Original Title: Crypto Finally Has a Center

Original Author: Azeem, Co-Founder of Miden, Contributor to Forbes Crypto

Original Translation: Ken, ChainCatcher

When I write for CoinDesk in 2024, discussing whether cryptocurrency conference tours benefit the industry, there is still no clear center in the cryptocurrency space. The entire industry resembles a fluid city, moving between conferences around the world. Two years later, the situation looks entirely different. Cryptocurrency finally has a center again, and it is increasingly evident that center is New York.

I have personally spent over five years in this touring circle, and this experience has gradually changed my view on the actual role that conferences play in this industry.

At that time, conference tours served a practical purpose. The industry was geographically very dispersed. Developers, investors, and founders were truly decentralized, scattered around the world, while conferences often marked the only moments when the entire ecosystem could reliably gather in one place. Around every major event, hundreds of surrounding meetups would spring up. Teams spent months throughout the year traveling from one location to another.

My argument at the time was simple: if this industry wants to achieve true mainstream adoption, we need to seriously ask ourselves whether spending so much time on the road is genuinely helping us create anything meaningful.

Launching Amidst the Conference Tour Craze

Shortly after finishing that article, I joined Miden in April 2024, just as the project split from Polygon and announced a $25 million funding round led by a16z crypto, 1kx, and Hack VC. At that stage, I felt that conference tours indeed played a substantive role.

Privacy issues were gradually becoming an important topic of discussion in the cryptocurrency space, and launching a new protocol meant explaining what we were building and why it was important. This meant that for most of the next year, we would spend our time speaking at various conferences, participating in podcasts, and meeting with developers, investors, and institutions trying to understand the future direction of the industry, particularly within more pure cryptocurrency-native communities.

Like many others in the cryptocurrency industry, I spent most of 2025 darting between events across Asia, Europe, Latin America, and the United States. Events like Korea Blockchain Week, Token2049 in Singapore, Devconnect in Buenos Aires, and Abu Dhabi Finance Week were all stops on my journey.

For teams launching new projects, conferences remain one of the fastest ways to meet people in the ecosystem and start building relationships. I believe this approach is effective. In a very short time, we transformed from a project known only under the Polygon banner to one of the most talked-about privacy projects in the industry today.

The Momentum of a Bull Market

Even as part of the market began to slow down, the entire industry did not immediately change its behavior.

The end of the bull market cycle extended into 2025, largely fueled by the meme coin frenzy that prevailed the previous year. Capital was still flowing. Teams still had travel budgets. Conferences continued to expand on the calendar.

Around large gatherings, various surrounding events proliferated. Entire teams flew from one city to the next, often attending multiple conferences within a month.

When the market is strong, these temptations are hard to resist. Conferences provide visibility, opportunities to connect with investors, and reinforce project narratives in a cycle where "attention itself is often a currency." When this attention leads to token price increases, it is difficult to argue against its benefits, but the situation shifts when a bear market arrives.

For a time, despite the objective conditions supporting conference tours beginning to change, they continued to operate at full speed. People were reluctant to admit that the situation was changing rapidly and preferred to keep using methods that had worked in the past. This is often a "reliable" path that ultimately leads to failure.

A Market That Now Needs Discipline

Now in 2026, the overall environment appears to be entirely different.

Funding has tightened. Venture capital firms are betting larger amounts on fewer companies. The budgets of the entire industry are shrinking, and teams are becoming more cautious about spending time and money.

The cost of attending conferences is high. Tickets, flights, hotels, and sponsorship fees quickly add up to a large sum. But the real cost is time. When small teams pull multiple members away from their jobs for days or even weeks, the opportunity cost becomes enormous.

The industry is finally beginning to ask a question that should have been asked long ago: what is the actual return on investment?

Shifts in Regulation

Since I wrote that initial article, another significant change has been in the regulatory environment in the United States.

For most of the past four years, the industry has been operating under the Biden administration and the regulation of the Securities and Exchange Commission led by Gary Gensler. During this time, regulatory transparency about cryptocurrency has largely been lacking. Enforcement actions have dominated discussions, while companies have struggled to understand how digital assets would ultimately be governed by U.S. law.

The result has been that the industry is increasingly looking overseas. Cities like Singapore, Hong Kong, and Dubai are competing to position themselves as global cryptocurrency hubs, while many companies have one foot outside the U.S. to avoid regulatory uncertainty.

