Here's what it's like at Mainnet, where tickets cost $2,100 and attendees network on yachts.

• Crypto enthusiasts, Web3 founders, and investors convened at Messari Mainnet in New York City this week.
• The tone was firmly upbeat, despite bitcoin, ether, and other digital assets struggling through a bear market.
• Here's a look inside the event from Insider's Phil Rosen.

The Messari Mainnet crypto conference in New York drew about 2,000 attendees in person this week, with bullishness still running high and conference-goers ready to party — even as bitcoin and ether, the two largest cryptocurrencies by market cap, are each down more than 60% this year.

"Enthusiasm is definitely back to where we were prior to the bear market," Shahzad Nathani, head of partnerships at blockchain firm Shardeum, told Insider at Pier 36, the east Manhattan location of the conference.

The NFT market, like crypto, has cratered in 2022. In the week leading up to Mainnet, the market valuations for two of the most popular collections, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Cryptopunks, slid by 21% and 19%, respectively.

A ticket to the three-day Mainnet conference cost $2,100, granting access to three days' worth of panels featuring nearly 300 speakers ranging from ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin to smaller asset managers and execs in the space.

Source https://finance.yahoo.com/news/crypto-parties-still-raging-bear-121500172.html