September 11, 2025
By Joe Pan
“Only in Taipei could a blockchain conference smell faintly of oolong tea instead of VC sweat.” That was the running joke among attendees as Taipei Blockchain Week 2025 kicked off last week in new digs at the Songshan Cultural and Creative Park — a sleekly revived industrial complex that was once the beating heart of Taiwan’s tobacco industry.
Far from the frenetic sales pitches and neon-screaming product demos of crypto gatherings in Singapore or New York, this year’s edition leaned into the city’s laid-back rhythm. Attendees milled between old brick warehouses reborn as airy cultural halls, sipping boba tea, nibbling taro-flavored ice cream cubes, and sticky rice balls （ 粽子）—Taipei’s own spin on tamales. No pounding EDM, no armies of interns shoving branded swag into your bag, just a slower, quirkier type of Web3 festival.
A venue with history
The Songshan Cultural and Creative Park — once the Taiwan Tobacco and Wine Bureau’s sprawling cigarette factory — was built in 1937 under Japanese rule. For decades, factory workers churned out the smoke that filled Taiwan’s post-war skies, until rising health awareness and deregulation sent production into decline. In 2001, the government began restoring the complex into Taiwan’s creative hub, dotted with design studios, galleries, indie shops, cafes, and now, apparently, blockchain theorists.
The irony wasn’t lost on some visitors: from nicotine to tokens, the once utilitarian factory now houses ideas that promise a different kind of buzz.
“The space itself sets the tone,” said Yanni, a Taiwan-based developer who has attended Taipei Blockchain Week for three straight years. “You’re not trapped in another convention center that looks like it could be anywhere in the world. Here, there’s texture, history, something that feels human.”
Chill vibes meet Web3 ambition
In contrast to the aggressively marketed booths at other conferences, most projects at TBW 2025 seemed content to let curious visitors stumble on them between food breaks. Hallways weren’t clogged with PR reps, and social media blitzes were few. Instead, casual meetups and long-form conversations took center stage.
Still, not every booth was understated. The standout this year was Showup, the gamified events app that lured crowds with its “TBW Boost Program”, a contest that blended scavenger hunt mechanics with social engagement. The program promised whimsical “Baby Blo$$oms” blind boxes for top scorers and a shared prize pool of 1,000 USDT for the top 10 most engaged participants, announced via Telegram after the event.
Most booths looked less like a marketing battlefield and more like a retro arcade corner — blinking screens, small prizes, and a steady stream of boba in attendees’ hands. For some, the casual approach made discussions about the future of DeFi, RWA, and tokenization feel less transactional and more like conversations among curious peers rather than sales calls.
Dating in the Web3 age
Another surprising hotspot was Lava Bar, hosted by Lava, the dating app that officially launched this week at TBW. The app promises to take some of the dread out of online flirting by limiting messaging altogether — a deliberate decision its founder, Jesse Liu, says helps cut down on what he calls “chatting fatigue.”
“Thirty-six percent of people felt overwhelmed by the number of messages they received,” Liu said, citing a recent study. “Fifty-five percent felt insecure about how often or infrequently others messaged them. Our motto is: fewer texts, better dates IRL.”
At Lava’s booth, conversations about algorithm-free romance rubbed shoulders with talks on decentralized identity. In true TBW fashion, the space looked less like a product pitch and more like a neighborhood cafe where strangers could chat over sparkling tea.
Taiwan’s growing place in Web3
While the atmosphere exuded street festival vibes, TBW’s speaker roster was still stacked with heavyweights. Panels dug into Asia’s evolving regulatory landscape, stablecoin adoption, and the intersection of Taiwan’s semiconductor economy with blockchain scaling.
“Taiwan doesn’t have to out-Singapore Singapore,” said one panelist from a regional venture firm. “It can chart its own style — a blend of creativity and pragmatism that feels very Taiwanese.”
There’s little doubt that TBW is becoming an anchor event for the island’s Web3 ambitions. Yet it does so without sacrificing the human touches: a taro dessert here, a poetry slam-like pitch session there. It all suggests that Taiwan’s approach to blockchain may be distinctively softer around the edges — and maybe even more enduring because of it.
Books, boba, and a blockchain puppy
And because this is Taipei, the quirk factor went one step further. This year, children’s books were also made available — not as onboarding kits or gimmicks, but simply promoted as a piece of swag that should be ordered in advance. ABCs of Blockchain, written by Tiffany Lai and Isabella Lai, is a rhyming A-to-Z adventure explaining tokens, smart contracts, and decentralization one playful word at a time.
Whether you’re a parent in Web3, a teacher hoping to introduce new concepts in class, or simply crypto-curious, the book offered an unexpectedly wholesome piece of swag. As one attendee quipped, “Only in Taipei does your kid end up with a MetaMask address before their ABCs worksheet.”
Of course, in a city where low-key and eccentric often woven together, it wasn’t even the quirkiest sight. Just outside the main banner plaza, a shaggy, impossibly cute poodle mix waited to be checked in alongside human attendees. The pup easily upstaged the blockchain, proving once again that in Taipei, no amount of tokenomics can compete with a fluffy doggo.
And maybe that’s what makes Taipei Blockchain Week unforgettable. In a world of high-octane blockchain conferences trying to out-flash each other, TBW embraces the simple, the charming, and the human. A little bit of history, a little bit of flavor, and just enough weirdness to make you wish every crypto conference came with taro ice cream and a poodle wagging at the front gate.
About the Author
Joe Pan is an editor and producer at Blockwind News. An early adopter of blockchain technology, he has covered major crypto conferences globally since 2019 and moderated Web3 events across Asia. Joe is part of the founding team of Blockwind News and teaches Asia’s only accredited Master of Journalism course on “Covering Cryptocurrency and Blockchain” at Hong Kong Baptist University.
