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An hour’s drive south of the resort where Federal Reserve chair Jay Powell will join the annual gathering of the world’s leading central bankers, top crypto executives are already hobnobbing with senior US policymakers.
Eric Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new, crypto-friendly chair Paul Atkins and two Fed governors on Donald Trump’s shortlist to replace Powell are all set to attend the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium at the Four Seasons hotel in Jackson Hole.
The conference rolled into Teton Village at the foot of Rendezvous Mountain on Monday, three days before the start of the Kansas City Fed’s annual meet-up at the 4-star Jackson Lake Lodge.
“The biggest names in crypto and finance have descended upon Jackson Hole,” said one person in attendance, who added that the unofficial theme this year was the crypto treasury company craze currently sweeping through US equity markets.
The sanguine outlook was on broad display, even among policymakers. Fed vice-chair for supervision Michelle Bowman told attendees that the US is “at the beginning of what appears to be a seismic shift in the way we think about money, value, and the fabric of our financial system”, according to her prepared remarks.
The event caps what Goldman Sachs analysts on Tuesday described as a “stablecoin summer”.
Money has flooded into stablecoins and other crypto products this year as the Trump administration has signalled its wholehearted support for the industry, passing sweeping regulations that have helped push the value of the global crypto market to around $4tn for the first time.
“The event is all about how to marry Nasdaq vehicles with tokens to maximise treasury strategies,” the person said, referring to the growing list of companies following Michael Saylor’s Strategy by hoarding different tokens.
“The bankers are here and more than happy to help facilitate,” they added.
Sponsored by crypto exchange Kraken and Anthony Scaramucci’s investment platform Salt, this year’s blockchain summit has taken on added significance given the surging market and crypto’s growing political sway.
In addition to Bowman’s speech on innovation in the banking system, Fed governor Christopher Waller is set to discuss payment technologies on Wednesday.
The two Fed governors are seen as possible picks for the next Fed chair when Powell’s term ends next May. They dissented with the Fed’s decision to hold rates steady at the July meeting, calling for cuts.
Eric Trump will be joined on stage by senior executives at American Bitcoin, a crypto miner he backs with his brother Donald Trump Jr. The FT last week reported that the company is on the hunt for companies in Asia to load up with bitcoin.
The topic of their discussion on Wednesday will be “the future of bitcoin in America”.
Also set to speak are politicians including Republican senators Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Tim Scott of South Carolina, co-sponsors of the Genius Act, the Senate bill establishing a regulatory framework for Stablecoins that Trump signed into law earlier this year.
Franklin Templeton’s chief executive Jenny Johnson on Tuesday led a conversation on why she is “embracing blockchain”.
“Something pretty special is happening right now, crypto people are taking over entire cities for these sorts of events,” said another person in attendance. “[This year’s conference] is going to be on another level to any traditional finance event.”
