Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Crypto, a daily Bloomberg I Hood podcast,
Speaker 1: and I'm Stacy Marie Ishmael, Managing editor of Crypto for
Speaker 1: Bloomberg News. It's Wednesday, January four Emladonna hierarch In Today
Speaker 1: for Stacy Marie Ishmael. Miami has always been famous for
Speaker 1: its beaches, it's beautiful people, and glamorous nightlife. But more recently,
Speaker 1: the city's caught attention and a lot of heat for
Speaker 1: trying to establish itself as a crypto hub, the center
Speaker 1: of the digital assets movement. Miami has witnessed an influx
Speaker 1: of crypto startups as entrepreneurs flocked to the city, attracted
Speaker 1: by its charismatic, crypto friendly mayor Francis Suarez and the
Speaker 1: promise of lower taxes. The signs are everywhere. There's crypto
Speaker 1: specific happy hours, major conferences, a retail space dedicated to Salona,
Speaker 1: and even a token just for the city and its residents,
Speaker 1: Miami Coin. And then, of course there's fts. The now
Speaker 1: bankrupt Crypto Exchange had the naming rights to the basketball
Speaker 1: arena for the Miami Heat, and just about a month
Speaker 1: before its stunning collapse, the exchange had plans to move
Speaker 1: one of its top branches to the heart of the
Speaker 1: city's financial center, a move that was supported by the
Speaker 1: mayor himself. In the aftermath of the FTX collapse and
Speaker 1: the overall negative sentiment and crypto markets, the city has
Speaker 1: paced tough questions about its part in the digital asset
Speaker 1: industry's future. My colleague Carlijuana was recently down in Miami
Speaker 1: and she joins us now to tell us about everything
Speaker 1: she saw and hurt. It's an appealing place to live.
Speaker 1: The weather is awesome, the beach is right there, and
Speaker 1: as they get more infrastructure and they get more banks
Speaker 1: and financial institutions, it's really going to grow and has
Speaker 1: a pretty solid selling point for other bis. This is
Speaker 1: to come down there. Carlie welcomes to the show. Hi,
Speaker 1: thank you for having me. Well, maybe just to start,
Speaker 1: you can tell us about how Miami became a crypto
Speaker 1: hot bit of crypto hotspot. I would say a lot
Speaker 1: of that traces back to the guy that you mentioned already,
Speaker 1: that is Mayor Francis Suarez. He's been mayor now for
Speaker 1: several years and he's pushed for a number of companies
Speaker 1: to move down to Miami. Right, So it's not just crypto,
Speaker 1: it's also hedge funds, vcs, tech companies, And he's really
Speaker 1: touted Miami as like almost in New York, and like
Speaker 1: you see it when you're there, some of the restaurants
Speaker 1: are even the same. The downtown even kind of fuels
Speaker 1: a little bit similar. Is that like New York buzz
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm in Midtown right now. So he's pushed
Speaker 1: for a lot of these companies to move down there,
Speaker 1: and a lot of the push has been specifically through Crypto,
Speaker 1: and obviously that has stayed despite all that crypto has
Speaker 1: been through recently. Yeah, and obviously Crypto has been through
Speaker 1: a lot, which is why you went down to Miami
Speaker 1: to check out everything that was going on. So maybe
Speaker 1: tell us about the general attitude of people when you
Speaker 1: were talking to them, Like did you go to some
Speaker 1: crypto bars maybe, and what were people telling you about
Speaker 1: how they're feeling about everything that's been going on? Right,
Speaker 1: So I went down there post FDx collapse in bankruptcy,
Speaker 1: and the basic question that we wanted to ask was
Speaker 1: this city that has made itself into a crypto capital,
Speaker 1: has that change and will that change? And so when
Speaker 1: about that kind of centering the trip on these two
Speaker 1: conferences that I mean literally a ten minute walk away
Speaker 1: from one another. There was one called to Central and
Speaker 1: there was one called Web three and crypto conferences are
Speaker 1: their wild crazy like there was a sports car it
Speaker 1: was electric blue, parked outside of one of the conferences.
Speaker 1: The other conference was a little bit more buttoned up,
Speaker 1: but still a lot of people, a lot of elders,
Speaker 1: people who had started their own companies, hopeful as about
Speaker 1: n f T projects and Web three designs. So that
Speaker 1: was the basics, right, so much a lot of fog machines.
