Wall Street and crypto founders talk web3 behind closed doors at Medici NY

According to Eleanor Terrett, founder of Crypto in America and former Fox Business journalist, Wall Street firms and crypto builders met last week in a closed-door gathering called Medici NY, held inside the Core Club, a private members-only club near the St. Regis Hotel on 5th Avenue in New York City.

This happened at the exact same time as the Blockworks Digital Asset Summit at the Javits Center, but this wasn’t part of that. This was a separate, invite-only event.

No social media posts, no livestreams, no panels—just private rooms full of crypto founders, fund managers, and institutional firms trying to figure out where the money’s going next in Web3.

The goal was simple. Top names like Goldman Sachs, VanEck, and Franklin Templeton wanted to hear directly from the people building new protocols. It wasn’t about Bitcoin or Ethereum.

They’ve already been priced in. This was about everything that comes next. The event also acted as a lead-up to Medici LA, the larger version of the conference that will happen later this year in Beverly Hills.

Adam Winnick locks down Wall Street for Medici

Adam Winnick, the guy behind Medici, is the founder of Finality Capital Partners, a crypto-focused investment firm. Adam started Medici LA in 2018 when most of crypto was still trying to get institutions to take it seriously.

“I created Medici because I knew that this industry needed help telling its story,” Adam said during the event. “Blockchain, digital assets, tokens—these are technologies that will profoundly reshape the internet, finance, and society. Medici gives our industry a powerful tool to build allies that can help us accomplish our goals.”

To make sure the right people were in town, Adam timed Medici NY to overlap with the Milken Global Conference, a four-day event hosted by Michael Milken, the same guy who founded the Milken Institute.

When Adam was asked why he chose the same dates as the Milken event, reportedly told Eleanor: “High yield finance used to be the upstart, now we are. We don’t really think we need to take a backseat to anybody. Plus, we serve better food.”

Regulation changes bring Wall Street back to crypto

Since the first Medici event seven years ago, the global crypto market cap has gone from about $600 billion to nearly $3 trillion. That growth has pulled in major institutions.

In 2024, a group of 11 firms launched the first Bitcoin ETFs, including giants like BlackRock and Fidelity. Six months later, they dropped Ethereum ETFs too. But all this happened while the Biden administration was still pushing back against crypto.

Gary Gensler, who was SEC chair at the time, led a full-blown crackdown on crypto. His office went after multiple firms with lawsuits and enforcement actions.

That pressure pushed a lot of crypto startups offshore, looking for better regulatory environments. At the same time, banks and funds started pulling away, not wanting to get caught in legal battles.

Now things are moving in the opposite direction. Since winning re-election in November, Donald Trump has gone full tilt on crypto. He’s been following through on his promise to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the planet” by rolling back Biden-era regulations. Banks and institutions are no longer blocked from interacting with crypto directly.

On top of that, Congress is working on new legislation for a national crypto regulatory framework, and the SEC has pulled back most of its previous actions. There’s even a new task force set up to deal directly with industry issues.

All of that helped set the mood for Medici NY. The shift in D.C. has made investors optimistic. Builders are starting to build again in the U.S., and big money wants in.

Thomas Bailey, founding general partner at Road Capital, broke it down like this:

“Years of venture capital investment and now regulatory tailwinds have meaningfully increased the number of tokens in our investment universe. Blockchain native institutional investors like ourselves see a massive opportunity to go beyond Bitcoin, and Medici events provide a great signal that can make it easier to identify quality projects at positive inflection points.”

Founders pitched top projects to fund managers

To show what kind of projects are actually getting built right now, the Medici NY event started Wednesday night with a private pitch session. It took place inside a small, home-style theater room. Just fund managers, five founders, and a QR code for surveys. No media. No noise.

The presenting teams were chosen by Adam and his team. The lineup included five major names in the space: Wormhole (interoperability), Celestia (modular blockchains), CoreDAO (Bitcoin-based DeFi), Jito Labs (liquid staking), and Mantra (real-world asset tokenization).

Each founder had five minutes to pitch their protocol. After that, managers could ask questions and give feedback through a quick phone survey.

Rich Rines, the initial contributor for CoreDAO, said:

“Adam and his team at Medici put on one of the highest signal events I’ve ever been to in the space, and I’ve been involved in crypto since 2013. Now, with millions of tokens in existence, there is a ‘flight to quality’ amongst leading projects, which is both a healthy and natural evolution of the industry. Given that context, we enjoyed the opportunity to build more direct relationships and share Core’s story with the leading allocators in the space.”

Once the pitches wrapped up, the crew moved next door. That room held a networking event for about 80 guests, complete with an open bar, buffet, and a live pianist. The vibe was low-key but intentional. Builders and backers talked over cocktails and prime rib, with soft music in the background. The whole thing felt more like a deal room than a conference.

Wiley Nickel, former Congressman from North Carolina, showed up for the first time. He’s been one of the louder voices supporting crypto in Washington.

“At my first Medici, I talked to a number of innovators from interesting startups at the forefront of new blockchain technology,” Wiley said. “It was a great opportunity to connect with the key decision makers building for the future of web3.”

On Thursday morning, the event wrapped with a final networking brunch held at the Polo Bar, the restaurant owned by Ralph Lauren, just a few steps from the Core Club. Known for its mahogany walls, leather booths, and equestrian paintings, the Polo Bar has always catered to Manhattan’s finance crowd.

Michael Bressler, founder of x2B, a crypto consulting firm, said, “Choosing a setting like the Polo Bar for a networking brunch is not random. Medici understands that the right environment is conducive to creating organic connections amongst people that can move our industry forward.”

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