ETHDenver 2025 Recap 🚀🛠️
36 Attendees' Takeaways from ETHDenver
What did you miss at ETHDenver?
We asked everybody we met at the conference to send us some notes. We got a whopping 36 replies, dwarfing last year’s 21.
In case you aren’t sufficiently literate to read it all, we got AI to pick out the top five trends:
Stablecoins as the Dominant Narrative
Side Events Overshadowing the Main Conference
Evolving DeFi Landscape and Ecosystem Fragmentation
AI Integration as a Secondary Trend
Market Sentiment: Builder Resilience Amid Bearish Conditions
But it’s far better to read it in their own words…
Stephen, DeFi Dojo
The real alpha is at side events. Thinking in terms of EV is how all major successful hedge funds, curators, and strategists look at DeFi. There is a growing concern that demographic warfare has reached a critical mass in Europe and that this will have longtail effects escalating in the next 1-2 decades.
RWAs are still the big thing with obvious PMF. The curator model is becoming more popular and is a good way for protocols and users to outsource risk analysis and metric management. OEV (oracle extractable value) will likely break into the defi overton window soon.
People have an appetite for silly yields again, this time with more consent. There is a concern about too much leverage creating potential systemic risks. Cabals are more obvious, the general sense is that it's good to have them exposed and shaken out, it should be assumed that all celebrity behavior is cabal adjacent and malicious.
Waj / 0xMughal, IVX (Berachain Derivative Hub)
A bit about yourself
My name is Waj, I'm a DeFi builder at IVX and create educational content in both written and video form.
What did you expect?
I expected to have a great time meeting builders, friends and enthusiasts in the space
Did it meet your expectations?
Yes!
What went well?
Events were high quality, in both the attendees and the events themselves.
What could be improved?
Pick a different city! Denver was a little dull compared to other big conferences event cities. In terms of events, perhaps a big DeFi event would be great too.
Conference is huge and calling it "ETH" Denver might be a misnomer at this point. Too many full day side events to actually catch all the interesting talks I wanted to see, especially the Defi related ones.
Catching up with all the defi builders is always my favorite part of ETHDenver and this year was no different.
Lots of great feedback from everyone we met about Index DTFs (decentralized token folios).
For an Ethereum conference, there is an awful lot happening outside of Ethereum. It seems the lack of app support from Ethereum Foundation has resulted in a lot of projects looking elsewhere. It's pretty natural that as the ecosystem grows, more and more builders aren't cypherpunks anymore, but it feels we're reaching an inflection point where Ethereum is truly losing its culture.
Adoption is not coming, it's here, institutional all have plans in place, and are looking to execute on them. Retail is not the inflexion, it's sophisticated actors. For this reason, stablecoins are in a permanent bull market.
A bit about yourself
I’m just a Curve/Convex Maxi.
What did you expect?
I expected just a main event with some booths, nothing that extraordinary. But what I realized was that the main event was not the main attraction. The sheer amount of side events, especially Curve related ones was insane!
I could not believe how big the community is and how passionate they are too. Stablecoins clearly were the main topic of the event. Everyone I talked to brought up stablecoins!
AI agents were a close second, and even when the subject was about AI agents, it was geared more towards how to get them integrated into Defi and stablecoins.
Did it meet your expectations?
Yes it exceeded my expectations.
What went well?
I think overall most things were pretty smooth.
What could be improved?
I wish there was a directory of all of the side events. I felt like I may have missed a few unintentionally. Overall it was a very positive experience.
1) Ethereum is alive and well, and despite all the capitulation you see on CT, there's still a very large, strong group of people who believe in decentralization and the World Computer.
The most interesting/exciting conversations I had were with people working on Ethereum's bare metal (eg relays, execution/consensus clients, block builders, etc).
I very much believe in the rollup centric roadmap and think that based+native rollups will solve the fragmentation problem and the ETH-as-money problem.
2) This is by far the most bullish time I've seen for stablecoins. There is so much happening that actually leverages Ethereum/crypto as a useful tool (and not just a speculative vehicle).
There are so many things I can list but the one that really stood out to me was that PayPal announced they had paid an invoice to EY using pyUSD. I truly believe we are not that far from stablecoins being considered and used similarly to debit cards - not a weird piece of edge-tech but a normal way of doing commerce.
