Bubbly has burst for crypto bigs
They were ordering 12 or 24 bottles of the most expensive champagne and just showering themselves without even drinking.
Nerdy crypto entrepreneurs who spent big at Miami nightclubs, showering patrons with cash as they ordered “bathtubs of champagne” and sang with rappers such as 50 Cent, have gone quiet, South Florida venue owners said.
The sudden collapse of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, founded by the disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried, and the plummeting value of digital coins has Miami nightclub owners pining for the days when entrepreneurs flocked to venues such as E11even and its neon lights, trapeze dancers and burlesque shows.
“They were ordering 12 or 24 bottles of the most
— Andrea Vimercati, Miami hospitality group executive
expensive champagne and just showering themselves without even drinking,” Andrea Vimercati, director of food and beverage at Moxy Hotel group, told the Financial Times. “[The crypto entrepreneurs] wanted to show that they didn’t have any limits.”
Vimercati recalled that the crypto boom of a year ago prompted a wave of predominantly young men awash in money to flaunt their newfound wealth in Miami.
“Out of the blue, all these kids from crypto started coming down and spending a lot of money — like, an insane amount of money,” he said.
“They were booking tables for $50,000, and it was like, ‘Who the hell are these people?’ ”
Vimercati described the crowd as “95% men, young . . . with a kind of nerdy style.”
“You couldn’t tell they had a lot of money if they were just walking around,” he said.
Gino LoPinto, operating partner at E11even, told the FT that a group of crypto businessmen came into the club in June 2021.
“50 Cent was performing, and their spend was more than a million dollars,” LoPinto told the FT. “They paid in crypto.”
The club processed $6 million worth of crypto transactions between April and December of last year but has taken in just $10,000 in the past three months, he said.