Consensus 2026: How Crypto Sold Out. And Won

Olivia Capozzalo & Camila Russo
May 08, 2026

gm, Defiers!

Today’s big story:

The 2018 Consensus crowd wanted to replace banks. The 2026 version sells to them. Tokenized equities, stablecoin payment rails and BlackRock ETFs have replaced token sales and gold-bar gimmicks.

In other news:

AWS announces AI agent payments
ECB’s Lagarde says stablecoins aren’t the answer
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Consensus 2026: How Crypto Sold Out. And Won

My first Consensus was in 2018 – I was reporting for Bloomberg back then and the crypto industry was trying to squeeze the last drops of that crypto bull run: Lamborghinis (although rented ones) parked at the entrance of the Hilton in Midtown New York; someone walking around in a giant coin foam costume to advertise a token sale, fake gold bars were displayed, gem-studded Bitcoin jewelry was being sold, many t-shirts with "bitcoin not bankers" type slogans. The headlines were about "chaotic" crowds as the 8,500 attendees overwhelmed the event. There were hardly any suits in sight, and some bemoaned the "vibe was, ‘let's bend over backward for bankers."

Well, I wonder what those Reddit warriors think about Consensus now.

Industry Bellweather

Consensus, the industry's largest and longest-standing crypto event, at least in the western hemisphere, is a bellwether for the industry, and in those eight years since 2018, the event doubled to 15,000 attendees who descended on Miami this week.

Not only that, but if some suits were seen dotting the Hilton back then, the inverse was true this time; I may have seen a single anarchist slogan T-shirt. And no token coin costumes – although there was a giant, inflatable Pepe greeting everyone at the door, maybe the only remaining vestige of the internet-native, whimsical crypto aesthetic.

Suits Took Over

Jamie Dimon in 2017 famously said "Bitcoin is worthless," "a fraud," and he would fire anyone he caught trading it. In 2026, JPMorgan had one of the largest booths at the conference. Other companies present: S&P Global, DTCC, Mastercard, PayPal, Fidelity and Swift.

The conversation was about how to further integrate stablecoins into the payment stack, and about using AI on those payment rails. Lots of talk about tokenizing equities and other RWAs. No talk about token sales. Instead of fake gold bars for flashy promotion, gold futures are being traded onchain, in size via perps.

Did Crypto Change too Much?

But did crypto achieve this by "bending over backward," as the 2018 post said?

I think the uncomfortable answer is yes. The blockchain industry realized institutions were not going to adopt this tech unless their specific needs were met. Scalability and UX have been longstanding pains in the space and definitely improved and worked on, but for TradFi, privacy and gated access have been a requirement. Now, blockchains everywhere are adopting privacy tooling, whether it's cryptography-based with ZK, like zkSync and Aztec, or consortium-backed, like Canton.

They also needed regulatory clarity. The crypto industry became a major political force, donated its way into the highest levels of power, and is pushing to get crypto-friendly regulation passed. Starting with GENIUS.

Bitcoin was meant to replace banks, but all bitcoiners cheered when BTC, the cypherpunk money, was welcomed at the center of Wall Street through the most popular investment vehicles: BlackRock ETFs. Instead of peer-to-peer cash that replaces the dollar, crypto created tokens backed by the dollar and U.S. Treasuries, which actually strengthen the USD's standing. And rather than using stablecoins via permissionless wallets, we're getting them through the friendly interfaces of PayPal and Stripe.

So yes, the blockchain industry has bent over backward for too-big-to-fail bankers.

Eye On The Prize

But is that a bad thing?

Not if the adoption of crypto by the financial giants of today advances the technology so that it can become so ubiquitous, so undeniable, that it does end up living up to its promise of cutting out intermediaries and enabling a permissionless, global system.

But we may have to go through a period where these institutions, the intermediaries themselves – DTCC, Swift, BlackRock, JPMorgan – co-opt these rails.

The future may have looked very different from what a 2018 Consensus attendee wanted. But effectively, crypto is winning. Even if the grey, blue and black color palette, the convivial small talk rather than impassioned diatribes, and the exchange of LinkedIn contacts instead of Signal messages at the Miami Convention Center made it feel a bit anticlimactic.

With love,

Cami, founder of The Defiant

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