It has been a terrible year for the digital asset industry. A brutal crypto winter has Bitcoin, Ethereum, and most other coins in the red YTD. To make matters worse, the Terra Luna crash and the recent meltdown of FTX have put added pressure on the already reeling market.
Despite these torrid times, the who's who of the blockchain ecosystem flocked to Miami, dressed in their best, to attend a private VIP event known as the Crypties. But what was this event all about, and why did it have so many of web3 biggest names on its guestlist? Tag along to find out.
An Oscar event, but for the Crypto enthusiasts
The Crypties are like the Oscars, but for the digital asset industry. It is a gala event that honours the best minds and projects of the web3 industry. The event is the brainchild of Decrypt Studios, the web3 production unit of Decrypt Media, a popular crypto news site. After nearly six months of planning, the inaugural edition of the award show took place on November 30 at the Faena Forum, which is located in the crypto-friendly city of Miami.
The award show was sponsored by several web3 heavyweights such as Polygon, Filecoin, Anonymous, Decentralised Pictures, Vault 721, etc. As such, it was a grand event, with several of the biggest names from web3 in attendance.
The host and MC for the night was renowned comedian Josh Ostrovsky, better known as Fat Jewish. Ostrovsky ensured the event was a riot of laughter by roasting the dismal state of the web3 industry. "This event is in Florida, the home of the natural disaster. And tonight, we're going to celebrate a man-made one: cryptocurrency," Ostrovsky told the audience, according to the New York Times.
And the winner is
There were plenty of awards to go around at the Crypties. Some of the categories included NFT project of the year, DAO of the year, best investor of the year, DeFi project of the year, etc.
The nominations for each category were decided by a 16-member advisory board, which included the likes of John Wu, president of AVA labs, Ryan Wyatt, CEO of Polygon, and Wojtek Kaszycki, Founder of Mobilium.
Finally, the winner from each category was decided by a vote. However, this was no ordinary vote. In true blockchain spirit, voting at the Crypties was token-gated. This meant that only those who held Decrypt Culture Club NFT would have voting rights, amounting to roughly 4,000 voters.
Some of the winners at the inaugural edition of the Crypties included Crypto Unicorns (best game of the year), Celo (social impact award), Bored Ape Yacht Club (the best NFT project of the year), ENS DAO (DAO of the year), and People of Crypto (best metaverse event of the year), Coinbase Ventures (investor of the year).
Conclusion
The last few weeks have been marked by bankruptcy filings, mass layoffs, declining price valuations, and truckloads of investor pain. As such, most people felt like it wasn't the best time for the crypto industry to host its first Oscar-like, big-dollar award show. However, even during these torrid times, the inaugural Crypties event was a riot of laughter. It helped people forget about the abysmal state of the market, even if it was just for a couple of hours.
(Edited by : Sangam Singh)