Speaker 1: Fog machines. The weirdest booth was there was one where
Speaker 1: there was a man just for no reason at all,
Speaker 1: dressed up like Donald Trump, and I have no idea
Speaker 1: what that had to do with their booth except for
Speaker 1: I think to like pull people right. So it was
Speaker 1: a crazy scene overall. Went to some after party events
Speaker 1: the week I was there, it was also Art Basil,
Speaker 1: so went to some specific Art Basil parties, which has
Speaker 1: I'm sure we'll get into it, but also its own
Speaker 1: kind of crypto bent to it. So it was the
Speaker 1: perfect way to ask the question of how is the
Speaker 1: crypto community feeling post FTX. The way I would answer
Speaker 1: that is honestly pretty good. Not the same though. It
Speaker 1: was different and I wasn't down there for this exact
Speaker 1: same week last year. But people said, you know, the
Speaker 1: conferences were maybe half as many people as they were before.
Speaker 1: Art Basil market sentiment in general is very different than
Speaker 1: it was last year. But they said that the hype,
Speaker 1: the fervor, it wasn't quite there. That's not to say though,
Speaker 1: that people aren't enthusiastic. A lot of people said that
Speaker 1: in some ways, the Bearer market to them just symbolizes
Speaker 1: that the crypto taurus are out and what's left is
Speaker 1: the real crypto believers, and those are the people that
Speaker 1: I guess I met with the most in Miami. It
Speaker 1: was the people who are sticking around and Bear or
Speaker 1: ball markets. This is so interesting to me because I've
Speaker 1: been to so many crypto conferences in my lifetime, and
Speaker 1: so I know the feeling of the techno music starting
Speaker 1: at like seven am and the fog machines adding this
Speaker 1: crypto vibe to the whole conference. But that's so interesting
Speaker 1: to me that people are still very hopeful, so hopeful,
Speaker 1: so happy. I mean, it doesn't hold across the board.
Speaker 1: People are obviously realistic. They're they're down about the fact
Speaker 1: that prices are down, but they're they're partying on I
Speaker 1: will say, and I think you had some very interesting
Speaker 1: conversations with some people down there, right. Yeah. So while
Speaker 1: I was in Miami, I spoke with a lot of
Speaker 1: startup founders. I started people with. I spoke with people
Speaker 1: who work and live in the space. One guy who
Speaker 1: I spoke with, his name is who some abood with
Speaker 1: dot name. It's a blockchain naming service aggregator. It aligns
Speaker 1: a user's name in their actual money address and his
Speaker 1: wall address and all of his other naming services. It's
Speaker 1: essentially like the first n f t um. And he
Speaker 1: told me why he's not giving up on Miami. Mimi
Speaker 1: is doing great job. It's not just becoming it is
Speaker 1: actually it is a hub for for technology and not
Speaker 1: just script I would say, And because of all the
Speaker 1: like reasons. It's an extremely fun place. And of the day,
Speaker 1: you want to be in a place where in all
Speaker 1: you wake up morning and it's the lovely weathers and
Speaker 1: then you go, you know, you go to for a run,
Speaker 1: or you go to swim a little bit, and you
Speaker 1: at night you want to be in a place where
Speaker 1: it's actually it's fun and there is no such place
Speaker 1: that where you you wake up every morning and you
Speaker 1: feel you still young and beautiful. Yeah, young and beautiful exactly.
Speaker 1: Who doesn't want to feel that way? And you do
Speaker 1: in Miami. I mean it's I was down there in
Speaker 1: basically winter type weather. It should be Christmas season. There
Speaker 1: are Christmas trees and it was eighty degrees outside. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I love this. So is that what's so different about
Speaker 1: the Miami atmosphere that makes it so attractive for crypto entrepreneurs.
