Blockchain, Blockchain, Blockchain! Your Guide To This Week's Crypto Conferences

A pair of major events are taking place this week in the cryptocurrency world. Blockchain Week kicked off over the weekend in New York City, and this year’s event features appearances by St. Louis Fed President James Bullard, European Parliament member Eva Kaili and Twitter, Inc. TWTR CEO Jack Dorsey. Rapper Snoop Dogg will perform at a party sponsored by the Ripple cryptocurrency.

The largest event of the week is expected to be CoinDesk’s Consensus conference, which will likely have as many as 8,000 attendees. A major topic of debate at this year’s event will be regulation as global governments attempt to accommodate cryptocurrencies’ rise in popularity while also protecting investors and users.

At the same time Blockchain Week is hitting New York, Las Vegas will host The Blockchain Event at the MGM Grand May 16-17. Sessions at the Blockchain Event are expected to focus on ways blockchain technology can improve health care, social media and the payments business.

After a rocky start to the year, most cryptocurrencies have bounced back in the past month after tax season selling pressure subsided. The price of bitcoin is up 5.8 percent in the past month, and the Bitcoin Investment Trust GBTC is up 4.2 percent in that time.

Experts say this week’s events may move the crypto markets. Last week, Fundstrat Global Advisors managing director Robert Sluymer said cryptocurrency prices have historically reacted positively to the Consensus conference.

“The regulatory risk, the fundamental risk around what's happening with cryptos has hit a bottom and now we're in a state of general recovery,” he said.

The most popular cryptos are off to a lackluster start to the week Monday morning. Bitcoin was down 1.5 percent, Ethereum was up 0.1 percent and Ripple was up 2.8 percent.

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