• The first Crypties Awards were held on November 30th in Miami, with Lens Protocol winning the DeFi Project of the Year award.
• On December 6th, Decrypt Studios held their inaugural Crypties Awards gala in Miami with celebrity emcee Josh Ostrovsky and presenters from a range of crypto projects.
• At Web Summit in Lisbon, Tezos co-founder Kathleen Breitman spoke about how the Tezos blockchain has used a proof-of-stake mechanism since its inception, and a panel of venture capitalists discussed raising money during Crypto Winter at 0xpo Summit in San Francisco.

On November 30th of this year, the inaugural Crypties Awards were held in Miami, Florida. The event was hosted by Decrypt Studios, a media company focused on blockchain and cryptocurrency. The event was presented by BeetsDAO, with celebrity emcee Josh Ostrovsky („The Fat Jewish“) and presenters from a range of crypto projects. After much anticipation, the award for DeFi Project of the Year was presented to Lens Protocol. Bradley Freeman and Christina Beltramini accepted the Cryptie from presenter Jordan Garbis of BeetsDAO.

The other nominees in the category were Aave, dYdX, and OlympusDAO. The other awards categories included Best DeFi Platform, Best Layer 2 Solution, Best Crypto Product, Best Crypto Service, Best Community, Best DeFi Token, Best DeFi Innovation, and Best Blockchain Project. The event was sponsored by Polygon, Filecoin Foundation, Lamina1, Async, BeetsDAO, The Gold Mask, Gem Set, Breakout, Anonymous, Infinite Objects, Ape Water, Decentralized Pictures, and Vault 721.

December 6th saw Decrypt Studios hold their inaugural Crypties Awards gala in Miami. With Josh Ostrovsky as their celebrity emcee and presenters from a range of crypto projects, statuettes were awarded in nine categories. The event was a huge success, and the awards recognized some of the most innovative companies and projects in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space.

Also in December, Tezos co-founder Kathleen Breitman spoke about how the Tezos blockchain has been using a proof-of-stake mechanism since its inception at Web Summit in Lisbon. She also discussed her admiration for Tendermint, Ethereum, and sharding, and spoke about progressive decentralization and NFT gaming.

At the 0xpo Summit in San Francisco on November 3, a panel of venture capitalists discussed raising money in the midst of Crypto Winter. Clay Robbins of Slow Ventures, Soona Amhaz of Volt Capital, Sarah Guo of Conviction and formerly Greylock, and Alex Strzesniewski of AngelBlock spoke with Decrypt’s Jason Nelson about the difficulties of raising venture money in this difficult climate.

The Crypties Awards and the related events provided a great opportunity to recognize the work of innovators in the blockchain and cryptocurrency space, and to bring attention to the projects, companies, and individuals that are making a difference. It was an exciting and inspiring event, and we look forward to seeing what the future holds for these projects.