Speaker 1: It's one of the things. And I will say too
Speaker 1: that this has been an accelerated interest of moving to
Speaker 1: different Southern cities as hubs for tech, not only just crypto,
Speaker 1: but that was really accelerated by the pandemic to when
Speaker 1: there's a work from anywhere push in Miami became one
Speaker 1: of the really big betefactors of that. In crypto as
Speaker 1: an industry that traditionally has been pretty flexible with remote working,
Speaker 1: it's kind of a question of, well, if you can
Speaker 1: be anywhere, why not be to Miami. And it's especially
Speaker 1: true for Miami and the fact that there are so
Speaker 1: many conferences, they're so many events and so many networking opportunities,
Speaker 1: I mean endless things if you go on event right
Speaker 1: of happy hours coffee meet up. So one guy was
Speaker 1: telling me that there will just be like pool side
Speaker 1: hangout type things that are crypto networking activities and that
Speaker 1: activity and adventure is still there. And one thing that
Speaker 1: was true from some and a lot of other people
Speaker 1: I talked with it's not their first bear market, so
Speaker 1: they've seen the cycles and they remain pretty confident that
Speaker 1: they will be able to weather the down cycle. Now
Speaker 1: and then, what about the role that Francis Suarez has played.
Speaker 1: How has he how how big of a promoter has
Speaker 1: he been of crypto and how much was he behind
Speaker 1: some of the biggest changes that we've seen within Miami
Speaker 1: in terms of seeing these different FTX sponsorships for instance,
Speaker 1: or any other cryptocentric or crypto related development in the city. Right,
Speaker 1: So he's been huge. He's been very pro business, and
Speaker 1: he's been very pro crypto. I think Miami could easily
Speaker 1: be one of the most globally significant cities. I think
Speaker 1: it can be what I call the capital of capital,
Speaker 1: a place where if you want to build a business,
Speaker 1: if you want to innovate. There is no better place
Speaker 1: in the planet because we're in the intersection of New York,
Speaker 1: of South America, UH Silicon Valley, and Israel in the
Speaker 1: Middle East, and so I think we're strategically located and
Speaker 1: positioned very well for the future. We have a tremendous
Speaker 1: ability to grow. We have we're inviting it. He remains
Speaker 1: very procrypo. So I went to this one conference where
Speaker 1: he was a primary speaker. He launched off the conference
Speaker 1: and in his speech he did not mention f t
Speaker 1: X by name the entire time, but you knew what
Speaker 1: he was talking about. He interest kept referencing Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: he kept referencing the down cycles and how everything's changed.
Speaker 1: He didn't name any names, but he said they're going
Speaker 1: to continue on, They're going to keep building. Miami is
Speaker 1: still a crypto capital. It's a crypto city, you know,
Speaker 1: and he's done that through various campaigns to bring people
Speaker 1: down there. He encouraged FTX to move down there. He
Speaker 1: encouraged other companies to set up their headquarters to He
Speaker 1: also had this Miami Coin initiative, which was basically a
Speaker 1: city coin established for Miami. So like Miami even had
Speaker 1: its own cryptocurrency at some point, and that was because
Speaker 1: of Mayor's barez. So I don't think it's even possible
Speaker 1: to to overstate how important he was to all of
Speaker 1: these companies taking up Miami as their home coming. Up
Speaker 1: more with Bloomberg reporter Carli Wanna on how the future
Speaker 1: of crypto is shaping up in Miami. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1: So you mentioned f t X that obviously was one
Speaker 1: of the biggest stories within crypto in two what sort
Speaker 1: of presence did they have in the city, right, So
Speaker 1: in one they announced that they would be setting up
Speaker 1: some sort of offices there, and so our understanding is
Speaker 1: that there was as a physical office in Miami for
Speaker 1: fd X. It's been there for a while now, but
Speaker 1: originally their fd X u S headquarters had been in Chicago.
Speaker 1: Earlier this year, Within months of them opening up in Chicago,
Speaker 1: f t X u S announces just kidding, we're moving
Speaker 1: from Chicago and we are setting up camp in Miami.
Speaker 1: That happened just a couple of months a few months ago. Now,
Speaker 1: two months later, they obviously filed for bankruptcy, but even
Speaker 1: a month before fd X file, they were still, according
Speaker 1: to reports, actively encouraging staffers to move down there. What
Speaker 1: we learned when we were there is that they were
Speaker 1: actually eyeing property at this really nice kind of luxury
Speaker 1: office building called four fifty Brickle of It's where a
Speaker 1: lot of other banks and investment types are set up.
