Yahoo Finance

• Crypto enthusiasts, Web3 founders, and investors convened at Messari Mainnet in New York City this week.

• The tone was firmly upbeat, despite bitcoin, ether, and other digital assets struggling through a bear market.

• Here's a look inside the event from Insider's Phil Rosen.

The Messari Mainnet crypto conference in New York drew about 2,000 attendees in person this week, with bullishness still running high and conference-goers ready to party — even as bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, are each down more than 60% this year.

"Enthusiasm is definitely back to where we were prior to the bear market," Shahzad Nathani, head of partnerships at blockchain firm Shardeum, told Insider at Pier 36, the east Manhattan location of the conference.

The NFT market, like crypto, has cratered in 2022. In the week leading up to Mainnet, the market valuations for two of the most popular collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Cryptopunks, slid by 21% and 19%, respectively.

A ticket to the three-day Mainnet conference cost $2,100, granting access to three days' worth of panels featuring nearly 300 speakers ranging from ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to smaller asset managers and execs in the space.

"There's a lot of excitement," Nathani said. "People are focused on how to build for the future, so we don't fall into the trap of being just a speculative space. I think we're ready for the next leap in the next six months to a year."

"The bear market just means more building"

Nathani, like a dozen other attendees I spoke to this week, is shrugging off the crypto winter and is increasingly upbeat about what comes next.

Some pointed to promising venture capital funding — how angel investors are still willing to put money into promising startups. Others highlighted new partnerships that came to fruition this week during late-night, rooftop shindigs or over handshakes and coffee.

"The bear market just means more building," Brandon Rochon, lead data scientist at Covalent told Insider.

Echoing that, Brandon Neal, COO of Euler Labs, explained that Mainnet feels optimistic because the industry continues to mature. Those who have been in the crypto space for long enough, he said, understand the next wave of crypto adoption is still coming, whether the economy is choppy or not.

Lisa Fridman, president of metaverse company Quadrata, said a shaky market actually opens the door for founders, because investors have a clearer picture of winners and losers in the space.

"In a more challenging environment, it's easier to identify stronger, more attractive opportunities, because in a stronger market there's just a lot of hype and capital around so many projects," Fridman told Insider.