More than just a ‘token’ bridge – Cointelegraph Magazine

This “Crypto City” guide looks at Sydney’s crypto culture, the city’s most notable projects and people, its financial infrastructure, what retailers accept crypto and where you can find blockchain education courses — along with a history of its crypto controversies.

Jump to: Crypto culture, Projects and companies, Financial infrastructure, Where can I spend crypto? Controversies and collapses, Education, Notable figures.

Fast facts

City: Sydney
Country: Australia
Population: 5.2 million
Established: 1788

Sydney is Australia’s first, oldest and second-most populous city (just), world-famous for its harbor views and iconic landmarks, such as the Opera House and Harbor Bridge — affectionately nicknamed “The Coathanger” by locals. The Harbor City’s second-most notable feature is 100 beaches across the metropolitan area with Bondi Beach the best known.

Located on Australia’s east coast, Sydney was established as a penal colony for the British Empire, which needed somewhere to transport criminals after losing control of its colonies in the American Revolution. It’s probably no surprise then it earned the moniker “Sin City” in the second half of the 20th century due to rampant organized crime that corrupted judges, the top brass of the police and, maybe less surprisingly, politicians.

On a global scale, Sydney is fairly young and architecturally contemporary, which saw it play backdrop to The Matrix, as a major location in Mission Impossible 2 and a starring role in the plot of Finding Nemo (no, 42 Wallaby Way, Sydney doesn’t exist). Sydney is Australia’s financial hub, has the third largest immigrant population globally, and boasts the second most unaffordable housing in the world behind Hong Kong.

Sydney’s crypto culture

Sydney saw an early interest in cryptocurrencies that still carries on today. Blockchain Sydney has been consistently getting together since 2013, and it currently meets twice a month at various pubs around the city. Blockchain Professionals, formed in 2014, also still meets up about once a month.

The Australian DeFi Association, while only launching in early 2022, has become a highly attended and consistent monthly hangout for local crypto industry players and enthusiasts.

Co-founder Mark Monfort originally created it for online discussions but says it soon morphed into an IRL meetup held between the larger “one-off” blockchain events, such as those by Blockchain Australia.

“We wanted to be the ‘gap filler’ between other meetups because what we saw was that there wasn’t really a place for direct conversation apart from Crypto Twitter.”

Monfort maintains a calendar of Web3 events and meetups going on around Sydney and Australia. Other popular meetups include Bitcoin Sydney, Hyperledger Sydney and Sydney AI Web3 (which added artificial intelligence in line with the recent AI boom), while NFT Sydney and Metaverse Sydney typically don’t meet as often.

As the country’s financial hub, Sydney boasts a thriving startup culture. Many crypto-related events are held in the various co-working offices around the city that also serve as a base for numerous crypto and fintech startups. One provider, Stone & Chalk, runs a Web3 Innovation Centre within the government-supported Sydney Startup Hub, and local exchange Independent Reserve has run a blockchain business accelerator since 2018.

Blockchain Week, the flagship event of Blockchain Australia, invariably holds at least one day of the program in Sydney, typically at the Exchange Centre — the home of the Australian Stock Exchange (ASX).

Sydney’s crypto projects and companies 

Sydney’s crypto players are diverse, and there’s likely a company involved in every niche of the market. “There’s a lot of innovation that’s coming out of this town — much more than you see on a global stage,” says Monfort, who also is a co-founder of the Web3 advisory firm NotCentralised.

NFT horse racing and betting game Zed Run was created here by Virtually Human Studios (before it moved to Melbourne) and so was Find Satoshi Labs’ move-to-earn app StepN. Fellow NFT gaming companies Illuvium and Immutable are also in Sydney (as much as a decentralized organization can be). Sigma Prime, is behind Lighthouse, the…