Gather to Build: A Vision for Solana Events in 2025
As we approach 2025, the importance of crypto events remains both underestimated and overhyped. While these gatherings are crucial for serendipitous interactions and onboarding developers into the ecosystem, far too many events devolve into ordinary panels or bland networking mixers.
If you’ve attended a Solana event, you already know they stand apart. When you commit to traveling, booking accommodations, and taking time out of your busy life to be part of a Solana conference, we want to ensure the experience is worth your investment. In 2025, Solana events will focus on productivity, growth, and actionable outcomes.
Our goal is for every Solana event attendee to leave equipped with tangible solutions for their growth challenges, valuable connections with peers, and new pathways for partnerships, hiring, or marketing.
How Will We Make This Happen?
- Product-First Approach: Solana events will prioritize support for builders, founders, and apps leveraging the network. You saw an early example of this at Breakpoint 2024, and in 2025, this focus will only sharpen.
- Smarter Event Strategies: The Solana Foundation will move away from traditional sponsorships; simply putting a logo on a wall offers little return. Instead, we’ll host intimate side events to connect ecosystem contributors and investors, building intentional communities in productive environments.
- Community-Driven Programming: We’ll collaborate closely with the Solana community, integrating grassroots events and allowing teams to co-locate and co-produce their efforts alongside larger gatherings.
- Barbell Event Format: Expect two primary formats: small, focused gatherings (e.g., product designer or DePIN team meetups) and large-scale flagship conferences for the entire spectrum of the Solana ecosystem. Small events will target specific outcomes, fostering meaningful connections. Large events will cater to diverse participants – developers, marketers, validators, and others – ensuring tailored experiences for each group.
With this foundation laid, let’s take a look at Solana’s bold plans for 2025.
The American Crypto Renaissance
As 2025 unfolds, the U.S. is poised for an unprecedented crypto revival, ushered in by the results of the recent U.S. elections. This transformative period will bring political and cultural environments that are pro-technology and pro-enterprise, with innovation thriving in major hubs like San Francisco (founders), New York (Wall Street), Chicago (high-frequency trading), and Washington, D.C. (regulations).
The Solana Foundation is doubling down on its commitment to fostering this energy, supporting crypto innovation within the U.S. while channeling that momentum into tech-forward regions globally.
Spotlight: NYC Flagship Events
New York City will be at the heart of crypto innovation next year, and the Solana Foundation is hosting two flagship events from May 19–23, 2025.
- Scale or Die (May 19–20)
This exclusive, application-only event is designed for developers, validators, engineers, and strategists in the Solana ecosystem. Focusing on high-speed data movement and cutting-edge tech, this workshop-driven conference will be a unique experience for those driving Solana forward. Sign up to be notified when applications open. - Ship or Die (May 22–23)
Following Scale or Die, the Foundation will host a larger crypto industry expo, introducing the Solana ecosystem to the broader U.S. market. This public event will spotlight breakout products and deep innovations happening across the country, taking center stage in NYC.
More details on these events will be shared in February 2025.
Solana is Global: Mega-Events and Local Communities
Solana’s global reach is unmatched, with over 94% of Radar hackathon projects coming from outside the U.S. In 2025, the Solana Foundation will host and support events across regions, amplifying innovation and empowering builders worldwide.
APEX: Regional Flagship Events
Introducing APEX: highly-focused, mega-regional conferences tailored to help founders, teams, and tokenized apps connect with investors and partners. Events are planned for Mexico City, Cape Town, Budapest, Singapore, and Mumbai in 2025.
Startup Villages
Superteam and other ecosystem partners are driving Startup Villages — longer-format events modeled after mtnDAO — where attendees can immerse themselves in intensive, hands-on work. These two-week gatherings combine workshops, collaborations, and opportunities to build meaningful products in a deep work environment. Watch for these events alongside major conferences like Hong Kong Fintech Week.
Ecosystem-Driven Hacker Houses
The community is embracing Solana’s culture of innovation by hosting grassroots hacker houses and events. Initiatives like mtnDAO, IslandDAO, Solana Crossroads Istanbul (April 2025), and Solana Summit (late 2025) are redefining the nature of collaborative crypto gatherings, fostering stronger community ties.
Breakpoint 2025 in Abu Dhabi
The annual Solana Breakpoint conference will return in December 2025, hosted in Abu Dhabi. As the most anticipated event in the Solana ecosystem, Breakpoint highlights the best of product-building, innovation, and ecosystem growth. Tickets officially go on sale in January, but an early flash sale is live until December 13, 2024.
Looking Ahead to 2025
The Solana community remains the beating heart of the onchain economy, and this year promises to deepen that connection. From flagship events in New York City to global gatherings like APEX and Startup Villages, the focus is clear: building the future. As the ecosystem grows, Solana’s dedication to fostering meaningful, growth-oriented events will continue to make an impact.