Hanseatic Blockchain Institute
The Hanseatic Blockchain Institute (HBI) is a registered association in Hamburg that promotes research and education on blockchain technology. Entrepreneurs from Hamburg founded it in January 2019, and membership is open to private individuals and companies that support its goals. The association names transparency, fairness and sustainability as the values it wants blockchain to advance.
HBI holds talks and runs research projects. Its regular format is the Blockchain Monday lecture series, and the association counts more than 150 events, talks and workshops since 2019. With Statista it carried out W3NOW, a study of the German Web3 economy funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action.
Blockchain Monday: talks twice a month
The Blockchain Monday takes place twice a month at 7 pm. Online sessions on Zoom alternate with evenings in Hamburg that are streamed on Zoom as well, and attendance is free. HBI addresses beginners and experts, and says that not every session suits beginners.
Many recent talks dealt with finance. Trever explained how banks and brokers can offer digital assets, stablecoins included, under MiCA. Crypto Risk Metrics covered the ESG data and disclosures MiCA requires from crypto-asset service providers, and Sail presented AI agents that move stablecoins between DeFi yield sources. Co-Pierre Georg of the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management spoke on the risks of Bitcoin. Recordings are on HBI's website and its YouTube channel.
W3NOW: a study of the German Web3 economy
HBI calls W3NOW Germany's first nationwide quantitative and qualitative study of the Web3 economy. W3NOW maps companies, consultancies and law firms, venture capital and investment firms, and DAOs and nonprofit organizations. HBI developed the questionnaire with Statista, and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action funded the project, which ran from March 2023 to a final report in September 2024.
An earlier survey by the ifo Institute, commissioned by HBI and published in June 2023, found that 18.7 percent of German companies were discussing the use of blockchain technology.
Board and member companies
The board has seven members: Martin Breitsprecher, Claudia Brinz, Anna Graf, Anna Ladyshenski, Julia Rommel, Moritz Schildt and Moritz Stumpf. The association's address is c/o nordIX AG in Hamburg.
The tokenization platforms finexity and Tokenforge are members, as are the banking software developer adorsys, the consultancy Zühlke and the Hamburg law firm Möhrle Happ Luther.
A regional group next to Bundesblock
Bundesblock, the German blockchain association, lists HBI among the regional groups that run meetups and workshops for the blockchain and Web3 scene in their region. The other groups it names are the Blockchain Association Schleswig-Holstein, Berchain in Berlin and BlockLAB Stuttgart.
Hamburg's blockchain work leans toward the port and its trade documents, which Finance Loop describes at blockchain in Hamburg. The city's banks and insurers are on finance in Hamburg.
Upcoming blockchain and digital asset events in Germany
Is the Hanseatic Blockchain Institute also in Frankfurt?
No. HBI is based in Hamburg and holds its live evenings there. The online Blockchain Monday sessions on Zoom can be followed from Frankfurt or anywhere else. Blockchain meetups and conferences in Frankfurt are listed at blockchain in Frankfurt.
How to become a member
Private individuals and companies can join. HBI publishes its statutes and an application form on its website, and the association is open to anyone who supports its goals and values.
Who can attend the Blockchain Monday?
Anyone, members or not. Attendance is free, both on Zoom and at the live evenings in Hamburg. Some talks assume prior knowledge, for example on DeFi capital allocation or on-chain analysis, so the topic of each session is worth checking first.
Hanseatic Blockchain Institute and Finance Loop
Finance Loop is a member of Bundesblock, the German blockchain association that lists HBI among its regional groups. Finance Loop runs events in Frankfurt, Munich, Berlin and Hamburg, and its Investment & Digital Assets track covers the MiCA and stablecoin questions that also come up at the Blockchain Monday.
Finance Loop is a professional network and has the goal of driving the adoption of emerging technologies in finance, such as AI, tokenization, stablecoins, and DeFi. Finance Loop helps its members build skills and personal networks in these fields: Investment & Digital Assets, Payments & Digital Money, Digital Infrastructure & Sovereignty, and Risk & Compliance.