3) It's impossible to ignore that the beating heart of DeFi is currently not in the Ethereum ecosystem. Right now the energy seems to be entirely in Sonic and Berachain.
Maybe that's just a reflection of how rough ETH is doing, or that people are always interested in trying new places, but I think its noticeable and maybe a little alarming that the momentum/energy in DeFi isn't on Ethereum/Base/Arbitrum/etc.
Maybe this is just a blimp, and DeFi will come home... but if it doesn't and the energy continues to bleed to other ecosystems, then I think Ethereum has some existential questions to answer.
4) Everyone in the Ethereum ecosystem feels cheated by this cycle
@deepcryptodive, founder DeFi Digits
My takes as a DeFi power user and firs time Denver goer:
Side events were very high quality and lit 🔥 it was great to catch up with fellow early DeFi users from the '19-20 class. Many have now become skilled builders and are driving the space forward. Most often, out of ideological reasons rather than profit-seeking behavior.
Unfortunately, there were more interesting side events than one could physically attend. Too much time overlap or located too far apart, combined with jetlag (and some mild altitude sickness?) made me miss out on many of them. First world problems.
The main event is a turnoff. It's not the prettiest venue and located in an industrial area with the lingering smell of cat food. Spending 2 hours there - to catch a few talks - was enough for me.
More and more sophisticated players from TradFi are entering the DeFi yieldfarming game. The simple days of masterchef and pool 2 farming are over. Concentrated liquidity, hedging, options, funding arbitrage, etc is where it's at. Get sophisticated, or underperform.
AI AGENTS EVERYWHERE. Don't get me wrong, the intersection of AI and crypto holds a lot of potential but we have clearly reached a point of saturation. Too much agent hackathons, AI side events, AI slop bots & AI funding. AI can be cool, but let's not overdo it.
Hacker houses like @SozuHaus are booming. Builders are vibing, experimenting and shipping actual useful new products. It's where you hear real talk rather than endless shilling.
Surprisingly, some really innovating projects that have PMF are struggling to raise their next VC round. Are VCs jaded? Or is it just because there is more money to be made in other verticals? TBD.
New chains like Sonic are booming and surprisingly fun. Had a blast at both @SonicLabs events. Bringing back the good old DeFi vibes and onchain experimentation. It may even be more ETH aligned than many of the current L2s. Don't fade this ecosystem anon.
Also, I highly recommend getting out of the city and take a nice hike in the mountains or visiting the skiing slopes. Nature is amazing!
tl;dr It was a great experience, but other venues/cities might be better suited imo!
This is Cyrille from f(x) Protocol. I expected to be freezing, and I've been surprized with the good weather.
That being said, the main event was nice. Most of the booth were relevant. I was quite surprized with the attendance in the side events. There were probably too many side events. But the good thing whit low attendance is that you can make deeper connections and spend more time with people.
I really appreciated connecting with US based builders that may not always go to European crypto events.
I love ETHDenver—it’s an event where I review and reflect on my personal professional year and the progress I’ve made since the last one. It’s also a temperature check for our industry and the Ethereum community—a weird, multi-layered energy and aspirations barometer. The quality of talks, side events, random buzz chats, lines (or lack of them)—all of these give a more real and complete picture of reality compared to an X threads.
This year’s conference reflected the L1 & L2 narrative, with a somewhat deserted main stage and Spork Castle, while an endless number of side events took over. For a first-time ETHDenver visitor, it was entirely possible to never even step into Spork Castle. We felt fragmented, moving our mercenary liquidity between endless events, while Uber thrived in the middle.
Joe Lubin’s take on Metropolitan Ethereum framed it as a natural evolution and a reminder to zoom out and keep building. So we will—until next time.
Jason, Product at Size Credit
Great energy.
Consuming tradfi.
ZK everywhere (and being used).
Accessible apps. Beautiful designs.
Good faith debate.
This is how we win.
