What Happened in Two Days at a Very Wild Crypto Party

By Angus Berwick | Photographs by Anna Nielsen for WSJDUBAI — Giant whale mascots dressed in astronaut costumes created a bottleneck by the buffet lunch line. At the "Money Rain" event, promoters launched confetti of crypto-printed banknotes into the air. At a late-night rave in the desert, VIPs danced with $500 bottles of Armand de Brignac champagne held aloft, lit up with sparklers.The biggest names in crypto and 15,000 of their biggest fans marked a new era of freedom at a madhouse of a conference this past week in Dubai called Token2049. Eric Trump showed up and promised to take down his family's banking foes.Not even a year ago, many of the event's marquee guests were deemed public enemies by the U.S. government and financial regulators. They were scorned by Wall Street. One was in jail. Another had been under house arrest. Several were the focus of criminal investigations.Here, Changpeng Zhao, founder of the Binance exchange, who left a California jail in September, greeted fawning supporters. Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire, pitched a new U.S. exchange-traded fund tied to his company's cryptocurrency. Arthur Hayes, whom a judge sentenced to house arrest for money-laundering violations, said it was time for the industry to go on the attack.What changed? President Trump returned to power and swept away most of their problems. His administration dismantled and redirected the law-enforcement agencies that were investigating crypto companies and billionaires, and it tore down the regulations that the industry loathed. He granted a pardon to Hayes and several other crypto felons. Zhao has been pushing for the Trump administration to give him a clean sheet, too.With bitcoin's price up since Trump's election victory, now at $97,000, "The World's Largest Crypto Event" was where these financiers could finally bask in their good fortune. It was also an opportunity for them to strike deals with the biggest and most controversial new player in the crypto industry: Trump's own family.The DJ started before 9 a.m. as attendees, who paid anywhere from $500 to $5,000 a ticket, packed into the hallways of the Madinat Jumeirah resort. Some wore shimmering silver tuxedos or suits emblazoned with the bitcoin symbol and cyborg sunglasses. They could slingshot across the resort's canals on a zip line or get their photo taken on a camel draped in a crypto exchange's logo. Organizers handed out free champagne flutes. Outside, it hit 107 degrees.Many places have tried to claim the title of world crypto hub. There was Malta's "Blockchain Island," Switzerland's "Crypto Valley" and Miami's city-issued "MiamiCoin" token. The United Arab Emirates metropolis is the one that is most living up to the hype. Some of the industry's largest companies, including Binance, have built large operations here in recent years, lured by ultralow taxes, a custom-built regulator, proximity to deep-pocketed Gulf investors, and a historically lax government record on financial crime."Everyone in crypto is here," said Yat Siu, chairman of venture-capital firm Animoca Brands."Full Send — Why The Crypto Bull Market Is About To Re-Ignite" was the title of a talk by Hayes, the former Citigroup trader who pleaded guilty in 2022 to anti-money-laundering violations on BitMEX, the crypto exchange he co-founded. Trump pardoned Hayes in March.The conviction was but an "administrative black mark against him," and he had "the moral high ground," the MC noted in his introduction.A year skiing in Japan had taught him a new "send it" approach to crypto, like hucking off a cliff, Hayes told the packed audience. "Why aren't you buying bitcoin right f — king now?" he said. Hayes, who remains a BitMEX shareholder, predicted it would hit $1 million in 2028.He took to the zip line the same day, yelling out his buy-bitcoin mantra while flying over the heads of attendees.After lunch, attendees stampeded to hear from Zhao, known as CZ. In addition to Zhao's four-month prison sentence, Binance, the world's largest crypto exchange, paid a record $4.3 billion fine to the U.S. in 2023 for allowing terrorists, drug traffickers and sanctioned actors to move billions of dollars through the platform.With the room so full that people stood in the aisles, security guards slammed shut the heavy wooden doors, while those outside begged to be let in. A laser show by a dancer in a conical hat, and thundering techno beats, signaled Zhao's entrance. "We've come on like rockstars," said Raoul Pal, a crypto investor who interviewed him.Zhao, who now lives in Abu Dhabi, told the crowd he'd been advising a dozen governments on how to introduce more favorable crypto regulations. He was optimistic: "I'm always bullish." Pal didn't ask about the jail stint.Afterward, at a Binance Clubhouse event, CZ said he was a victim of "a war on crypto under the last administration...But now there is a counterreaction. Now they'll let us accelerate much faster." Several listeners leapt to their feet and cheered.Justin Sun, founder