Dutch Blockchain Week 2026: Amsterdam Gets Serious About Institutional Crypto

Charlie Lee built Litecoin in 2011. Fifteen years later, he is on a stage in Amsterdam explaining what survived. That is the kind of speaker Dutch Blockchain Week 2026 has secured for its June 24-25 summit at the Johan Cruijff ArenA, and it sets the tone for what the event has become: less community meetup, more working session for the people actually moving money through digital asset infrastructure.
Dutch Blockchain Week 2026
Dutch Blockchain Week runs June 22-28, 2026, across Amsterdam. The two-day summit at Johan Cruijff ArenA sits at the centre, with more than 1,000 professionals expected per day. Around it, over 40 side events organised by Dutch and international partners fill the rest of the week making it the only actual week-long Web3 festival this year.
The confirmed speaker lineup already includes Brian Gahan from Kraken, Marieke Flament serving as advisor to Qivalis, Amor Sexton from Blockdaemon, Raoul Schipper of Chinalink, Stephanie Laurent from Bitwise, and Maike Hornung representing Visa. More names are being confirmed in the coming weeks, with the organisers signalling additional high-profile additions to the program. The full and updated speaker list is live at dutchblockchainweek.com/speakers.
The partner roster reflects where institutional appetite actually sits right now. Bitvavo holds the Main Partner position. Bunq joins as Diamond Partner for the first time. Visa, Kraken, OKX, Bybit EU, and ZeroHash are in at Platinum. Mastercard, Worldpay, Talos, Deloitte, Coinmerce, and Fireblocks follow as Gold supporters. That is a serious crowd: compliance departments, payment rails, and fund infrastructure.
The Netherlands is a deliberate choice of location. MiCA licensing has made Amsterdam a practical gateway for international companies establishing or expanding EU operations, and Dutch Blockchain Week has positioned itself accordingly. The attendee mix, exchanges, banks, payment providers, asset managers, infrastructure providers, legal and compliance firms, and regulators, maps directly to the conversations that matter when a company is deciding where to land in Europe.
The side event programme covers the full range of what actually drives decisions at these gatherings, the conversations that don't happen on stage. Confirmed formats include curated VIP dinners, private roundtables, boat tours, an institutional lunch programme, the DBW VIP Night (invite-only, ahead of the summit, for speakers, partners, and selected attendees), and an official afterparty. For those who prefer competition to cocktails, there is a padel tournament and poker. One side event stands out for its specificity: the Dutch Police are running a session on crime in crypto. That one will have a full room. The complete side events schedule, still being updated, is at dutchblockchainweek.com/events.
A dedicated networking app and facilitated introductions are built into the format. The organisers have been explicit that visibility alone is not the point. The infrastructure is designed around meetings that close.
This media partnership between Dutch Blockchain Week and Irish Tech News was facilitated by Iaros Belkin, founder of Belkin Marketing, who serves as both Ambassador for Dutch Blockchain Week and contributor at Irish Tech News.
Tickets are available at dutchblockchainweek.com/tickets (use code "IrishTechNews15" for a 15% off any ticket)
See more breaking stories here.
More about Irish Tech News
Irish Tech News are Ireland's No. 1 Online Tech Publication and often Ireland's No.1 Tech Podcast too.
You can find hundreds of fantastic previous episodes and subscribe using whatever platform you like via our Anchor.fm page here: https://anchor.fm/irish-tech-news
If you'd like to be featured in an upcoming Podcast email us at Simon@IrishTechNews.ie now to discuss.
Irish Tech News have a range of services available to help promote your business. Why not drop us a line at Info@IrishTechNews.ie now to find out more about how we can help you rea...