Aaron Bumgarner, CEO and Founder Outsyde Global
I saw an excitement at ETH Denver that is being driven by RWAs I haven’t seen since I started in Web 3 in 2020 tokenizing land as the CEO and Founder of Outsyde Global. What I saw much less of this time around is less hype around meme coins and NFTs that don’t have any utility. Thank goodness!
There are some incredibly bright people at ETH Denver. I mean absolutely brilliant! The change in the caliber of people building and working in Web3 from when I entered the space in 2020 to today is a night and day difference.
It’s been incredibly encouraging to see this shift in focus to real world use cases!
Having been to many blockchain focused events over the past 6 years and attending ETH Denver for the first time I can see how the actual ETH Denver would be easy to navigate for someone new to the space but for a new comer the many side events which as we all know is where the action happens could be overwhelming to figure out how to navigate.
Mathieu Baril | Co-founder Octav.fi
This year was exceptional for Octav. After three years of building the best on-chain data platform, we participated as a sponsor at ETH Denver. Our side event, held in collaboration with Safe and Beefy, was a huge success.
The booths at the event were impressive, and we did engage in a lot of conversations with so many friends. We handed out a tons of merch, and the response was super. Our caps, backpacks, and custom ledger wallets were particularly well-received.
We meet with more people than we had anticipated, and many shared valuable feedback about our platform, which was incredibly encouraging. Overall, it was a monumental success for us, and we are sincerely grateful for the opportunity to reconnect with old friends and forge new relationships within the community.
Eth Denver never fails to connect builders and create valuable conversations that would've never been had otherwise. The conference itself and all the side events, however, often felt dominated by alt L1s.
Eth Denver should either change its name to reflect that fact, or work harder to highlight the chain it claims to represent. Free tickets are great, but would prefer to pay if that means we can eliminate much of the pitches from VC vaporware chains and focus instead on what we all came there for.
ETHDenver was solid overall. As expected, there was a lot of discussion around AI x Web3, stablecoins, institutional adoption, UX, and crypto fragmentation. It feels like we’re at an inflection point - Infra cycle is largely complete, and the focus is shifting from core tech to applications, users, and institutions.
Most of my conversations were with people actively building onchain, which was great to see. Having attended ETHDenver since its inception (except for the COVID years), I feel it might be time for the conference to rethink its structure—perhaps making the week more condensed with only a handful of side events.
This was my 3rd ETH Denver, and 5th Ethereum conference. I've also attended ETH CC ('23) and DEVCON ('24).
I went to Denver hoping to catch up with friends and talk to teams to get a better view of the state of Ethereum, from people who love it. While I missed the chance to connect with Gerrit, I did connect with most of the people I wanted to, and made a few new connections as well.
Some frustrations: location, as always. Side events were spread out, which made it difficult to get to all the events I wanted to attend.
Fun surprise: I don't know how, but I got a Sporkwhale pass when I checked in to the event. While this opened up some better food options (not hard considering the venue), I wasn't interested in ditching my homies for free food, so it mostly went unused.
It is hard to say what needs to be improved, beyond the price of ETH and overall market sentiment, except that the Western National location remains terrible. Security threw out my son's food during backpack inspections (we had come here straight from the airport). Why? So we would have to pay for C tier chicken tenders at bull market prices, while gazing upon the Hedera and ICP booths that greeted people entering the main floor.
I understand the SporkDAO needs to make some money and pay for the event, but putting non Ethereum projects in prime real estate hits different when the price of ETH is retesting $2000. We can at least be glad to not have had a pump fun booth, although a live memecoin launcher might have actually been kind of fun if Base had hosted it.
I came to BD, but stayed for the friends! I hardly attended the main conference, it’s all about planning and going to the right side events to get what the most out of the experience, at least for me.
Was also great to link up with my work team since we’re normally all remote. Good vibes, all the conversations I had and overheard were about new infra, tech, and pretty positive!
Improvement-wise, probably keep ethdenver a little more eth, or at least, evm aligned when talking main stage speakers and sponsors haha
This is the year of AI. Both in terms of AI logic being built into chains themselves as well as AI models running on top as applications: there is nothing more consequential for the industry and its right that the entire developer community is focused on this.
Most excited about Chaos Labs and that someone is finally bringing real applications to the industry with their Chaos AI product
A bit about yourself
Founder and GP at WTG Ventures. Before that built cybersecurity solutions for NATO.
