Harneys' Ideas, Innovations, and Investments conference series: Virtual assets revolution

Over the last couple of years, the meteoric rise of the virtual assets sector has been undeniable. It is shifting the global economy in a fascinating way; engendering widespread change and provoking real thought around how we apportion, measure and record value.

Over the last twelve months, there have been a number of prevailing trends: a buoyant virtual assets market; support for the digital assets sector from institutional sectors; the Nasdaq IPO of Coinbase; contemplation of GovCoins; and an overwhelming increase in the social media chatter around NFTs.

Our lawyers have been advising clients on cryptocurrency, digital assets and blockchain technology projects since 2015, when the industry was still relatively embryonic.

In this final video of the series, Philip Graham, Global Head of Investment Funds and Regulatory at Harneys; Marc Piano, Associate at Harneys; and Henry Brodie, Director at 1kx Management focus on debunking myths in the sector including:

• Cryptocurrencies are untraceable and so perfect for criminals, especially money-launderers to run scams and frauds
• Cryptocurrencies are a fad and will fade away. They have no real value
• Cryptocurrency is only to be used for speculation
• Cryptocurrencies are terrible for the environment
• Central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and stablecoins will crush Bitcoin
• The new Bitcoin futures exchange traded funds (ETFs) is a truly terrible way to get exposure
• If crypto isn’t a fad, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) sure are
• Decentralised autonomous organisations (DAOs) will destroy the corporate vehicle as we know it