Speaker 1: I mean space goes for ninety dollars a square foot, right,
Speaker 1: It's a very nice building. So they had all eyes
Speaker 1: sat on this building. And then of course, you know,
Speaker 1: fd X files for bankruptcy and it's hard to know
Speaker 1: exactly what is going on with f t x U
Speaker 1: S and Bangmin. Freed has tweeted out recently enough, although
Speaker 1: before charges were brought up, because he hasn't been quite
Speaker 1: as active on Twitter since that has happened. He did
Speaker 1: tweet out that to his knowledge, f t x US
Speaker 1: remained solvent. It's really fuzzy what exactly the details are. Regardless,
Speaker 1: f t x US was setting up its headquarters in Miami,
Speaker 1: and the footprint of f t X is elsewhere on
Speaker 1: that city. People told me that there was just places
Speaker 1: on the beach where you'd kind of see the f
Speaker 1: t x name or logo, or they'd have an advertising push.
Speaker 1: You know, they were at Formula one races last year,
Speaker 1: having parties. They even had this kind of clubby so
Speaker 1: Lana Spaces type thing. And of course there was the
Speaker 1: f t X Arena that is home of the NBA
Speaker 1: Miami Heat and Miami did County is now asking a
Speaker 1: federal bankruptcy court for immediate right to terminate that agreement
Speaker 1: with them and get the ft X logo stripped off
Speaker 1: of it, despite the fact that I mean that was
Speaker 1: a thick deal. It was a d million dollars across
Speaker 1: nineteen years. Yeah, obviously having your name tied to the
Speaker 1: arena and everything and then having this fall out, it's
Speaker 1: sort of mars the whole experience. But can you also
Speaker 1: talk about you you were with crypto people at crypto
Speaker 1: conferences where they were specifically gathering to talk about what's
Speaker 1: going on with crypto. But what about the general population
Speaker 1: within Miami how much crypto adoption actually is there because
Speaker 1: we did have this huge push as you mentioned by
Speaker 1: the mayor. But is did crypto actually have a stronghold
Speaker 1: in in Miami or is it just that crypto fans
Speaker 1: would flock there to celebrate together, to party together, to
Speaker 1: be together when when they can be right when I
Speaker 1: talked to people in the area. They kind of used
Speaker 1: the term crypto tourists a lot. At first, I thought, right, right,
Speaker 1: so it was kind of I had to fill in
Speaker 1: the gaps. The first one person used it, and I thought, Wow,
Speaker 1: what a weird thing that they say. And then I
Speaker 1: kept hearing this term. What my understanding came to be
Speaker 1: of this concept of cryptotauris was it was people who
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily live in Miami a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: and had just come there for the crypto hype. I mean,
Speaker 1: last November crypto prices where skyrocketing Bitcoin was over six k,
Speaker 1: and Miami saw it. They felt it. They felt this
Speaker 1: influx of people coming in wanting to be a part
Speaker 1: of this scene. Now what they're saying is that what's
Speaker 1: left is the people who are trying to build products.
Speaker 1: They say that the conversation is more serious that it's
Speaker 1: Some people said exactly like quantity or quality over quantity.
Speaker 1: You know, the conversations are better even if there's fewer
Speaker 1: people who are part of it. And I talked to
Speaker 1: some folks to who where actually from Miami, and we've
Speaker 1: seen it through a lot of different cycles. One of
Speaker 1: them was Rock at Irvine. She runs an incubation coworking
Speaker 1: space in Windwood in an accelerator program partnerships with TATAM,
Speaker 1: which is a Web three infrastructure for development company. I
Speaker 1: was so glad I met her. She was the perfect
Speaker 1: person to talk to and she had a lot of
Speaker 1: thoughts about f t X and about Crypto and how
Speaker 1: it had changed the city. She said that f t
Speaker 1: X was really present in promo and marketing campaigns. You
Speaker 1: saw that in the parties, you saw that in art Basil,
Speaker 1: you saw that in the hackathon. But at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, she said that Miami is so used
Speaker 1: to changing itself. Miami is so used to reinventing itself
Speaker 1: as a city. So she said that even though ft
Speaker 1: X collapse, even if Crypto didn't have the stronghold anymore,
Speaker 1: at some point the city would be fine. It will
Speaker 1: find something else. It's just like Vegas spring breaks coming up.
