The Crypto Wave

What Happened

Riding the post-2020 influx and an exuberant bull market, Miami branded itself, around 2021, as the global capital of cryptocurrency. The city hosted the world's largest Bitcoin conference; Mayor Francis Suarez championed the sector, took part of his salary in Bitcoin, and promoted "MiamiCoin," a city-associated cryptocurrency; and a crypto exchange bought the naming rights to the downtown arena, briefly making it "FTX Arena."

Then the market turned. The 2022 crypto crash — and the spectacular collapse of FTX — wiped out much of the froth; the arena shed the FTX name (becoming the Kaseya Center), MiamiCoin cratered, and the giddiest claims quietly faded. What remained was a city that had, for a moment, positioned itself at the frontier of digital money, and a residue of crypto businesses and believers.

Why It Mattered

The crypto wave is the most volatile expression of the tech wave's spirit — Miami's eagerness to brand itself as the frontier of whatever money is doing next. It fit the city's long history of speculative booms (the 1920s land boom, the cocaine years, the condo cycles): a rush of capital on a story, an overshoot, and a crash, leaving behind both wreckage and a durable brand.

Even after the crash, the episode reinforced Miami's identity as a place friendly to risk capital and new money, part of the pitch that continues to draw the tech and finance migration.

Where You See It Today

The renamed Kaseya Center is the most visible artifact — a downtown arena that briefly bore a crypto exchange's name. A residue of crypto and blockchain businesses remains in Brickell, and the city's reputation as crypto-friendly persists, chastened by the crash. The wave is a cautionary chapter in the current era's story.

What Happened

Why It Mattered

Where You See It Today

Further Reading