Reaching Consensus: The Consensus 2024 Conference

At long last, the everyday applications of decentralized finance, long championed but also mostly theoretical, are meeting reality as cryptocurrencies and digital assets come into their own. That sense of optimism about the industry was palpable at the Consensus 2024 conference in Austin, Texas, where representatives from mainline financial services, Congress, regulators’ offices, cryptocurrency firms, and others gathered and spoke of the strides being made in the space. A buttoned-down, businesslike conference might seem antithetical to the outsider beginnings of the industry, but it's exactly what was needed as these tools and technologies move into the mainstream of financial services. 

This Javelin Strategy & Research report delves into the panel discussions and background exchanges at Consensus 2024, detailing how the industry appears to be moving out from the under the thumb of regulators and making headway with legislative overseers. Further, it looks at the gold rush for talent among traditional financial players and makes recommendations about how to prepare for the further absorption of the industry into the mainstream.

Key questions discussed in this report: 

• Why is “this time is different” actually the case with regard to the outlook for cryptocurrency and digital assets? 
• What is going on with cryptocurrency regulation? 
• What was the focus at Consensus 2024?

Companies Mentioned: 

Bank of Canada, BlackRock, BNY Mellon, Commodities Futures Trading Commission, Citi, Coindesk, Consensus 2024, Franklin Templeton, FTX, Google, Hyperledger, Javelin Strategy & Research, JPMorgan Chase, PayPal, Polkadot, Ripple, SEC, Securitize, Solana, Stellar