Speaker 1: You know, they're they're going to be fine. It's transient, right,
Speaker 1: and it's a city that transform itself constantly. It like evolves,
Speaker 1: you know. You know, in the early eighties, it used
Speaker 1: to be um a city where if you go to
Speaker 1: South Beach, there was a ton of old people on
Speaker 1: rocking chairs and like Europeans who were topless on the beach.
Speaker 1: And then over the years, you know, it turned into
Speaker 1: this like fun playground for young people, and then now
Speaker 1: it turned into this um innovation tech cub But in
Speaker 1: the future it can become something else. Um. You know,
Speaker 1: it can transform into this you know, uh capital of
Speaker 1: capitals that people are trying to make Miami be um.
Speaker 1: You know, we have a lot of people coming from
Speaker 1: Tel Aviv, a lot of really really large unicorn factories
Speaker 1: that want to put their flag here and make Miami
Speaker 1: the next Silicon valley. Okay, so Miami is the next
Speaker 1: Silicon valley? Is that the sense that people gave you, Like,
Speaker 1: I'm just wondering what what what's next? Like what's next
Speaker 1: from Miami? You mentioned all of the upsmism among the
Speaker 1: different crypto people, but like are they working on specific
Speaker 1: things and how maybe how does it tie into what's
Speaker 1: going on with Miami and its crypto push. Right. I
Speaker 1: think the story of Miami is probably very similar to
Speaker 1: the story of the crypto community in so many places,
Speaker 1: and that is the fact that people are still building,
Speaker 1: they are still trying to roll out products. It's a
Speaker 1: harder space you know, I talked to a lot of bcs,
Speaker 1: are talked to people who are seeking funds, and it's
Speaker 1: certainly more challenging than it was in say, when markets
Speaker 1: were faring a lot better. I should also say that
Speaker 1: Miami under Suarez, they are still very much pushing for
Speaker 1: crypto companies to come down there. They haven't changed tax
Speaker 1: I think RAX that really put it best though, and
Speaker 1: that Miami it's an appealing place to live. The weather
Speaker 1: is awesome, the beach is right there, and as they
Speaker 1: get more infrastructure and they get more banks and financial institutions,
Speaker 1: it's really going to grow and has a pretty solid
Speaker 1: selling point for other businesses to come down there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: like Roxette said, right now, it's crypto. Who knows what
Speaker 1: I might be moving forward. She had a guest that
Speaker 1: maybe it will be tech more generally setting up camp
Speaker 1: in Miami as a hub. Whether that's true or not
Speaker 1: is yet to be seen, But I do see what
Speaker 1: she's saying. There is a certain energy and there is
Speaker 1: a certain appeal to Miami that I don't think it's
Speaker 1: going to go away. To all of our editors listening,
Speaker 1: Carlie and I are free to go to Miami whenever
Speaker 1: you guys need us too. Yeah, the office there was
Speaker 1: blooming here. Yeah, the Bloomberg office it was. They're set
Speaker 1: up the exact same same snacks. We're free to go, Yeah, anytime.
Speaker 1: I can pack my bags right now. Yeah, I agree,
Speaker 1: I'm happy to go down. Well, Carlie, thank you so
Speaker 1: much for joining us on the podcast. Thank you for
Speaker 1: having me. That was Bloomberg reporter carl Wanna. You can
Speaker 1: find more of her reporting on the Bloomberg Terminal and
Speaker 1: on Bloomberg dot com. For more, be sure to check
Speaker 1: out our twice weekly newsletter, Bloomberg Crypto. M This is
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Crypto, a daily podcast from Bloomberg and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more shows from I Heart Radio, visit the I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Speaker 1: Send us your comments, questions, or suggestions for the show
Speaker 1: to Crypto at Bloomberg dot net. The supervising producer of
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Crypto is Vicky Verglina. Our senior producer is Janet Babin.
Speaker 1: Our producers are Mohammed Faruk and Sharon Barriro. Our associate
Speaker 1: producers are Ty Butler and Moses on Them Desta Wonder
Speaker 1: at is our engineer. Original music by Leo Sidron. I'm
Speaker 1: Stacy Marie Shmal. We'll be back tomorrow.