Inside Miami Tech Week, where more attention was devoted to AI than crypto this year and the tech downturn was hardly noticeable despite a plunge in VC funding
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg : Tweets: @technology and @producercities Tweets: @technology : Police, bikinis, AI and Keith Rabois: Scenes from Miami Tech Week https://www.bloomberg.com/... Jim Russell / @producercities : The Tech Startup Funding Rout Hasn't Stopped the Miami Party: “Last year there were gatherings every night for NFT art galleries & everyone stood around looking at holograms of apes. It was horrible. This year, crypto isn't even being mentioned” https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Miami Tech Week began as an accident of momentum — an impromptu event kicked off by a tweet from Founders Fund principal Delian Asparouhov in 2021, riding Keith Rabois's long-running campaign for Miami as a tech destination. Two years later it has become the city's annual barometer of which technology is attracting capital and social energy.
First-order effects
- The party circuit rotated its subject overnight: attendees report that crypto and NFTs went unmentioned this year, replacing what one participant described as nightly NFT-art-gallery gatherings around holograms of apes during the last cycle.
Second-order effects
- The same rotation shows up at Miami's dedicated crypto event — Bitcoin 2023 drew 12K+ attendees, down from 25K+ the year before, with a subdued mood — while the city and its bitcoin-salaried mayor have largely moved on ahead of hosting it.
Third-order effects
- The pattern points toward Miami's identity as a tech hub being re-anchored to the AI cycle rather than crypto, consistent with Silicon Valley's own shift into an AI-dominated 'hard tech' era — meaning second-tier hubs now inherit whichever theme venture capital is funding next, not a durable specialization of their own.
The trend: Regional tech scenes are becoming mirrors of the venture funding cycle, swapping crypto for AI within a single year as capital rotates themes.