Swan Bitcoin cancels conference amid staff reduction, mining shutdown

Financial services firm Swan Bitcoin has canceled a cryptocurrency conference it planned to host in California in October.

In an Aug. 5 X post, Swan Bitcoin CEO Cory Klippsten announced that the company would not hold the Pacific Bitcoin Festival in 2024. The event, initially planned to be held in Santa Monica, California, from Oct. 18 to Oct. 19, was roughly two months away at the time of cancellation.

“We’re fully focused on [Swan Bitcoin’s] core business right now, and after going through a staff reduction last month it just doesn’t feel like the right time for a festival,” said Klippsten.

Klippsten announced in July that the financial services firm had scrapped its immediate plans for an initial public offering after shutting down its crypto mining arm, which was first launched in 2023. At the time, the CEO said there had been “staff cuts across many functions.”

According to the Swan Bitcoin CEO, the firm would host a “smaller one-day event” on Oct. 17 but planned to return to a full conference in 2025. The announcement came just a few weeks after one of the biggest cryptocurrency conferences in the United States, Bitcoin 2024, was held in Nashville.

Speakers at the Pacific Bitcoin Festival would have included Bitcoiner Max Keiser, who has been behind many efforts to push Bitcoin adoption in El Salvador, and Marathon CEO Fred Thiel.