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Fortune
Fortune
Jack Kubinec

A strip club scandal at a major crypto industry event triggers sponsor backlash

Attendees sit to watch a speech during the 2023 Consensus conference in Austin, Texas (Credit: Matthew Busch—Bloomberg/Getty Images)

Crypto firms are rushing to distance themselves from a controversial party that capped a major industry  event in Miami. The shindig, which took place on May 6 and coincided with the end of the Consensus conference, took place at a well-heeled night club called E11EVEN and featured female dancers performing pole routines and lap dances. Following reports of the raunchy atmosphere, crypto exchange OKX told the Financial Times it would be reconsidering its sponsorship of the conference. 

“These kinds of immature and frankly borderline discriminatory events risk alienating exactly the communities the industry needs in order to continue growing,” OKX’s global head of corporate affairs Elliott Suthers told the FT. “We believe the industry should be moving towards greater professionalism, inclusivity and credibility, not away from it.”

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