Istanbul Blockchain Week 2025 Draws Thousands to Türkiye’s Economic Hub

Istanbul Blockchain Week 2025, held on June 26–27 at the Hilton Istanbul Bomonti Hotel, marked its largest annual edition, drawing thousands of global Web3 participants to Türkiye’s economic hub. The two-day event solidified Istanbul’s growing influence in blockchain innovation, featuring high-level discussions on stablecoins, real-world assets (RWAs), AI agents, tokenized finance, and regulation.

The conference, organized for the fourth time by EAK Digital, included keynotes, workshops, and the launch of new formats, reflecting both scale and ambition. Notable speakers included Mehmet Çamır, Chairman of OKX TR; Justin Sun, CEO of Tron; John Linden, CEO of Mythical Games; and Marco Dal Lago, VP of Global Expansion at Tether. John Linden highlighted the Turkish market’s strength in gaming, noting the presence of strong companies and a significant fan base for mobile and football games. Industry executives and policymakers shared insights into institutional growth and regulatory changes shaping the sector.

Justin Sun focused on Tron’s stablecoin ecosystem, emphasizing compliance upgrades and real-world use cases across Türkiye. He pointed to Türkiye’s growing relevance as a testbed for retail adoption and sovereign stablecoin applications. Mehmet Çamır addressed the regulatory space, noting Türkiye’s large retail crypto base, with over 14 million users, making compliance and investor protection a top priority.

The event also featured the return of the BlockDown Festival with a new format, combining Web3 art and music. This year, it introduced AI-led performances in collaboration with Pudgy Penguins, showcasing the fusion of autonomous agents and live entertainment. New additions like the RWA Builders Summit and DefaiCon Istanbul highlighted infrastructure progress in tokenized assets and decentralized finance. Christian Thompson of the Sui Foundation announced a developer bootcamp aiming to train 2,000–4,000 local builders in 12 to 18 months, underlining Türkiye’s emergence as a talent hub for blockchain development.

Overall, Istanbul Blockchain Week’s record turnout follows a strong year for global crypto events. In June, ETHCC in Brussels saw Robinhood unveil tokenized US stocks and ETFs in Europe. The launch included 24/5 trading and on-chain dividends on Arbitrum. Vitalik Buterin, who also spoke at ETHCC, warned against architectural risks in Web3, including Layer 2 backdoors and governance token auctions.