With Donald Trump's election and the transition to a new SEC led by Paul Atkins, coupled with Commissioner Hester Peirce's ongoing leadership and the establishment of a "crypto special task force" focused on driving innovation, this environment started to change.

From a regulatory perspective, this shift is significant. The tone towards developers and entrepreneurs is notably more constructive than it was a few years ago, and many companies are feeling for the first time that the United States can be a place where cryptocurrencies can thrive, not just barely survive.

Last year, Washington also saw a concrete milestone. The passage of the GENIUS Act established the first comprehensive federal framework for stablecoins. Companies issuing centralized stablecoins finally received clearer guidance on how to hold reserves, what types of collateral are needed, and what consumer protection measures must be implemented. This marked an important step in regulatory clarity for one of the most widely used components of the crypto ecosystem.

The next major development to watch is the progress of the CLARITY Act, which aims to address broader market structure issues surrounding digital assets. If passed, it will further clarify how cryptocurrency companies operate within the U.S. regulatory framework.

These developments collectively indicate that the U.S. is beginning to move from a period of regulatory ambiguity to a more defined digital asset framework. For developers and investors, this shift changes the rationale of where they create companies and deploy capital.

However, it would be dishonest not to acknowledge the other side of things. While the government has taken some measures favorable to the industry from a regulatory perspective, the evolution of certain political ecosystems surrounding cryptocurrency has raised legitimate concerns. In particular, the proximity of cryptocurrency activities to actions that seem to benefit the president and his family raises risks that could damage the credibility of the industry itself.

Both realities coexist. The regulators' attitude towards innovation is more supportive, but in some cases, Washington's superficial perceptions of cryptocurrency have made the industry's image worse, even more so than the damage caused by many critics acting alone.

Why Conferences Are a Bad Time to Meet People

Around the same time, I began to notice another thing.

Conferences are excellent venues for re-establishing contacts and maintaining relationships. But they are often one of the worst environments for accomplishing truly meaningful work.

Everyone’s schedule is packed. People who fly in for the conference are busy. Locals are even busier, as they host dinners, meetings, and surrounding activities throughout the week.

Conversations become rushed. The conference time is short. The people you really need to take time to communicate with are pulled in multiple directions, stretched thin.

In many ways, conferences turn into places for people to simply catch up, gathering to complain about the market, regulation, or any topic that the industry is debating that week.

Staying After the Conference

At the end of 2025, I decided to try something different.

I was invited to speak at a roundtable on privacy during Abu Dhabi Finance Week. But instead of rushing off after the forum, I stayed in the UAE for over a month.

At first, even my own team didn't fully understand this decision. I couldn't fully explain why staying so long would be beneficial. But they trusted my judgment.

The reasoning was simple. If conferences are the worst time to meet people in a city, what happens when you stay after everyone has left? Then you can truly invest meaningful time into getting everything done for business collaborations.

The answer was clear. In the weeks following the conference, we were able to engage in deeper conversations with banks, regulators, and fintech companies in the region.

These conversations led to partnerships with a bank, collaborations with CBIx, and discussions with two major fintech companies. Some of this work is not yet public. Given the current geopolitical events happening in the Middle East, we chose to be thoughtful about the timing of announcing new business partnerships in the region.

Conferences opened the door. The real work was done afterward.

Real Business Collaborations Happen Outside the Tour Circle

I carried this experience into early 2026.

I didn’t attend the Consensus conference in Hong Kong but went to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan through connections made in the UAE.

In Tashkent, Astana, and Almaty, I met with central banks, regulators, commercial banks, and fintech companies to discuss how crypto infrastructure could integrate into their financial systems.

These discussions were much more substantive than anything usually exchanged during conference weeks.

Around the same time, I participated in ETHDenver, which has long been one of North America’s most important Ethereum developer conferences.

However, this year’s event was noticeably smaller than in previous years, at only about one-quarter the size of the previous year. Part of this was due to scheduling conflicts. The conference coincided with the Chinese and Korean Lunar New Year, meaning many developers from Asia were unable to attend. Organizers also indicated that many visa invitation letters issued were denied, further limiting international attendance.

Nonetheless, the industry signals conveyed were still strong. I personally had so many meetings scheduled that I couldn’t attend them all during the conference. But this experience also validated another point: as the industry matures, events like ETHDenver may begin to resemble less global gatherings and more powerful regional conferences.

