Now the dust has settled, the hangovers cleared, and jet-lagged travelers returned home nursing sunburn and a conviction that crypto is the greatest industry on earth, it’s time for a recap. Whether you made it to the annual Ethereum developer conference, hosted in the South of France, or were forced to stay at home, you won’t have caught everything that happened. There was just too much to take in. To save you from scrolling X in search of the key takeaways and major announcements, the following highlight reel incorporates the best bits.
No retrospective could capture the full intensity of EthCC Cannes, both in terms of the heat and the ideas that were being tossed around like beach balls. From new product launches to razor sharp insights on the trends that will define the industry over the next year, here’s your tl;dr on EthCC Cannes: what happened, where, and why it matters. Let’s go.
Wall Street Pledges Ethereum Loyalty
Hosted from June 30 to July 3 in the glamorous resort of Cannes, EthCC Cannes has left an indelible mark on every delegate. Held in the iconic Palais des Festivals – famous for the Cannes Film Festival – EthCC 2025 drew developers, founders, and Wall Street heavyweights, blending high-stakes discussions with beach networking and exclusive parties.
EthCC Cannes embodied crypto’s transformation from a niche experiment to the infrastructure powering global finance. Funded in part by Robinhood, the event highlighted surging interest from Wall Street in all things web3. Institutions like BlackRock, Deutsche Bank, Coinbase, and Kraken are building directly on Ethereum, whose decade-long uptime, security, and stability have made it ground zero for enterprise blockchain – despite the network’s unhurried scaling roadmap.
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin noted at the conference that institutions like Ethereum on account of its dependability, explaining: “A lot of institutions basically tell us to our faces that they value Ethereum because it's stable and dependable, because it doesn't go down.” Tomasz Stańczak of the Ethereum Foundation echoed this, emphasizing Ethereum’s track record: “Ten years without stopping for a moment. Ten years of upgrades, with a huge dedication to security and censorship resistance.”
Robinhood's launch of tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs on Arbitrum, Deutsche Bank's tokenization platform on zkSync, and BlackRock's BUIDL fund exemplified this shift, with ETH gaining 6% weekly amid related stock rallies. The City of Cannes itself is exploring deeper crypto integration, aligning with Mayor David Lisnard's push for web3 adoption.
The Graph and Binance Pay Drop Major News
The conference buzzed with fresh launches and major news dropped by blockchain companies in attendance. Yaniv Tal, co-founder of The Graph, unveiled Hypergraph, a new data layer for collaborative, non-financial apps on Ethereum. Aiming to catalyze the release of “1M useful, delightful, non-financial apps” that prioritize user safety and shared knowledge networks, Tal highlighted how most mobile time is spent on non-DeFi apps, urging a shift beyond finance.
Other reveals included Binance Pay's partnership with French fintech Lyzi, enabling over 80 Riviera businesses, from luxury hotels such as JW Marriott to beach clubs, to accept crypto payments via QR codes, with instant euro settlements and no gas fees. Supporting 100+ cryptocurrencies, the initiative offered stablecoin rewards for eligible purchases, boosting adoption in tourism hotspots like Cannes and Monaco.
Elsewhere, MiniPay and Noah introduced seamless global-to-local stablecoin payments, allowing users to receive ACH/SEPA transfers as USDT and USDC and spend via local methods like M-Pesa or Pix – non-custodially and fee-free. The initiative targets freelancers and migrants in over 70 destinations, building upon the strong user base already in place thanks to MiniPay's 8 million wallets. Epic Web3 also launched its Dapps Hub at the concurrent L2con, with the goal of enhancing Layer 2 ecosystems.
Networking With a View
Amid the tech talks, EthCC's Cannes idyllic setting proved that real-world connections trump digital. Beachside networking and informal vibes at private estates and resorts fostered deeper discussions between the industry’s movers, shakers, and rising stars. Memorable moments included the Pudgy Penguins and My Neighbor Alice (MNA) event in Lummelunda, where over 700 attendees hatched eggs, created accounts, and dove into gameplay, complete with exclusive merch.
The Tezos art show at TezDev 2025, held alongside EthCC at Hôtel Martinez, featured an immersive exhibition with works from over 30 artists via Objkt.com, including pieces by Diane Lindo, Anya, RJ, Morpho Genesis, and Lilyillo. It capped sessions on Tezos X, gaming on Etherlink, and RWA tokenization, blending art with tech in a continuous-screen display.
GenLayer's Sunset Beach Salon stood out for its no-slides approach, focusing on “bites, bevs & high-quality signal.” Founders shared updates like RallyOnChain amid casual chats, capturing the event's relaxed yet productive energy. The rAAVE party at Villa Montana, attended by Chainlink's Sergey Nazarov and Aave's Stani Kulechov, wrapped things up on a high note.
Why EthCC Cannes Slapped
EthCC Cannes 2025 will be remembered for bringing Wall Street and web3 closer together, unleashing innovations like Hypergraph and crypto payments in luxury locales, and reviving the joy of in-person connections. As Bettina Boon Falleur, EthCC organizer, put it: “The prestige of the location, combined with the quality of talks, has reinforced Ethereum’s stature and purpose in the wider ecosystem.”
The conference celebrated how far crypto has come, with Wall Street’s embrace marking a turning point. The flurry of new project announcements, from Hypergraph to Binance Pay partnerships, showed that away from the side-events and after-parties, there was still plenty of business getting done. Yet it’s the informal beach networking and quirky moments like the Pudgy Penguins hatching that will linger long, proving that even in a digital age, the human touch remains irreplaceable. Cannes was the best EthCC yet, it was widely agreed by the delegates who made the trip – until the next one at least.
Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.
