Istanbul Blockchain Week 2025 Breaks Records – Here’s What You Missed!

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Istanbul Blockchain Week 2025, the event you probably didn’t know you needed to attend, managed to set a brand-new record for global Web3 gatherings. It pulled in thousands of tech enthusiasts to Türkiye’s bustling economic heart – Istanbul, where all things blockchain were about to be redefined (or at least tried).

Held over two days, June 26–27, at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel (which sounds fancy, doesn’t it?), the event helped cement Istanbul’s place as the cool kid on the blockchain innovation block.

From Tron’s Justin Sun to Pudgy Penguins – The Highlights You Actually Care About

This year’s event was like a giant tech buffet, featuring lively discussions on stablecoins, real-world assets (RWAs), AI agents, tokenized finance, and (of course) regulations. We all know how much everyone loves regulations.

Organized by EAK Digital for the fourth time, the conference featured a dizzying array of keynotes, workshops, and a brand new format. Apparently, bigger really is better, and they were clearly aiming for the stars (or at least for something that would fill the Hilton’s ballroom).

Keynote speakers included some of the biggest names in the industry: Mehmet Çamır, Chairman of OKX TR; Justin Sun, CEO of Tron (yes, he’s still around); John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games; and Marco Dal Lago, VP of Global Expansion at Tether. Just your average lineup of blockchain royalty.

“The Turkish market is becoming a powerhouse in gaming in general. There are some really strong companies coming up here. We have a new FIFA game and the Turkish market is quite strong for that too. There are mobile game fans, and a few football fans out here. So it is a green market,” said John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games. (Yes, he’s talking about you, FIFA lovers!)

Industry executives and policymakers stepped up to share their two cents on institutional growth and regulatory changes. It’s like they were handing out free knowledge – too bad you missed it!

Justin Sun, forever the man of the hour, dove deep into Tron’s stablecoin ecosystem. He talked about compliance upgrades (yawn), and real-world use cases in Türkiye (more interesting). He also pointed out that Türkiye is slowly becoming the place to test retail adoption and sovereign stablecoin applications. Because why not test everything in a place that loves tech, right?

Mehmet Çamır had a lot to say on the regulatory front, especially with Türkiye’s massive retail crypto base (over 14 million users). As always, compliance and investor protection were hot topics. Because apparently, everyone loves a good regulation chat.

BlockDown Festival made its grand return, with a snazzy new format that combined Web3 art and music (because blockchain and beats go hand in hand, obviously). This year’s big twist? AI-led performances in collaboration with Pudgy Penguins, a brilliant blend of autonomous agents and live entertainment. Can’t make this stuff up!

Happening in Turkey rn @pudgypenguins

Proliferation in action.
— Aaron Teng (@AaronTeng) June 26, 2025

And let’s not forget about the new RWA Builders Summit and DefaiCon Istanbul – because every conference needs a good summit or two to sound extra important. These segments focused on infrastructure advancements in tokenized assets and decentralized finance, all while making you feel like you missed out on something spectacular.

Christian Thompson of the Sui Foundation dropped some exciting news with a developer bootcamp aimed at training a modest 2,000–4,000 local builders over the next 12 to 18 months. Türkiye is clearly positioning itself as a talent hub for blockchain development. Who knew?

All in all, Istanbul Blockchain Week 2025 crushed it with a record turnout, following a strong year for global crypto events. And just to make sure you felt left out, ETHCC in Brussels earlier in June saw Robinhood unveil tokenized US stocks and ETFs in Europe. Because when you think of crypto, you think of Robinhood, right?

Vitalik Buterin, who also spoke at ETHCC, did what he does best: cautioning against the usual Web3 risks, such as Layer 2 backdoors and governance token auctions. (Someone’s got to be the buzzkill.)

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2025-07-15 00:41