Mayor unveils ‘Miami Bull’ statue with laser eyes to kick off Bitcoin 2022

To mark the opening of the Bitcoin 2022 conference, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez unveiled a laser-eyed bull statue meant to symbolize Miami becoming the self-proclaimed “world’s capital of crypto.”

The statue is a 3,000-pound robotic-looking bull fashioned in the same vein as the Charging Bull of Wall Street, according to the official website. The statue was commissioned by Florida-based finance firm Tradestation.

“New York is the former financial center… I give you the Miami bull!”

- Mayor Suarez #Bitcoin#Bitcoin2022pic.twitter.com/i70kr2XFSg

— Bruce Fenton (@brucefenton) April 6, 2022

It was unveiled on Wednesday at the Miami Beach Convention Center, where the conference is being held and was immediately labeled by skeptics at Intelligencer as “A Crime Against God.”

However, the crypto community has taken a shine to the new symbol of the future of finance. Morgan Creek Digital co-founder Anthony “Pomp” Pompliano tweeted on Thursday that “The bulls are in control.”

Meanwhile, Binance founder and CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao tweeted that the bull is “pretty cool.”

This iron man #bitcoin bull is pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/B8x7yjAtTq

— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) April 7, 2022

The bull will greet the 30,000 attendees expected at the conference this year before being put out to pasture at the Miami-Dade College campus after the conference ends. The conference will run for four days from April 6-9.

The conference features five different stages, the largest of which has a capacity of 15,000 people. Events started off with Pomp and Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz giving a joint fireside chat and continued with chats from Bitcoin community legends Nick Szabo, Jameson Lopp, Dan Held and others.

Other speakers include PayPal founder Peter Thiel, NFL star Odell Beckham Jr., and MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, just to name a few.

A notable last-minute withdrawal from the conference lineup is El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele. President Bukele is dealing with an outbreak of gang violence in his country, where a state of emergency has been imposed that suspends certain civil liberties, drawing concern from human rights organizations.

Bukele cited “unforeseen circumstances” in a letter to the attendees of the conference, which was tweeted by the Bitcoin 2022 Twitter account on Thursday.

We’re sharing a letter from President @nayibbukele who is unfortunately no longer able to attend Bitcoin 2022 due to unforeseen circumstances in El Salvador which require his urgent attention. We stand in solidarity with the Salvadorian people during these difficult times. READ: pic.twitter.com/wbFXMY60c0

— Bitcoin 2022 (@TheBitcoinConf) April 6, 2022

At last year’s Bitcoin 2021 conference, also held in Miami, Bukele announced his intention to make Bitcoin (BTC) a legal tender in his country.

Related: Paxful partners with Miami mayor to give away 500 tickets to Bitcoin 2022 conference

Despite the bullish opening for Bitcoin 2022, the markets have flipped bearish. Bitcoin is down 6.26% on the week and 4.37% over the last 24 hours, hitting a weekly low of $43,401, according to Cointelegraph data.