ADAN’s Crypto & Finance Forum 2022: A New Edition Highlighting France’s Role in Shaping the Crypto Landscape in Europe

Paris, July 18, 2022 – Before the summer break, the crypto-asset industry takes center stage one last time at the Association for the Development of Digital Assets (Adan)’s major annual event at the Maison de la Mutualité: the Crypto & Finance Forum (CFF). In 2021, the first edition brought together more than 240 participants. A special highlight this year: the “Future of France” evening event, which puts decentralized finance (DeFi) in the spotlight and brings it within reach of the institutional world.

Bringing people together and fostering dialogue on the major challenges of the Web 3.0 journey

While cryptocurrency is the focus of this event, the CFF aims to bring together not only key players in the sector but also public policymakers, representatives from the banking and financial industries, and all companies interested in exploring—or even helping to build—this promising new frontier of the global digital economy. 

With the help of some forty experts from a wide range of fields, the Forum examines and analyzes the major structural and cyclical issues that have shaped this year and will continue to shape the crypto sector. The exchange of perspectives—intrinsically linked to the complexity and significant impact of crypto innovation—is essential to grasping the strategic challenges associated with the development of French industry leaders. Thus, crypto pure players will share the stage at CFF 2022 with: the European Commission, the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF), the Caisse des Dépôts et Consignations (CDC), the Directorate General of the Treasury, the Office for Banking and Financial Coordination (OCBF), as well as major established players who are closely monitoring or even embracing crypto, such as Casino Immobilier, Delubac & Cie, DLPK, KPMG, and Novethic. As the event’s lead partner, Société Générale – Forge is even dedicating a roundtable to the ambitions of the traditional financial sector—featuring ABN AMRO Bank, AXA IM, Banco Santander, the Banque de France, Swift, and Visa—and will honor the winners of its competition (the CAST Challenge) for defining new standards for tokenized financial instrument markets.

The CFF also aims to highlight France’s role and position as a leader in order to foster crypto innovation within the country. Two distinguished guests will open and close the event: Jean-Noël Barrot, the new Minister Delegate for Digital Transition and Telecommunications, and Robert Ophèle, Chairman of the AMF. 

“I would like to reaffirm our ambition for the French crypto-asset ecosystem, with the goal of making France a leader in the emerging Web 3 economy and Europe’s leading hub for crypto-assets,” the minister told the French sector.

Crypto is making waves in Europe

The Crypto & Finance Forum is thus launching the 5th Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC), which will also be held at the Maison de la Mutualité starting the following day, placing Paris at the center of the European and global crypto scene for a week. 

Throughout the day, the Adan Forum will paint a broad picture of the crypto landscape—economic, geopolitical, regulatory, and competitive—and highlight the macroeconomic challenges linked to upheavals in finance and the monetary landscape, as well as the associated risks to sovereignty. This is an opportunity to bring the European ecosystem together around a common vision, driven in particular by France, including in the context of the difficult debates that have taken place in recent months at the EU level. 

“Through the Crypto & Finance Forum, ADAN sought to highlight France’s enduring role as a catalyst for the European crypto sector,” explains Faustine Fleuret, president of ADAN. “France must continue to work toward creating conditions conducive to the emergence of French and European leaders, as there is still a long way to go and many obstacles to overcome.” 

Adan at the heart of the rise of the French and European industries

The 2022 CFF underscores ADAN’s commitment and efforts to establish France and Europe as a global hub for cryptocurrency, by safeguarding their competitiveness in the face of already fierce competition from the United States, the United Kingdom, and Asia. During the Forum, the Association will unveil its 2021 activity report, which documents the efforts undertaken and achievements made toward this goal. 

“Synergies between public and private stakeholders in the growth of our digital economy are key to a joint strategy that supports the industry—a strategy that has yet to be implemented,” summarizes Faustine Fleuret. “This requires a shared understanding of the opportunities presented by this innovation, as well as the risks of delegating control over it.” 

Numerous companies from a variety of sectors supported the event as partners, reflecting a growing interest in the industry and the importance of establishing a presence in this market. Among them were SG – Forge, Delubac & Cie, CDC, DLPK, Lyncas, Scorechain, and Waltio. The Association also acknowledges the support of its media partners: l’Agefi, BSmart, CoinAcademy, Coin Telegraph, Cryptoast, l’Express, Maddyness, and The Big Whale. Finally, ADAN thanks its institutional partners for helping bridge the gap between crypto and the broader economic community: AMAFI, ANCDGP, Croissance Plus, EUCI, Finance for Tomorrow, Finance Innovation, France Fintech, La Place DeFi, Swave, and OCBF.

The Association is wrapping up this major event with the "Future of France" evening, co-organized with the cream of the crop of decentralized finance: Aleph, Angle, APWine, Atlendis, Jarvis, Mangrove, Morpho, Paladin, Paraswap, Sismo, and Synaps. The goal is to build bridges between traditional finance and DeFi, at a time when more and more French people are eager to embrace this innovation and regulators are grappling with how to regulate this still-young sector, which is poised to play a major role in our daily lives in the future.