A strip club scandal at a major crypto industry event triggers sponsor backlash

Crypto firms are rushing to distance themselves from a controversial party that capped a major industry event in Miami. The shindig, which took place on May 6 and coincided with the end of the Consensus conference, took place at a well-heeled night club called E11EVEN and featured female dancers performing pole routines and lap dances. Following reports of the raunchy atmosphere, crypto exchange OKX told the Financial Times it would be reconsidering its sponsorship of the conference.

“These kinds of immature and frankly borderline discriminatory events risk alienating exactly the communities the industry needs in order to continue growing,” OKX’s global head of corporate affairs Elliott Suthers told the FT. “We believe the industry should be moving towards greater professionalism, inclusivity and credibility, not away from it.”

Meanwhile, another big crypto firm called Consensys (which is a distinct and unrelated business from Consensus) said it “had no role” in the event and was reviewing its “partner selection and brand usage processes” after its logo appeared at the party.

Consenys is an infrastructure firm founded by Joseph Lubin, a co-founder of Ethereum. The company created MetaMask, one of the most-used wallets in crypto.

The event, for which attendees paid up to $6,000 and reportedly included a VIP networking area, was held at E11EVEN, a Miami night club sometimes frequented by celebrities. It’s also known as a strip club, and one picture taken by an attendee shows scantily clad women onstage in front of a screen bearing the logo of crypto news outlet CoinDesk, which is the organizer of the Consensus conference. CoinDesk did not return a request for comment

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