City AM’s Crypto Awards 2020 Rock the Floor Despite COVID19 Scare

The world is taken aback by the outbreak of the deadly Coronavirus, and public events across the globe are being canceled or postponed. As a precautionary step, major events of the crypto industry were also moved to future dates; however, London’s leading business newspaper City AM managed to successfully host the Crypto Awards 2020, organized by its Crypto Insider edition.

The awards were conducted on March 11 in London’s business district and were attended by major industry stakeholders. Among the attendees was William Russel, the Lord Mayor of London, who took a moment to emphasize the point that London is a world leader in financial innovation. He further added,

“We are the world hub for tech talent. We have generated over 76,000 FinTech jobs and closed deals in the sector worth more than £2.9 billion in 2019, which helps us support regulation standards globally.”

The Lord Mayor jokingly also said that the first Lord Mayor of the city, Henry Fitz Ailwin, who was appointed by King Richard I, would have taken blockchain as a new castle defense system. Editor-in-Chief of the Crypto Insider edition of City AM, James Bowater, stated the event was just the first of the many more crypto awards to come. On the success of the event during the pandemic, Bowater said, “I am really thrilled to see you were all able to make it despite the trying times.”

Speaking to the attendees, Electroneum CEO and Founder, Richard Ells stressed upon the fact how cryptocurrency can make a difference in the lives of over 1.7 billion people on this planet who continue to remain unbanked. Referencing to the company’s AnyTask freelance platform, Ells explained how users could supplement and grow their incomes without even having a bank account.

“There is a logo designer in Pakistan. He is unbanked, so he cannot use Fiverr. He is disabled, struggles with work, and he’s so excited to be on AnyTask. He’s been really busy since AnyTask went live, his skills are superb and charges only US$10 for a logo design. He is only one of loads of stories of people in developing countries who are benefitting from AnyTask.”

The UK based Electroneum, deservedly, received the ‘Social Impact and Sustainability Award.’ Among the individual awards, Marta Piekarska-Geater, of Hyperledger, IBM’s blockchain wing, received the ‘Outstanding Industry Contribution Award.’

Here’s the list of the Awardees in the major categories:

‘Community Enhancement Award’ – CryptoCompare (London, UK)

‘Payment Service Provider Award’ – Bitstamp (Luxembourg)

‘Digital Asset Custodian Award’ – Gemini Trust (New York, USA)

‘Deployment in Fintech Award’ – Consensys Codefi (Brooklyn, USA)

‘Crypto Exchange Platform Award’ – Coinpass (London, UK)

‘Service Provider Award’ – CMS Lay

‘UX/UI Award’ – Zerion (New York, USA)

‘Incubator/VC Award’ – Outlier Ventures (US/Canada/UK)

‘Enterprise Blockchain Award’ – Cygnetise (London, UK)

Importance of City AM’s Crypto Awards

At a time when the industry is facing multiple challenges like a market slowdown, Coronavirus, and tightening government regulations, such awards bring a ray of hope that the crypto community will survive all the challenges and emerge victoriously. Though some big names from like Binance, Huobi Global, TRON, Coinbase, Ripple, etc., were missing, the future seems to be more pleasant. All in all, such events are important from a recognition viewpoint, as when a major business daily like City AM conducts an event and awards a company, the financial world takes notice, and that’s what we need more than anything else.