What did you expect?
Meeting exciting builders, catching up with portfolio companies and fellow investors.
I could not believe how big the community is and how passionate they are too. Stablecoins clearly were the main topic of the event. Everyone I talked to brought up stablecoins!
AI agents were a close second, and even when the subject was about AI agents, it was geared more towards how to get them integrated into Defi and stablecoins.
Did it meet your expectations?
Yes.
What went well?
Yes. The space is full with talented people. Very bullish on this year.
What could be improved?
There are way too many side events. It feels that every year they are becoming more and more. Somehow it needs to be consolidated.
Anon Growth Lead, DeFi Lending Protocol
1. Far too many people talking about AI being the next big thing in Web3 without understanding any of the potential use cases and if those have any PMF outside of their bubble.
2. People are extra bullish on AI Agents handling finances for you without considering the implications of risk mitigation, not one group is analyzing the risk management of AI Agents and assume they will be infallible alpha factories that maximize their returns. Id rather keep my money with a professional manager like Steakhouse, MEV, or Gauntlet.
3. For a conference called ETHDenver, it felt like a funeral for ETH. So many projects building on side or entirely separate chains trying to shill their roll-up that doesnt contribute almost anything back to ETH. Seems like the organizers have lost control of attendees and event classification.
4. I was surprised how popular stablecoins were to VCs and investors, we all feel a bear market brewing, and stablecoins are some of the hottest tech now because of their Yield bearing nature.
The OGs and builders are tired and hoping to outlast the grifters.
We need to make sure to hold true to the values that brought us here, otherwise we will descend into nihilism
Key Takeaways:
1. Stablecoins, stablecoins, and more stablecoins. It is incredible, the amount of innovation that is happening in the stablecoin space and all of the parties that are part of the ecosystem. Wisconsin is launching a stablecoin. Amazing.
2. There are more conversations about long term real yield, ie, savings accounts via stablecoins. Whether it is holding a high apy yieldcoin, or, leveraging that yieldcoin on protocols such as dTRINITY, it is incredible to see the innovation around high risk-adjusted yields.
Term Labs has built an institutional grade fixed rate lending protocol, so went to Denver to see existing partners, host some events and hope to find new people that were passionate/curious about Defi. I was on the ground for a short time, but it seemed like attendance was lighter than previous years but the quality of the attendees was high.
I expected TradFi to be there with regulations opening up in the US, but was pleasantly surprised how many wanted to find me after my panel to share their views on the industry and paths towards using DeFi within their organizations - usually I am the one trying to find them.
A bit about yourself
Have been in crypto since 2013, currently work for an AI company as their Blockchain Architect.
What did you expect?
Expected L2s trying to gain attention with hosting parties.
Did it meet your expectations?
There was alot of L1's surprisingly at an Ethereum conference.
What went well?
The women’s events were well organized and did a good job of onboarding women like the Berabaddies event and tent at Berapalooza
What could be improved?
ETHDenver needs to drop the 'eth' name and rename to web3denver
Will Lohuis, The Serious Business Co
Reflections on ETHDenver and the Evolution of Web3 Events:
As a Web3 event producer, I strive to create the best environment for meaningful connections. From this foundation, I genuinely believe anything is possible. While often dismissed as a misuse of marketing budget, I consider IRL experiences among the most effective tools for reaching and engaging an audience. While much can be accomplished remotely, in-person interactions are a crucial part of the human experience and an essential step toward building a successful project.
Say what you want about ETHDenver—it still attracts a strong crowd. Fragmented, yes, but undeniably large. And with that crowd comes the opportunity to connect and build. No conference can appeal to everyone, but ETHDenver serves as fertile ground for even the most niche corners of Web3, casting a wide net for projects seeking audience engagement and business development opportunities.
Observations and Takeaways...
The Number of Side Events is at an All-Time High
This year, we’re seeing a 40-50% higher guest list drop-off than what’s typical for major events. While this presents challenges, competition fosters innovation. To capture a share of the same mindshare, projects must work harder to stand out—ultimately creating a better conference experience.