Parallel Worlds in the Cryptocurrency Space

Some issues are structural.

Historically, cryptocurrency conferences have existed on parallel tracks.

Developer conferences focus on developers and protocol teams. Institutional gatherings bring together banks, regulators, and financial firms. Industry conferences gather founders, investors, and media in one place.

Each environment has its value, but they rarely intersect.

Developers talk among developers. Institutions talk among institutions. Investors talk among investors.

When these groups start to merge and intersect, the cryptocurrency field will achieve real progress.

New York Becomes the Focal Point

As regulatory transparency in the U.S. begins to improve, another shift is becoming clear. Over the past two years, New York has quietly risen to become the focal point of the cryptocurrency industry.

Young developers are gathering in Brooklyn, often working in coworking spaces like the Brass Factory in Williamsburg. Venture capital firms like Dragonfly, a16z Crypto, and Bain Capital Crypto are clustering around Union Square and Soho in Manhattan.

Several major projects, including Uniswap, Aave, Gauntlet, and Monad, have now established offices in the city. Recently, Plume rented an entire floor of the Empire State Building.

Opening an office in New York is increasingly becoming a sign that a company has made a place for itself in the cryptocurrency field.

That New York has become the focus of cryptocurrency should not be surprising. The city has long been a global capital of finance, media, and fashion. When an industry reaches a certain level of maturity, it naturally gravitates to places where capital, talent, and influence have already concentrated. Additionally, for young developers deciding where to establish their careers, New York remains one of the world’s most attractive cities to live in, apart from work, which is undoubtedly a plus.

For decades, the same logic has applied to traditional finance. If you want to find the best jobs in finance, you have to move to New York. Cryptocurrency is beginning to follow the same pattern.

If New York is becoming the focal point of the cryptocurrency industry, it is also logical that the city will eventually host a conference that is decisive for it. We are already starting to see early versions of this trend. The Digital Asset Summit is held annually in New York, and its influence is continually growing, while ETHGlobal plans to hold a major event in the city later this year. What remains unclear is which gathering will ultimately become the flagship conference anchoring the New York cryptocurrency calendar.

San Francisco vs. New York

At the same time, another geographical shift is occurring.

Artificial intelligence is increasingly centered around San Francisco, while cryptocurrency is increasingly centered around New York.

As AI agents and automated financial systems evolve, these ecosystems will ultimately converge more deeply.

But compared to the hype we see online today, this integration may take longer than many expect. As someone who has been in this circle for a while, I know well that everything in life takes longer than you expect.

Becoming "Small Fish" Again

As the industry matures, cryptocurrency companies will also need to adapt to environments in which they are no longer the center of attention.

For years, the conference tour circuit allowed the industry to operate within its own bubble. Founders and investors became the "cool kids in high school," moving from one event to another, invited to private dinners and exclusive gatherings.

The next phase of growth will look different.

Companies cannot solely attend cryptocurrency-native conferences; they will increasingly need to participate in large-scale financial and tech events, such as Davos, Money20/20 summits, or meetings hosted by major financial institutions.

In these environments, cryptocurrency becomes small fish in a big pond. But this is precisely where real mainstream adoption occurs. It merely depends on who can successfully navigate this transition.

Integration, Not Disappearance

Conferences will not disappear.

Conference tours are more likely to integrate. The industry will no longer be about scattering dozens of globally impactful events across the schedule, but rather operating around a few major gatherings, while other conferences evolve into regional events.

Events that successfully bring together developers, capital, and institutions will become the most important conferences in the cryptocurrency field.

The End of the Fluid City

For many in the cryptocurrency space, conference tours have also become a culture.

Here, you meet friends, attend dinners, and catch up multiple times a year with the same group of people. For a long time, cryptocurrency was like a fluid city, darting between various events.

Some may nostalgically look back on that era. It was a time when the industry was smaller, work felt lighter, and the same group of people rushed from one event to the next.

But the market is constantly evolving. By 2026, companies that can adapt to the new environment will survive, while those that continue to rely on the old script may find it difficult to escape elimination. Some companies may inevitably fail this year due to their inability to keep up with market evolution.

Conference tours have not disappeared. They are merely changing.

Cryptocurrency finally has a center again. As the industry matures, the endless global tour that once held the entire industry together will give way to fewer, more focused gatherings, closely linked with the places where real work gets done.

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