As bitcoin sinks, crypto brothers party hard on a blockchain cruise

The cruise's eclectic list of speakers included Jose Gomez, a former aide to the late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

When 600 cryptocurrency enthusiasts set sail from Singapore on Monday night for their second annual Blockchain Cruise, the price of bitcoin was hovering comfortably above $13,500.
 
By the time their 1,020-foot-long ship pulled into Thailand on Wednesday, for an afternoon of bottomless drinks and crypto-focused talks on a sun-soaked private beach, bitcoin had cratered to $10,000.
 
The group of mostly young men, many of whom became wildly rich — at least on paper — as bitcoin and other digital tokens skyrocketed last year, had in all likelihood just lost millions.
 
But if anyone was fazed, they didn’t