For better or worse, the abundance of sponsors and side events signals one thing: people are still building. However, I believe consolidation would be a net positive and should be considered by more projects with integrated networks. Leveraging key partnerships to co-produce events can increase engagement, enhance perception by association, and expose brands to new audiences.
Authenticity and Consistency Over Everything
People feel more comfortable when the online presence of a project matches the real-life vibe of its builders. Events are physical representations of a brand and serve as powerful drivers of perception. Success isn’t measured by attendance numbers but by the quality of the experience provided.
I’ve noticed a growing trend of projects incorporating unique themes that bridge the digital and physical realms. Additionally, repeat events are becoming more common—something that should continue. A well-executed event deserves a sequel. Consistency builds anticipation, allowing projects to develop deeper narratives over time, much like a multi-season TV series versus a one-off film.
The Seeds of Business Are Planted at Conferences and Watered at Home
ETHDenver is an overwhelming experience—attendees navigate personal and project-related interests amidst an avalanche of information. Let’s be honest: its difficult to sell your vision based on a 10-minute conversation or keynote at a loud side event.
This year, I noticed a shift. More people focused on building genuine human connections rather than aggressively pitching their business models. There was an authentic curiosity about the people behind the projects. Aligning your brand with a memorable experience improves sentiment and increases the likelihood of meaningful follow-ups in the weeks to come.
To conclude...
I may be biased, but I remain bullish on the trajectory of Web3 events. Projects are investing more in thoughtful experiences that connect with audiences through the power of their brand. Merch is evolving beyond t-shirts into items that enhance the conference experience. Unique venues are redefining how we experience summits and interact with projects. Events continue to prove their value, and I look forward to seeing further innovation in this space.
A bit about yourself
I’m the founder of Stable, prior cofounder of WeMeta, and have been in crypto since 2020
What did you expect?
I expected things to get more commercialized and less authentic. I expected this would be the last time I came to Denver, and I was only coming because a network that granted my company had invited me to stay at their hacker house.
Did it meet your expectations?
ETHDenver exceeded my expectations. The Monad team put on a good experience for founders, and I was impressed by some of the people I met at different events throughout the conference.
What went well?
I spent more time with the same people rather than it being just my team or different people every day, and found that there were not more events than was manageable. While I believe I got more partnerships out of MtnDAO I wouldn’t be surprised if ETH Denver outperforms that event over the next 6 months.
What could be improved?
Finding investors who are focused on investing in early-stage projects that aren’t a rapid pay day remains incredibly difficult. I spent time hanging out with KOLs this year and frankly they have more honest opinions and are willing to acknowledge they’re looking for a 90 day 100x. Until more serious investors are available at these events it will remain difficult to build world-changing companies within crypto.
Sacha, Filmmaker
As a filmmaker, I had the chance to capture the side events, and that’s where the community really came to life! The main event felt pretty empty, but the side gatherings were buzzing with energy, great people, and meaningful conversations.
A bit about yourself
I'm a cofounder at InfinityPools, a new derivative DEX that allows for unlimited leverage with no liquidations and yield on your margin.
What did you expect?
I expected it to be similar to last year.
Did it meet your expectations?
There were pros and cons. Less traders / users, but also less tourists. Quality of the people attending ETH Denver this year was quite high. Noise to signal ratio improved significantly.
What went well?
Great technical discussions, and met great builders / funds.
What could be improved?
Change cities. Make it more appealing to traders / whales.
There are a lot of great builders in the US! I am thrilled to connect with the people I met and potentially push projects forward with them.
The main stage felt a bit less busy than other devcons, perhaps more lectures and panelings could happen there.
Felt the shift of crowds to the site events mainly.
Was great to meet you. Big fan of CRV and big bets.
Stable Summit: The biggest opportunity in the world.
Featuring CRV, Wyoming Stablecoin, f(x)protocol, Rings, Cap Labs
Stablecoins are crypto’s killer app. The only paid event I went to all week. I got discount for holding veCRV. Stablecoins are the biggest use case of crypto and the most profitable business model.
Tether, USDT, was one of the most profitable business (~13B) in the world last year. Especially for how low of a headcount they have. Money printing like the federal reserve is very interesting to me. For context, fed reserve printed 260B last year.
