I was trapped at a Croatian crypto festival as the market collapsed

The pilot must have seen an impending crash.

IN Blocking The Web3 conference kicks off the next day. TNW flew to attend, but fate had other plans.

After descending to the runway in Split, Croatia, the plane abruptly reversed course and ascended back into the sky. A curtain of Saharan sand had made the landing too dangerous – and the real drama was just beginning.

When we finally arrived in Croatia the next day, the crypto market entered its biggest downturn in years.

Falling Skies

The seeds of the crash were sown long before BlockDown.

After reaching record highs late last year, cryptocurrency prices began to fall as fears about the global economy grew. But the market is really collapsing after the collapse of Terra – the so-called stable coin – and its sister token, Luna.

Luna fell 99% to below $ 0.02 on May 13, the second day of BlockDown. The implosion echoed through the market.

The chaos cast a shadow over BlockDown.

“How is everyone?” Eric McIntyre, CCO of gaming company NFT Fancy Studios, asked during his interview. “Survive in the bloodbath, I hope?”

Participants in the event are suspected an organized attack is behind the crash. Some spoke on stage just minutes after learning of the seven-figure loss.

Still, the cryptographic crash was not the biggest headache for BlockDown founder Erhan Kohali. A bigger problem stems from the war in Ukraine, which prevented Russian sponsors and lecturers from attending.

Staying in the chain

The downturn led some retail investors to miss BlockDown, but most of the bigger players still showed up. Some are too invested to give up; others remain optimistic about the future.

They remember that the market broke a record high after even greater catastrophes. Zaki Manian, co-founder of Sommelier, a decentralized financing (DeFi) project, outlined the opportunities they provide.

“The challenge with DeFi is that we don’t really know what works and what doesn’t until one of these crashes happens,” he told TNW.

“These crashes are actually the time to test DeFi. This is also the best time to launch new things … launching a bull market is really awful. ”

Waiting for a rebound

Another reason for optimism is non-commercial applications. BlockDown promotes various other uses that blockchain can activate, from DAO to games.

Lily Zhao, Director of Ecosystem Growth at Neo, an open source blockchain development platform, highlighted the difference between technology and the market.

While trade is largely driven by sentiment, effective applications need to focus on the basics.

“Stakeholders and the factors that drive technology are completely different from those that drive the market,” Zhao told TNW.

“Unfortunately, there is a big difference between the basics and the price. But in the long run, as technology matures, there will be convergence between the two. “

The devastating losses from the collapse will devastate many investors, but resetting may be what the industry needs.