Jamie Redman
Prospects Don’t Look so Hot for Sam Bankman-Fried’s Invitation-Only Crypto Bahamas Event
Following the FTX collapse and amid the aftermath, people have been wondering about the company’s Crypto Bahamas conference that was scheduled to happen on April 17-20, 2023, at the exclusive Grand Hyatt Baha Mar, in Nassau. The event planned for April 2023 was supposed to be hosted by the now-bankrupt FTX and the Skybridge Capital-backed Salt conference promoters.
FTX’s Invitation-Only Island Event Looks Like a Wash
While we know that the former FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF) plans to speak at the New York Times (NYT) Dealbook summit, people are curious about the upcoming Crypto Bahamas conference. 2022’s inaugural Crypto Bahamas conference was hosted in Nassau and the event hosted a litany of well known speakers including former U.S. president Bill Clinton.
Other 2022 speakers included the former prime minister of the United Kingdom, Tony Blair, seven-time Super Bowl Champion and co-founder of Autograph, Tom Brady, and the prime minister of the Bahamas Philip “Brave” Davis. 2023’s event is likely to be a wash, but with the current events surrounding the now-defunct exchange, you never can tell.
For instance, Andrew Ross Sorkin confirmed he was speaking with SBF at NYT’s Dealbook summit, and the new FTX CEO recently explained to the bankruptcy court that some of the company’s business assets may be salvageable. As far as the Crypto Bahamas conference is concerned, the Skybridge Capital-backed Salt is listed to co-host the forum.
Just before the FTX collapse and the following Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing, Salt’s events page highlighted the Crypto Bahamas 2023 conference on the website. At the time of writing, on Nov. 25, 2022, the event is still hosted on Salt’s events page and it links to the Crypto Bahamas web portal. True to SBF’s secretive inner circle lifestyle and his mysterious dealings, Crypto Bahamas 2022 was an invitation-only event that saw 2,000 attendees.
While you can only inquire with Salt about the 2023 event right now, 2022 ticket prices ranged between $3K to $5K per event attendee. In May, the financial news publication Business Insider called the event a “$614-a-night affair.”
Anthony Scaramucci told Business Insider (BI) last May that FTX executives said they wanted to get into the conference industry with his firm. “In our debrief with our sponsors, the FTX guys wanted us to consider them getting a little bit deeper into the conference business with us,” Scaramucci said at the time.
The Skybridge executive also noted that the 2022 event was supposed to be smaller than the more than 2,000 people that ended up attending Crypto Bahamas 2022. “Frankly, we had to start turning people away,” Scaramucci explained in his May interview with BI.
“It’s an island. So we had a certain amount of food that we ordered, we ordered a certain amount of refreshments and things like that. So we just said, ‘Look, I’m sorry, you can’t come,’” Scaramucci added. Other Crypto Bahamas 2022 sponsors included the Solana Foundation, Galaxy Digital, Elliptic, Ripple, Blockfi, and Google Cloud.
Salt just wrapped up the Salt Iconnections Asia 2022 event at the exclusive Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore.
What do you think about the Crypto Bahamas conference? Do you think that the event will likely be canceled now that FTX has filed for bankruptcy protection? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