of the Tron blockchain network who spent $6.2 million on a banana-taped-to-a-wall artwork several months ago, said in a speech he wasn't "here for the money." He said the new exchange-traded fund, based on Tron's own cryptocurrency, was awaiting approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC paused a lawsuit against Sun earlier this year after he invested $75 million into the Trump family's crypto venture World Liberty Financial.Paolo Ardoino, CEO of stablecoin juggernaut Tether, said its digital dollar was "born from passion, not for profits," in a presentation that noted Tether's $13 billion in profits last year.Tether and Sun were under investigation by the Justice Department during the Biden administration for financial crime violations, the Journal has reported.Later, a parade of Lamborghinis and Ferraris led the way to an afterparty at the Bohemia Beach Club on the Palm Jumeirah, Dubai's palm-tree-shaped island. After scattering the memecoin banknotes around, promoters rewarded one guest with a "one-on-one" experience with a Japanese adult-film star. "Can you kiss my face?" the winner asked the woman, who obliged.A group of memecoin mascots then led an awkward group dance — including a Shiba Inu dog with a pink hat that was the inspiration for a token called Dogwifhat.The next morning, in a hotel lounge nearby, Matthew White, CEO of Dubai's crypto regulator, and its managing director Deepa Raja Carbon, said the conference marked the success of the Dubai government's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority. Setting up VARA was part of a push by the U.A.E. to clean up its reputation as a haven for dirty money after the Financial Action Task Force, a global watchdog, placed it on a list of countries that required greater monitoring. The FATF removed the U.A.E. from the "gray list" last year, citing progress.Raja Carbon said VARA's aim was to give the crypto industry its own set of rules, distinct from traditional finance. The vast majority of crypto firms acted responsibly, she said, but needed to be brought "out of the basement.""Don't Launder Money," said a sign on a compliance firm's stand.Early in the afternoon, Eric Trump strode onto the main stage with Zach Witkoff, son of President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.They were there to promote their company World Liberty, which recently launched its own dollar-pegged cryptocurrency, USD1, known as a stablecoin.The younger Witkoff had just returned from a trip to Pakistan, where he signed an agreement to help its government boost crypto adoption. He stopped over in Abu Dhabi to meet Zhao.World Liberty's growing alliance with Binance is at the center of a spiraling web of financial conflicts around the Trump family, which is now in business with a felon seeking a pardon. Binance has also been pushing for Treasury officials to remove the overseers the department appointed after the company's plea deal, the Journal reported last month.White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said, "President Trump's assets are in a trust managed by his children. There are no conflicts of interest."On stage with Sun, who is a World Liberty adviser, Trump and Witkoff dished out the bank-bashing that is beloved by the crypto faithful. To whoops and applause, Trump said nothing would give him more joy than to see crypto help kill off the big banks that cut ties with his family."The exact same people who were coming after us were going after the crypto community," Trump said.He touted USD1 as a device for seamless cross-border payments, or as a way to pay for a stay at his family's hotels. Witkoff, an American flag pinned to his jacket lapel, said a recently announced $2 billion investment into Binance by MGX, a state-backed U.A.E. investor, would be paid in USD1.Since MGX needed to buy the USD1 to pay Binance, the deal propelled the cryptocurrency's market value into the ranks of the largest stablecoins. The more USD1 in circulation, the more the Trump family can profit from the assets underpinning its value, chiefly U.S. Treasury debt."We thank MGX and Binance for their trust in us," Witkoff said. "I think it's only the beginning."To add to World Liberty's sprawling business entanglements, Witkoff also announced a new partnership with Sun to issue billions of dollars more of USD1 on Tron.Hundreds of drones took to the sky above the Madinat Jumeirah during the conference's final evening. "Who let the dogs out?" they spelled.Then attendees drove off into the desert an hour east of Dubai, walked almost half a mile through the dark down a sandy track into an amphitheater, and packed onto a dance floor beneath a DJ booth built to resemble the flaming wings of a giant bird of prey.There, they donned luminous goggles, slugged tequila shots and partied the night away to stomach-quivering electronic music. A group of young male ravers stripped off their T-shirts and puffed on joints; "I can't get no sleep," chanted the crowd to a remix of the track "Insomnia," by Faithless.Write to Angus Berwick at [email protected]