Crypto in Berlin

Berlin built its crypto scene from the developer and startup side: Ethereum's early community held some of its first European meetups in the city, and that builder culture stayed. Bundesblock, the Blockchain Bundesverband, was founded in Berlin in 2017 and is now the largest blockchain industry association in the DACH region, with more than 90 member companies and research institutions working from society, business and research angles.

Berlin Blockchain Week has grown into a citywide event with more than 100 individual meetups, talks and hackathons across the week, drawing developers, founders and investors from across Europe. That density of builders is what separates Berlin's crypto scene from Frankfurt's.

A crypto firm in Berlin follows the same rules as one in Frankfurt or Munich. BaFin authorizes crypto-asset service providers under the EU's MiCA regulation from Bonn and Frankfurt, so a Berlin exchange or wallet provider applies to the same regulator as a Frankfurt custody bank, and the license it receives passports into every other EU member state.

Regulation (EU) 2023/1113, the Transfer of Funds Regulation, extends the anti-money-laundering "travel rule" to crypto-asset transfers, meaning a Berlin exchange must pass on sender and recipient information with each transaction, the same duty a bank already carries for a wire transfer.

Berlin's crypto scene runs on hackathons and builder events more than on trading floors. Web3 hubs in the city host teams working on Ethereum tooling, DeFi protocols and blockchain infrastructure, and Bundesblock's member base spans exchanges, custodians, wallet providers and the research institutions studying them, giving Berlin a wider mix of company types than a single-city crypto scene usually has.

Bundesblock also curates the Digital Assets Day, held each year alongside the TUM Blockchain Conference, which brings financial institutions, corporate leaders and the public sector together on stablecoins, tokenization and market infrastructure, a program built for the same decision-makers a Frankfurt crypto conference targets.

Finance Loop started in Frankfurt and holds events in Berlin as well, where it connects people who work on crypto and digital assets at exchanges, custodians and fintechs with bankers, IT people and AI engineers from the wider finance sector. Finance Loop joined Bundesblock as a member, linking Frankfurt's regulated finance scene with Berlin's blockchain builder community.

Finance Loop is also a founding member of the Bitcoin Bundesverband, formed in Berlin. Finance Loop supported the German Blockchain & AI Week 2025 in Berlin, whose program had a DEX vs CEX panel and a session on crypto payments. Related pages: Bundesblock, bitcoin in Germany, crypto in Frankfurt and crypto in Germany.

Bundesblock, formally the Blockchain Bundesverband, is a non-profit association founded in Berlin in 2017 to promote blockchain technology. With more than 90 member companies and research institutions, it is the largest blockchain industry association in the DACH region, and Finance Loop is one of its members.

Yes. Berlin Blockchain Week is a citywide program of talks, meetups and hackathons on crypto and blockchain, and Bundesblock curates the Digital Assets Day each year alongside the TUM Blockchain Conference. Current dates are in the events calendar.