An unsuspecting visitor walking into the halls of Suvretta House in mid-January could have been forgiven for doing a double take. There, within touching distance of the Alpine peaks of St Moritz, stood the Winklevoss twins of Facebook fame, the Swiss-Brazilian billionaire Jorge Lemann accompanied by Richard Schäli, a teenage fund manager, and a group of central bankers.

The draw was the three-day Crypto Finance Conference. With the names of regulators past and present up in lights on the bill, everyone wanted to know what...