The way I approached the stable summit was there were different projects on stage that I knew wanted to meet the team behind each project. Generally the talks very high level and I always enjoy talking to them after they present to get in the weeds. Sometimes because they are anon you don’t know who they are till they talk.
After they present, I make it a point to walk up and talk to them. So between the different projects above, I either met them before the talk or just randomly from walking up to people and asking why they were there.
Here’s some of the projects/people I talked to and what I’m excited for.
Wyoming Stablecoin – Gov Goes Crypto
Think this could be big. As Anthony Apollo the speaker put, Wyoming is a state and doesn't have to deal with certain hurdles that usdc, (paypal) pyusd, has to deal with. What I liked about Anthony is that you can tell he's like not a “gov suit” but an actual user in the space.
I have a feeling Wyoming is going to have pools on CRV to incentive usage and deep liquidity. I’m paying very close attention to see the first american gov stablecoin rollout.
f(x) protocol - “long with no liquidation risk and funding fees”
Met 3 of BD team members on the project, Cryptovestor, Tao, and Cyrille. I spent the most time with these wizards throughout stable summit. All 3 really good guys and were really excited for f(x) protocol. I didn't realize f(x) protocol has NO funding rates to open and close a long. While also not having any liquidation issues.
All 3 are smart dudes and made me bullish on Aladdin dao. For me, as business owner, I love to understand the culture and team dynamics at play. Aladdin dao is the biggest holder of CVX, and CVX is the biggest holder of veCRV, so you can say Aladdin dao has quite a sizeable amount of voting power.
They were all bullish on CRV, CVX, and the upcoming resupply launch. Spoke very highly of CVX team. I’m def going to pay attention to the resupply launch.
When I went home I did look into f(x) protocol but as a user what I asked. Why would I long on fx vs hyperliquid or on cex? Sure I would save fees but as of right now, you can only long/short ETH on fx protocol.
So as a user, hyperliquid gives me more token options. If the fx experience was HL dashboard baked in with no funding fees and no liquidations fees. Then I think fx would be a huge hit.
But I’m the guessing due to marketing/lack of awareness, or the friction of switching user is holding back the growth of f f(x)protocol.
I have no holdings in aladdin dao ecosystem, but rec not fading this crew.
Rings – Sonic’s Stablecoin Rocket
Met one of the founders Figue after his talk. It was cool to meet a someone while they were at ATH in TVL for the first time.
If you didn’t know Rings is on sonic and is a stablecoin play to increase TVL and defi across sonic. It is notable to say that rings aims to be a public good for sonic. Rings combines the idea of a stablecoin with ve locking with bribes. I have not seen combo of mechanics before. It is working as they just passed 100M TVL which I congratulated Figue on.
Figue’s reaction? The job is not done yet and that he feels even more responsibility and safety in managing this amount of TVL. To add some context, Rings and Figue is a part of a ve voting project you may have used. Paladin Voting.
Was very cool meet someone with recent success. I’m looking forward to what their PAL token does and how apr will flow to the holders. I’m not invested in PAL but I am very heavy user of Rings, as I’m participating in the sonic points program and hope to hold a top 1000 slot.
I’m currently looping scUSD between silo, rings, and vicuna to earn points.
Cap Labs
Was the second project I wanted to meet at eth denver because I had such as positive experience with two of the founders products until the fantom multichain incident.
Weso, from beefy finance I had met at Consensus in Austin a year ago and Benjamin from Qi Dao which I was a big user during the fantom days.
I didn’t get a chance to talk to them long but got some cool merch. If you don’t know Cap Labs is building on MegaETH, they will be a stablecoin project on MegaETH. Didn’t hear about the mechanics of it but I assume it’ll be loosely similar to what rings is doing.
I know both these 2 guys have built two products I enjoyed using in the past. I believe in founders that have build projects, gone thru the gutter, and that the second time around they will have much more success due to their past learnings.
Besides GTE, MegaETH is the project I’m most excited for. I hope someon builds a ve33 product on megaeth. If so shill me plz. MegaETH claims to be the fastest EVM L2. Testnet is coming out soon and I’m excited for the rollout.
