Next Block Expo 2026 in Warsaw Brings Institutional Focus to Crypto

Warsaw delivered one of the more substantive weeks on this year’s European circuit. BeInCrypto was there as official media partner, with our Polish Editor, Jakub Dziadkowiec, covering the full event, recording eight exclusive interviews, taking the stage twice, and capturing a conference that left a mark on the European circuit.

Institutional Focus and High-quality Engagement 

NBX 2026 stood out not for its sheer size, but for the quality of what was actually being discussed on the floor. The 116 speakers and 51 exhibitors split fairly clearly across three conversations: exchange executives and institutional players debating market structure and regulation; Polish lawmakers and public figures weighing in on digital payments and financial infrastructure in Europe; and infrastructure builders focused on what scaling in a regulated environment actually looks like in practice.

The event maintained a balance between intimacy and scale, allowing attendees to run into the same interesting contacts multiple times while keeping the energy of a full conference hall afloat.

The Themes That Kept Coming Up 

Two themes dominated NBX 2026 in a way that was hard to ignore.

The first was AI. NBX hosted a dedicated AI summit running alongside the main programme, and its presence extended well beyond the agenda. Several stands on the floor featured interactive robots, including the kind of autonomous, four-legged machines that until recently existed mostly in research videos. Attendees were stopping, talking to them, and occasionally looking a little unsettled. The point landed regardless.

The second was compliance. Regulatory conversation at crypto conferences has historically ranged from performative to panicked. At NBX, it felt settled. The institutions in the room are not waiting to see how regulation lands anymore. They are building for it, and in several cases, they are helping shape it.

That combination, AI integration and regulatory maturity, is a reasonable summary of where European crypto is heading. NBX reflected that clearly.

BeInCrypto On-Stage Presence

Jakub did not just cover the event from the sidelines. He took the stage twice.

He delivered a keynote and Q&A session on crypto portfolio diversification, making the case for why concentration risk is one of the most underappreciated conversations in this industry right now. He also stepped in as panel moderator for one of the event’s sharper discussions: “Who Owns the Market: Exchanges, Data, or the Compliance Layer?” a question that, depending on who you ask, has about five different right answers.

Both sessions reflected the tone of the conference overall. Serious, specific, and not interested in retreading ground the industry has already covered.

Exclusive Interviews

Alongside his stage appearances, Jakub recorded eight video interviews with executives, founders, and investors across institutional crypto.

Interviewees included:

• Georg Harer, Co-CEO at Bybit EU, Check out the exclusive interview here
• Suzanne Morsfield, CFO at LUKKA
• Miko Matsumura, Managing Partner at Gumi Cryptos Capital
• Mike Vitez, Co-founder and CTO at Saturnia Design
• Princess Sophia Volkonsky, CEO of Castillia
• Sabina Liu, Managing Director at KuCoin EU
• Milko Hensel, CEO at Maerki Baumann and Co. AG
• Player1Taco, Crypto Influencer and Trader

What the Floor Was Telling You

NBX did not feel like a retail conference. That is not a criticism of the attendance number. It is an observation about the room.

The conversations happening between sessions, at the stands, over coffee, were coming from founders still building through a difficult market, compliance officers navigating a regulatory landscape that is moving faster than most people expected, and institutional representatives who have clearly stopped treating crypto as a side conversation and started treating it as a core one.

The Bigger Picture

Despite market conditions and slightly lower attendance compared to some other conferences Next Block Expo was a very successful event, it drew more than 2,600 attendees including institutional players, founders and regulators, which is solid for a local European Conference. It demonstrated the growing institutional focus and maturity of the crypto ecosystem. 

There was a version of this industry that ran on speculation, anonymity, and the promise of overnight returns. That version still exists in corners of the internet, but it was not present at NBX.

If you are planning to attend next year, the bar is set: the conversations are serious, the audience knows what it is talking about, and the programme does not waste your time. Go for the right reasons, and NBX will deliver.

Full interview coverage from NBX will be published across BeInCrypto’s platforms shortly. For continued coverage of Europe’s institutional crypto landscape, follow us at beincrypto.com.

The post Next Block Expo 2026 in Warsaw Brings Institutional Focus to Crypto  appeared first on BeInCrypto.

Source: https://beincrypto.com/next-block-expo-2026-in-warsaw-brings-institutional-focus-to-crypto/