that it works.”
As an OG of the space, Pete remembered the sentiment after the Mt Gox collapse, which was very similar to what is happening today: winter is here, so time to dig in and build.
On the crypto media coverage of FTX
Another interesting topic was the crypto media coverage of the FTX collapse. Crypto journalist Laura Shin praised Coindesk for setting everything in motion by having the guts to break the story in the first place. Still, she rightly said that no one was interested in providing sources on SBF's flaws when things were going as planned — a reminder how difficult self-regulation of the industry can be.
On lessons for the future
Two points stood out in this last section:
• Data literacy and 'on-chain fluency' is growing (also thanks to FTX).
• This will help steer the industry back to its roots.
Adrian from BUSD made a great point: Google has "don't be evil" so crypto can have "can't be evil" thanks to on-chain transparency. After all, it's all about who is trying to grow the industry and do good versus who's just in it for the money.
Finally, Dyma also said that CoinMarketCap has “all the cards to bring trust and transparency back to our industry.” We are definitely working with that goal in mind!
A story to keep in mind
Even if you skip the two-hour long Space, the last six minutes are worth tuning into. @whatajkay tells his story of how he went from zero to hero (millions) on FTX and back to zero (thanks SBF!) and how to overcome 'getting rugged by life.' His takeaway:
Life comes faster than you think, so focus on the future no matter what s**t happened to you yesterday.
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