Social gathering hosted by Consensus took place at nightlife venue linked to Zach Witkoff's past legal issue

Consensus, the annual cryptocurrency conference hosted by CoinDesk, threw its post-conference closing party at E11even, the same club where several years ago World Liberty Financial founder Zach Witkoff was arrested with cocaine.

This Miami club, described as a “strip club” by Jess Zhang, the founder and chief executive of Blockus, was criticized as a poor choice for an industry that was supposed “to be moving towards institutional maturity.”

Zhang further noted that this type of event “diminishes women to sexual objects and enforces a stale, exclusionary culture.”

1/ This year’s official @consensus2026 closing party by @CoinDesk was a massive step backward. Hosting the flagship event at E11even — a strip club — wasn't just inappropriate; it was incredibly low-brow for an industry trying to grow up.2/ Let’s be clear: I’m all for alcohol,… pic.twitter.com/7mIIt7BAWy

— Jess | CEO @ Blockus (@theweb3jess) May 8, 2026

Additionally, Amanda Wick, formerly a federal prosecutor, told Bloomberg that “as a gender equality advocate, the event was horrifying.”

E11even has a long history with cryptocurrency; E11even Partners decided to partner with FTX US before its collapse.

This partnership would have made FTX US “the sole converter of cryptocurrency transactions for acquiring residences” in this development by the same group as the aforementioned nightclub.

i never knew the women working there are forced sex slavesits as if there was no actual conference or networking outside of a closing partyoh wait 🙄

— MichaelK.eth (@mikashi) May 10, 2026

At least one cryptocurrency executive rushed to defend the event: Michael Khekoian, the senior business development manager at Consensys who also does product safety at Metamask, posted, “I never knew the women working there are forced sex slaves.”

He continued, “its as if there was no actual conference or networking outside of a closing party.”

Eventually, this escalated to Khekoian threatening to sue Zhang.

Zach Witkoff arrest video surfaces amid Justin Sun lawsuit

Additionally, this is the same nightclub where in 2022 World Liberty Financial founder Witkoff was arrested with cocaine.

During a video of the arrest you can hear Witkoff repeatedly insist that he was friends with Marc Roberts, who runs E11even.

Witkoff wasn’t prosecuted following this arrest.