Ethereum co-founder advises crypto investors to ’pay more attention’ after crash

Ethereum's co-founder Gavin Wood has advised cryptocurrency investors to be more aware of what is backing their holdings after a crypto market rout that wiped more than $800 billion off their value.

"I would hope that people pay more attention to what is belying the currency name when they get involved in a community, ecosystem, economy," Wood told Reuters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos.

Cryptocurrencies have been swept up in a sell-off this year in risk assets, which has picked up steam as data showed US inflation running hot, deepening investor fears about the economic impact of aggressive central bank tightening. The downturn in the crypto market which started in April has wiped billions of dollars in market value within a month.

Crypto and blockchain firms have been highly visible at this year's gathering of business and political leaders, despite the market plummeting in value in the weeks leading up to the event, with the eighth-largest coin Luna becoming virtually worthless.

Blockchains are public ledgers that keep records of transactions on networks of computers, and, along with cryptocurrencies, are largely unregulated.

"The internet has no real concept of legality, because legality is something that is determined by sovereign nations," Wood said in an interview to Reuters. "The technology cannot prevent people from making mistakes but can help those who want to understand better the facts of the world, what they're buying," said Wood.

The 42-year-old, who also coined the term Web3, also founded the Web3 Foundation, which backs the reorganization of the web away from big companies such as Google owner Alphabet to individual users.

Cryptocurrencies have fallen sharply in recent weeks. Bitcoin has lost more than 20% of its price so far in May, following a 17% drop in April, highlighting the risks faced by holders of the highly volatile assets.