Last week, nearly 2,000 people gathered in the Caribbean under the palm trees and blazing April sun for the Crypto Bahamas event, which was co-hosted by crypto exchange FTX and the investment forum SALT. As the air conditioning blew at full blast, goodie bags including everything from sunscreen and sunglasses to T-shirts and boat caps were handed out. Attendees came from all over the world, including Singapore, and drove over from FTX’s offices, which is approximately a 20-minute drive away.
It’s between the millionaires in suits and the billionaires in cargo shorts, as someone joked. “We wanted to differentiate it from the more retail-focused conferences by creating a premium conference oriented for the institutions and people who would help shape policy and markets,” said Brett Harrison, president of FTX.US.
The three-day event kicked off with FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and SALT Chairman Anthony Scaramucci (who is also the founder and co-managing partner of SkyBridge Capital) on the main stage to talk about where crypto is at in its journey. “There are a lot of different things going on,” Scaramucci, 58, told TechCrunch. “My generation needs a deeper dive into the crypto.” “It’s time for my generation to get used to where this space is headed.”
Many participants sported hoodies or T-shirts with casual shorts or jeans, contrasting the professional financial world with the new — and supposedly more progressive — internet age. Money Makers sheds light on the typically shadowy private-sector companies that power the modern economy.
David Snider and Chris Howard use their interviews with top executives, including Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, David Rubenstein, Cofounder of the Carlyle Group, and Shona Brown, Senior Vice President of Google’s Business Operations, to reveal the histories, mechanics, operations, and challenges of investment banking, venture capital, private equity, hedge funds, management consulting, and Fortune 500 company management. Money Makers is a must-have on-the-ground resource that puts today’s financial world into context. Robert K. Steel, former CEO of Wachovia and US Treasury under Secretary of Domestic Finance, wrote the foreword.
