When I wrote for CoinDesk in 2024 exploring whether cryptocurrency conference tours were good for the industry, the crypto space didn't have a clear center. The entire industry was like a mobile city, shuttling between conferences around the world. Two years later, the situation looked drastically different. Crypto finally had a center again, and it was becoming increasingly clear that that center was New York. Having been on this tour for over five years myself, this experience gradually changed my perspective on the actual role conferences played in the industry. Back then, conference tours were practically useful. The industry was geographically fragmented, with developers, investors, and founders scattered around the world in a truly decentralized manner, and conferences were often the only time the entire ecosystem could reliably come together in one place. Hundreds of side events would spur around every major event, with entire teams spending months of the year traveling between locations. Shortly after writing that article, I joined Miden in April 2024. At that stage, I felt that conference tours were indeed making a real difference. Privacy was becoming an increasingly important topic of discussion in the crypto space, and launching new protocols meant explaining what we were building and why it was so important. This means that for the next year, we'll be spending most of our time speaking at conferences, appearing on podcasts, and meeting with developers, investors, and institutions trying to understand the future direction of the industry. The tail end of the bull market cycle extended into 2025, largely driven by the meme coin frenzy of the previous year. Money was still in circulation, and teams still had travel budgets. When the market is strong, these temptations are irresistible. Conferences offer visibility, opportunities to reach investors, and reinforce a project's narrative in a cycle where "attention itself is often a currency." However, when the bear market arrives, things change. People are reluctant to acknowledge that the situation is rapidly changing and want to continue using methods that have worked in the past, which is often a "reliable" path to failure. Now, in 2026, the landscape looks completely different. Funding is tighter, and venture capital firms are betting larger sums on fewer companies. Budgets across the industry are shrinking, and teams are becoming more cautious in spending time and money. Attending conferences is expensive, but the real cost is time. When a small team takes multiple members off duty for days or even weeks, the opportunity cost becomes enormous.The industry is finally starting to ask a question it should have asked long ago: what is the actual rate of return on investment? Another significant change since I wrote that initial article is the regulatory environment in the United States. This environment began to shift with the election of Donald Trump and the transition to a new SEC led by Paul Atkins, coupled with Commissioner Hester Pierce's continued leadership and the formation of a "Crypto Task Force" focused on driving innovation. For the first time in a long time, many companies felt that the U.S. was a place where cryptocurrencies could thrive, not just barely survive. Last year, Washington also reached a concrete milestone. The passage of the GENIUS Act established the first comprehensive federal framework for stablecoins. The next major development to watch is the progress of the CLARITY Act, which aims to address the broader market structure issues surrounding digital assets. These developments collectively indicate that the U.S. is beginning to move from a period of regulatory ambiguity towards a more defined framework for digital assets. Around the same time, I began to notice something else. Conferences are excellent occasions for reconnecting and maintaining relationships, but they are often one of the worst environments for getting real, meaningful work done. Everyone's schedule is packed, and conversations become rushed. In many ways, conferences become places for people to simply reminisce, gathering to complain about the markets, regulations, or whatever the industry is debating that week. At the end of 2025, I decided to try something different. I was invited to speak at a privacy roundtable during Abu Dhabi Financial Week, but instead of rushing off after the forum, I stayed in the UAE for over a month. If conferences are the worst time to network in a city, what happens if you stay after everyone else has left? That way you can truly invest meaningful time in securing everything needed for business collaborations. The answer was clear: in the weeks following the conference, we were able to engage in deeper conversations with banks, regulators, and fintech companies in the region, leading to several collaborations. I carried this experience into early 2026. Instead of attending Consensus in Hong Kong, I used the connections I made in the UAE to travel to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. These conversations were far more substantial than anything that typically happens during conference weeks. Around the same time, I attended ETHDenver.While the industry signals it sends remain strong, this experience also confirms something else: as the industry matures, events like ETHDenver may begin to resemble powerful regional conferences rather than global gatherings. Over the past two years, New York has quietly emerged as the hub of the cryptocurrency industry. Young developers are flocking to Brooklyn, while venture capital firms are concentrated around Union Square and SoHo in Manhattan. Several large projects, including Uniswap, Aave, Gauntlet, and Monad, now have offices in the city. New York's rise as a cryptocurrency center shouldn't be surprising; the city has long been a global financial, media, and fashion capital. Meanwhile, another geographical shift is underway. Artificial intelligence is increasingly centered in San Francisco, while cryptocurrency is increasingly centered in New York. As the industry matures, cryptocurrency companies will also need to adapt to environments where they are no longer the center of attention. Companies can no longer simply attend cryptocurrency-native conferences; they increasingly need to participate in larger financial and technology events. In these environments, cryptocurrency becomes a small fish in a large pond. But this is precisely where real adoption happens. Conferences won't disappear, but they are more likely to move towards consolidation. This industry will no longer be about scattering dozens of globally impactful events across the calendar, but rather revolving around a few large gatherings, while other conferences evolve into regional events. For many in the cryptocurrency space, conference touring is also a culture. But the market is constantly evolving. By 2026, companies that can adapt to the new environment will survive, while those that continue to rely on the old script may face elimination. [ChainCatcher]