CRV - Liquidity King with Gerrit
CRV is one of my biggest holdings. I believe deep liquidity all goes to CRV. I believe that stablecoin transaction over 1 million is more efficient to handle on CRV. So my main purpose of buying a ticket for the stable summit was to talk to other like minded people about CRV.
When I met Gerrit, I realized he was the guy I would see on the Youtube pods promoting and talking about CRV. He seems very connected from the amount of people that were walking up to him during our conversation.
I asked him about the focus on crvusd vs money (defi.money). For some reason I’m blanking on most of the convo, but I recall walking away confident in my CRV holdings.
So to recap, I am even more bullish on the idea of stablecoins. I don’t see a token better than CRV that will capitalize on this idea. There is an entire federation building different legos on CRV. All roads lead to CRV.
Follow me for more recaps like this. @anthonybuitran Reply with any questions!
Alan - RAILGUN Privacy Project Janitor
ETHDenver was interesting. While there was the normal "VC-raise-word-soup," I did see some more very interesting DeFi projects coming together. Builders working on new leverage and lending protocols and even cool Privacy hacks keep me faithful the industry is going in the right direction.
ETH Denver this year was very different for me, attending post-OKX, now focused on building my own project, I was diving deeper into how evolving trends may help me find PMF.
Compared to the packed, hype-driven Asia events, ETH Denver was much more subdued, yet more engaging—front-row seats at every panel, deeper conversations, and an actual builder-heavy crowd rather than opportunists. The sheer number of mini-conferences and side events was staggering.
The conference itself felt less ETH-centric than ever—maybe it's the price action or shifting narratives, but at times it felt more like Bitcoin Denver, Sonic Denver, or anything-but-ETH Denver. And yet, everyone is still using the EVM—but apparently, that’s “not Ethereum.”
Narratives this year were not new but deeper. Last year was about maximizing ETH yield via restaking—this year, it’s BTC. Stablecoins and collateralization continue to evolve, now shifting toward yield optimization and automation beyond another delta-neutral Ethena clone. High-throughput chains are here, but what apps will use that throughput an open question.
Finally, the institutions are here—or so we hear. But for now, they’re mostly chasing the 4% T-Bill yields rather than diving into DeFi’s more complex (and fun) Ponzi-like games. But after seeing the Sonic party, we might be in for another DeFi summer.
Hey, I’m JR Head of Quant Research and Portfolio Manager for DNA's Asset Management Division.
I had a blast at the events, especially the Stable Farmers Market. Met an incredible group of people building and growing the ecosystem. Networking at that event and the Conventions were the best. It great to know you can talk to most people in the room about your delta neutral positions and hear feedback from other traders who know exactly what you are talking about and brain storm other ideas.
Anon, Yearn Finance
I keep going to Denver because it's very dev focus. Lots of talks about new tech, but unfortunately this time was different. Most of the talks felt like ads and I haven't seen anything that really excited me.
I've been going to Eth Denver for a while. All of the alfa was at side events, specifically Stablecoin Summit.
The quality of high signal DeFi devs and founders was really hard to compete with. I expected the general vibe of ETHDenver to be a bit suppressed due to recent price action, annnnnd I was correct.
Positive note was that everyone is very bullish about the new regulatory environment. Aggregation Day (presented by Polygon) was also a huge success, the future is aggregated!
As a core contributor to the f(x) protocol, I've been deeply involved in blockchain innovation and community building. This was my third time attending ETH Denver, and each visit has been a remarkable opportunity for growth and connection.
ETH Denver consistently exceeded my expectation. The main conference might be bit of boring, but the side events continues to be a vibrant hub of innovation, creativity and collaborative spirit.
It is alway good to reconnecting with long-time friends and colleagues in the space. Attending side event that provided valuable knowledge and perspectives.
The IPOR Protocol, both interest rate derivatives and Fusion, are rooted in risk adjusted returns. "Easy money" days of buy anything and it pumps are over and the market structure is different than all past cycles.
More people than ever are focused on stables and sustainable yield, meaning Fusion is well positioned for this cycle.
Many of the tourists are gone- NFTs, Memecoin maxis etc. but the hardcore builders are innovating in credit.