Ethereum and Beyond: EthCC Side Events Focus on Mainstream Adoption, Stablecoins and Beach Swag

The Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) drew a large crowd this year, as thousands of crypto members gathered in Cannes, France. While the annual conference primarily focuses on the Ethereum sector, EthCC 2025 ended up attracting industry experts across different ecosystems.

This was apparent from the multiple side events that took place during the conference. From Bitcoin meetups to various stablecoin houses, EthCC proved to be an event focused on the crypto ecosystem as a whole.

Robinhood’s Event Attracts The Mainstream

For example, fintech firm Robinhood hosted an event dedicated to announcing its new line of crypto products and services for users in the United States and European Union.

Robinhood’s exclusive 300-person event called “To Catch a Token” took place at the iconic Château de la Croix des Gardes in Cannes. Robinhood Chairman and CEO Vlad Tenev took center stage to announce that EU users can now access US stock tokens on the platform.

Robinhood Senior Director and COO Tanya Denisova further mentioned that Robinhood has expanded its presence to France, along with a number of other countries across Europe.

Other announcements included Robinhood’s rollout of crypto staking for eligible US customers. The platform will begin with staking on Ethereum and Solana (SOL). Crypto staking was made available to all Robinhood customers in the EU and EEA last year.

Overall, the event showed Robinhood’s desire to take over the crypto sector. The fintech giant has about 26 million customers based in the US and is expecting similar growth across different regions.

Johann Kerbrat, GM and SVP of Crypto at Robinhood, told Cryptonews that one of the goals behind Robinhood’s event was to demonstrate how a classic US brokerage is working on a blockchain solution. “However, the platform looks the same—nothing has changed visually,” he said.

It’s also important to point out that many of the event attendees were not involved in the crypto sector but rather traditional finance Robinhood users.

Stellar’s CPO Discusses Stablecoins at EthCC Stable House

While a number of TradFi users attended Robinhood’s side event, the opposite was true at “Stable House.” Payments infrastructure company Borderless.xyz hosted Stable House, bringing together Web3 developers to discuss stablecoin innovations at a seaside villa.

Tomer Weller, chief product officer at Stellar, kicked off the event with a discussion on real-world stablecoin use cases. He began by explaining how the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF) has piloted a blockchain-powered aid distribution system in Ukraine.

Weller also mentioned that decentralized finance (DeFi) has become possible on Stellar with the recent implementation of smart contracts. He elaborated, noting that the most interesting aspect Stellar has seen since this development is DeFi use cases on a base layer of stablecoins.

“We think of the stablecoin base layer as a checking account for this new type of finance,” he said. “DeFi allows users to build more financial instruments to make these a savings account equivalent.”

Weller explained that Stellar users have wallets that mainly hold stablecoins because of inflation against local currency. DeFi allows users access to real-world assets (RWAs) and yield.

He added that Stellar is currently witnessing “a full stack of everyday financial instruments being built with stablecoins as a base layer.”

Binance Discusses Crypto Payments with Cannes Mayor

Cryptocurrency exchange Binance hosted a side event focused on crypto payments at the exclusive Hôtel Barrière Le Majestic in Cannes. The intimate event was attended by Mayor David Lisnard of Cannes, who spoke in detail about crypto payment use cases across the region.

Mayor Lisnard noted that Cannes is becoming one of the most crypto-friendly cities in the world. Interestingly, more than 80 merchants across the French Riviera now accept stablecoin and cryptocurrency payments via Binance Pay. Mayor Lisnard added that this has helped boost the city’s already booming tourism sector.

Indeed, crypto payments appear to be gaining traction across Cannes. Many merchants, hotels, and restaurants in the area now display a sticker on their storefronts to let customers know they accept cryptocurrency.

EthCC Crypto Beach Swag

Finally, most of the EthCC side events had crypto swag, which helped attendees keep cool during the European heat wave.

Robinhood attendees received much-needed fans to cool off during the heat of the day, along with a hat that reads “market cap.”

The Stellar team gave out tank tops labeled “Girls Gone Stable,” which were seen on multiple crypto enthusiasts at EthCC. Bitstamp and Mastercard also gave out t-shirts, while flip-flops were provided by UR Coin.

Another fun swag item was NFT-embedded press-on nails from Chipped Social. Attendees wearing the nails could tap a smartphone with their NFT-chipped nail to share their contact information and social media links.

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