Original author: Zen, PANews
With less than a month to go before the opening of ETHDenver, this developer event, held annually at the beginning of the year and highly regarded in the cryptocurrency industry, has gained increasing popularity over the past three years. In 2025, even with Ethereum continuing to struggle during that period, ETHDenver attracted nearly 20,000 attendees to Denver.
However, this large Ethereum-themed developer event has shown significant signs of cooling this year, in stark contrast to its previous upward momentum. Data provided by the cryptocurrency activity information platform CryptoNomads reveals this trend:
During the 2023 conference, there were approximately 176 registered side events, which rose to 325 in 2024 and surged to 668 in 2025. However, as we approach 2026, with less than a month until the official opening of the conference, only 56 side events have been confirmed, representing a drop of about 85%.
As the side event boom shows signs of "bubble bursting," the once-flourishing side events have significantly reduced, sending a clear signal and becoming an intuitive footnote to the decline of ETHDenver and the current industry downturn.
How did ETHDenver go from unprecedented prosperity to a rapid decline?
The Myth of Over-commercialization
Originating from local Ethereum community gatherings in Denver, ETHDenver has always been characterized by a strong sense of "festivity and celebration." As a conference specifically aimed at developers, its free tickets, community-driven approach, and buildathon-centric design significantly distinguish it from the heavily commercialized atmosphere of traditional conferences.
Moreover, Denver's more central geographical location in the U.S., combined with the lower costs of hosting events in non-coastal cities, allows attendees and participants to reduce their overall expenses. Therefore, for a long time, ETHDenver has felt more like a compromise community meeting point rather than a high-cost showcase set in major coastal cities.
However, in recent years, there has been increasing criticism directed at the conference's positioning and atmosphere. Many have questioned whether ETHDenver is transforming from a technical event that initially celebrated open-source hacker culture into an overly PR-driven brand exhibition.
During the grand ETHDenver 2025 event, some attendees humorously remarked that their experience felt like an accidental intrusion into a corporate expo. Originally expecting to step into a "sanctuary of decentralized innovation," they found themselves surrounded by a plethora of corporate booths as soon as they entered the venue, with major sponsors everywhere, even Polkadot's booth handing out free socks to attract attention.
The original intention of being open and inclusive, not relying on ticket revenue, has also fostered ETHDenver's enthusiasm for accepting extensive commercial sponsorship. Consequently, the atmosphere of the conference has quietly shifted. This turn towards more commercialized activities has led some Ethereum community developers to lament that the conference is losing its early grassroots hacker spirit, diluted by heavy commercial promotion.
Dilution of the Ethereum Narrative
At the same time, the Ethereum-themed focus of ETHDenver has also come under scrutiny.
Many attendees have noticed that in recent years, the conference has invited and accommodated numerous projects and sponsors outside the Ethereum ecosystem, leading to an increasingly generalized theme that blurs the conference's Ethereum identity.
This criticism became particularly vocal in 2025, prompting co-founder John Paller to publicly respond. He clarified with data, stating that over 95% of sponsors and 90% of content are still related to Ethereum and the EVM-compatible ecosystem.
Even so, many remain dissatisfied with the exposure of other public chains and unrelated themes at the conference. Some commentators pointed out that ETHDenver is not an event officially organized by the Ethereum Foundation; it merely borrows the name "ETH," making it susceptible to the inclusion of various unrelated projects, diluting Ethereum's original thematic positioning.
When guests on the main stage even espouse the notion that "Ethereum is in decline" and are turning to other chains, while booths for other ecosystem projects stand in the exhibition hall, the feeling of thematic deviation and lost direction exacerbates the unease among seasoned community members.
What is even more concerning is that the industry's flourishing diversity in narratives and categories has become a thing of the past, with many sectors nearly disappearing. Influenced by the broader environment, ETHDenver has also lost its previous creative spark.
The term "creative exhaustion" has become a common feedback from many attendees.
Rising and Cooling Expectations for New Crypto Policies
The decline in momentum is also significantly related to the impact of the Trump administration on industry sentiment. The "crypto president" raised expectations for new crypto policies when he took office early last year. Many attendees flocked to ETHDenver, held at the beginning of the year, with hopes for the arrival of a "crypto spring."
However, after a round of symbolic regulatory easing, the industry's situation did not improve effectively. While various global risk assets, stock markets, and metals soared, cryptocurrencies remained at rock bottom, with the sentiment of "Anything but crypto" stinging the crypto community.
On the policy front, although the stablecoin bill was enacted last July, a broader regulatory framework is still in progress. The pace of advancing the cryptocurrency market structure bill is not optimistic. The Senate Banking Committee has repeatedly delayed the bill, pushing it to late February or even March, with its focus shifting to more urgent housing legislation that affects people's livelihoods. This gap between verbal expectations for new policies and the disheartening reality has sharply contrasted, affecting people's enthusiasm for attending.
Clashing with the Lunar New Year
In addition to the reasons mentioned above, the opening date of ETHDenver 2026 is set for February 17, coinciding with the Lunar New Year in 2026.
If European and American participants can still regard ETHDenver as a work week, for many Chinese and even in regions and countries with a broader Confucian culture, this week is typically the least suitable for business trips throughout the year.
After all, the Spring Festival is the most culturally significant holiday, and compared to small meetups, demo nights, and closed-door ecological meetings that heavily rely on "cross-timezone flights" and "team travel," the vast majority of people would choose to set aside a year’s worth of busyness and troubles to reunite with family and celebrate the New Year.
However, from the official narrative, ETHDenver 2026 still places "builders" at the center and attempts to create a more integrated space for activities, content, and experiences. For teams genuinely focused on delivery, this centralization may enhance efficiency: no longer needing to expend energy navigating city logistics and information noise.
From the perspective of the controversy itself, criticism does not equate to death. The debates surrounding it indicate that it is still anticipated and regarded as a symbol of industry culture.
The real question for 2026 may not be "how many side events are there," but rather, when the crypto bubble bursts and the hot money flows away, whether we can still rely on technology and the community itself to retain those willing to cross cycles.
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