The FTX crisis is the hottest topic at the biggest Bitcoin conference in Latin America

The largest crypto conference in Latin America, LaBitConf 2022, started on Friday.

The mood was bright and shiny in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Bitcoiners flooded into “The Paris of the South” to voice their stimulant-charged adoption calls to anyone who would listen. But one dark theme overshadowed the event: FTX.

The fall of one of the world’s largest digital asset exchanges and its CEO had everyone talking from the moment the event started.

When the big speakers hit the main stage on Saturday, there was even a rumor on Twitter that former billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried had fled his base in the Bahamas to Argentina on a private jet. (That later turned out to be nonsense.)

The hysteria even prompted Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin – arguably the most recognizable speaker at the conference – to give a surprise early talk at his main event where he compared the disgraced crypto boss to a “1930s dictator.”

Bankman-Fried, whose crypto empire went up in smoke this week, is now being investigated for “criminal misconduct”, it emerged today. So what are other exchanges and crypto companies doing to prove to their customers that the same thing won’t happen to them? Those who attended LaBitConf had clear answers.

Latin America’s most popular exchange, Mexico-based Bitso, spoke to Decrypt about the debacle. “We Think that we know what happened through third parties and Twitter,” Bitso Chief Regulatory Officer Felipe Vallejo said. “I feel completely sorry for the people who lost money – I won’t make a value judgment until we see the facts.”

He added that his exchange had always prioritized security and trust – sometimes at the expense of growth. He added that greater regulation would have consequences for those who “do evil”.

Vallejo’s comments echoed those of Coinbase founder and CEO Brian Armstrong so earlier this week: that this is the perfect kick-in-the-ass for regulators to create crystal clear rules and guidelines.

BitGet’s head of operations for Latin America and Spain, Mario Iemma, said the crisis could be an opportunity: The Singapore-based exchange, which leads the derivatives market in the region, announced a new system that allows users to see the liquidity of the exchange at all times.

The idea is to improve transparency, which in turn will lead to greater adoption, he explained.

Blockchain company Koibanx CEO Leo Elduayen so on stage that we need to “open our eyes” to companies like FTX and Celsius – which collapsed earlier this year – and recognize that they are not real Web3 companies.

Regulation aside, others were downright harsh. Eccentric, cowboy-hat-wearing Bitcoin developer Jimmy Song shouted on stage how it was all the customers’ fault.

“The bottom line is that people trusted FTX, and FTX screwed the customers,” he said to little applause. “What we preach in Bitcoin is verify – don’t trust. The moment you trust someone, you give them power.”

Buterin added that “this year we’ve just seen a huge number of things,” referring to the fall of many crypto projects and hacks.

“One is things that break because they have a model, and that model is just fundamentally bad,” he said. “And the other is things that break because there’s no trust in the model at all, but in a guy.”

As regulators and law enforcement investigate what exactly led to the collapse of FTX, everyone seemed to agree on one thing at this year’s LaBitConf: the cryptosphere needs to be very careful about who they give their money to.