Momentum in the UK: Takeaways from London’s Biggest Web3 Week Yet

All roads led to London 🇬🇧 as the city’s Web3 week took centerstage this October!

Our team was busy on the ground at events with Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit, Fintech Fringe, Zebu Live, and London Blockchain Conference all taking place in the UK capital. 

The energy was palpable, with founders, developers, and thought leaders converging to explore the transformative potential of blockchain and decentralized technologies.

Associate Director Izzy McCarthy and Senior Consultant Christian Costa attended Digital Asset Summit at Old Billingsgate in East London to support clients and connect with reporters. There were insightful discussions across all three stages, with a clear focus on how this cycle has been marked by institutional adoption. We look forward to being on the ground at the next Digital Asset Summit in New York!

Held at the stunning Old Sessions House in Clerkenwell, the Fintech Fringe Festival ran over two days and gathered fintech founders, investors, and regulators navigating the UK’s evolving landscape. Senior Consultant Harry Shanahan-Jones and Associate Amelia Rintoul were two of over 1,000 attendees who benefitted from panels covering innovation, access to capital, and regulation and compliance, with speakers from Mastercard, HSBC Innovation Banking, the FCA, as well as Members of Parliament. The Fintech Fringe Festival reinforced the maturity and resilience of the UK’s fintech ecosystem despite the regulatory headwinds and economic uncertainty.

Zebu Live, in its fifth year, has put itself strongly in the position of the UK’s flagship Web3 event. Taking place for the first time in London’s historic Tobacco Dock, Zebu Live drew a crowd of roughly 2,000 attendees over two days. Attended by our Head of London and Director Louise Creedon, Associate Director Zuhaili Marican, Senior Consultant Mark Ingram, and Consultant Seb Kirkpatrick to support clients and meet with members of the media. The scale and quality this year show how much the industry has matured, with major investors (such as Fabric Ventures, Founders Factory, and Asymmetric) visibly engaged, and regulators and policymakers explicitly discussing stablecoins, talent retention & repatriation to the UK, and the regulatory roadmap. As Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) pointed out, the space lost many people to AI for a while, but now a significant number of new full-time entrants are working in crypto again, and you could feel it!

The London Blockchain Conference wrapped up the week with a serious focus on real-world business applications, drawing 5,000 leaders to the Evolution London venue to explore how blockchain works with AI and supply chains. A key theme was blockchain’s potential to modernize government services, with examples showing how it can bring transparency to public spending, simplify digital identity, and cut red tape. The event itself was set in Battersea park as autumn made its presence loud, and further amplified discussions on the nature of change!

London Web3 Week affirmed the UK’s position as a global hub for digital innovation. As we reflect at Wachsman, these insights fuel our commitment to guiding projects through Web3’s dynamism.