The Kanoo Innovation Hub, a startup accelerator launched by Kanoo Pays, was about to announce a partnership with FTX when the scandal broke. Rees says FTX intended to create a way for accelerator participants to tap into the $100 million capital pool already set aside for local investments. (FTX did not respond to a request to confirm the deal.)
Although the Innovation Hub’s survival does not depend on FTX funding, Rees says the collaboration promises to take the program “to another level”, giving a boost to Caribbean founders.
Worse still, Rees says, the collapse of FTX created a job vacuum that deprived Bahamians of their current jobs and potential career opportunities. “The saddest thing for us, apart from the millions of people who lost money,” he said, “is that some of our compatriots could have gotten the job of their life, but it was taken away from them . »
Although crypto enthusiast groups already existed, the Bahamas began to officially establish itself as a crypto hub in late 2020 with the passage of the Digital Assets and Registered Exchanges (DARE) Act.
At the time, it was one of the only full-fledged crypto laws in the world, says Caroline Malcolm, head of international public policy at blockchain data firm Chainalysis. It established a clear set of rules for crypto companies, unavailable in most other jurisdictions, and ensured that companies that engaged in malpractice could be held accountable.
Over the next two years, a collection of startups and large crypto companies have set up shop in the Bahamas, including FTX and OKX, another major crypto exchange. Furthermore, Tether, whose dollar-pegged stablecoin is essential to the proper functioning of crypto markets, holds its reserves with a Bahamian bank, Deltec Bank & Trust.
But already, signs of the damage the FTX collapse has done to the Bahamas’ status as an emerging crypto capital are starting to show.
In December, SALT, the events company led by former White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci, announced the cancellation of Crypto Bahamas 2023. Another event, D3 Bahamas, organized by the Bahamas government and billed as The country’s “flagship Web3 and fintech festival” was scheduled to take place in January, but has been postponed. A new date has not yet been set.
