See you in Shanghai in October: ETHShanghai 2025's first sponsors announced, hackathon registration now open

2025 was a year to remember for Ethereum. From the dawn of the Ethereum Digital Asset Treasury (DAT) era, the nearly 5 million ETH held by institutional treasuries, to the rise of RWAs in the capital markets following the passage of the GENIUS Act, all these events signaled Ethereum's accelerating rise as a foundational financial technology on Wall Street. Amidst this prosperity, Ethereum not only celebrated the tenth anniversary of its mainnet launch, but also saw its price reach a record high, igniting market enthusiasm.

Amidst this wave of technological innovation and market resonation, the fourth annual ETHShanghai will land in Shanghai from October 18th to 22nd, 2025. Under the theme "Expanding Ethereum, Shaping an Open Future," it will be a five-day global developer event. Led by ETHpanda and co-organized by Wanxiang Blockchain Lab, PANews, and TinTinLand, the conference will be held concurrently with the Wanxiang Blockchain Global Summit in the same city.

Three core sections: the evolution from code to ecosystem

This year's event is centered around a five-day hackathon and summit, supplemented by online learning and workshops. It aims to bring together the most active developers and researchers in the Asia-Pacific region to promote creativity from code to users.

Before the main event begins, a three-month ETHShanghai Youth Hacker Voyage Program will kick off. With a budget exceeding 6,000 USDT, the program aims to discover and support at least 30 outstanding young Asian developers, providing them with travel subsidies of up to 200 USDT and a communication platform, lowering the barrier to entry for them to visit Shanghai and deeply engage with the Ethereum core ecosystem. Voyage Program members are required to register and participate in the ETHShanghai Hackathon. Application portal: ETHShanghai 2025 Youth Voyage Program Application Form

Time schedule:

Registration period: September 19th - October 3rd
List announcement: October 10
Voyage Plan Meetup: October 19th

Innovation Engine: 72-hour offline hackathon

As the technical core and innovation engine of the event, the 72-hour offline hackathon from October 18th to 21st will be the Builder stage that ignites Ethereum's next decade of innovation. The event will select approximately 100 top developers from over 500 applicants worldwide and incubate 30 to 40 cutting-edge projects on-site. This hackathon will focus on three cutting-edge tracks:

AI × ETH: Exploring the deep integration of AI and Ethereum. Just on September 15th, the Ethereum Foundation announced the establishment of a dedicated DAI team to advance Ethereum as an infrastructure for AI development. This track encourages developers to experiment with smart contract automation, on-chain governance agents, and AI-driven risk control, enabling intelligent agents to become key nodes in the on-chain economy. Notably, Vitalik has warned that direct AI participation in governance could pose the risk of malicious exploitation.
DeFi × Infra: Driving the Reconstruction of Financial Infrastructure. From the accelerated implementation of RWA and stablecoins to the evolution of modular technologies like EIP-4844, Rollup, and ZK, DeFi is moving towards scale and compliance. This track focuses on building a more secure, intelligent, and scalable financial network.
Public Goods × Open Source Construction: The long-term health of the Ethereum ecosystem is inseparable from public goods and the open source spirit. This track encourages the construction of underlying infrastructure and collaboration tools, strengthening the foundation of the ecosystem and promoting the further development of open finance and an open society.

The winning projects will share a $15,000 prize pool, and the top-prize teams in each track will have the opportunity to present their projects on stage at the main summit , attracting the attention of top investment institutions and incubators. Participants must submit their GitHub code repository, a 3-minute demo video, and proof of originality. They will be judged on multiple dimensions, including code quality, innovation, and ecosystem value. Registration for the hackathon is now open and closes on October 1st. Registration portal: ETHShanghai 2025 Hackathon

Clash of Ideas: Main Summit Focuses on Cutting-Edge Topics

The main summit on October 22nd will be the ultimate collision of technological consensus. The summit agenda includes keynote speeches and panels, and plans to invite over 40 industry leaders, including representatives from the Ethereum Foundation, venture capitalists, core developers, protocol founders, and researchers. Important guests such as Ethereum co-founder Vitalik and Ethereum Foundation Co-Executive Director Hsiao-Wei Wang are on the invited list and may deliver keynote speeches.

The main venue will feature a dedicated "exhibition booth area" focused on the latest developments in Ethereum's scaling and modular ecosystem. The booth will focus on three core themes that align closely with the Ethereum Foundation's strategic goals:

Developer Growth: Helping developers efficiently build and scale innovative applications on Ethereum by providing skills, resources, and network support;
Ecosystem Amplification: Linking community and media resources, expanding the global influence of high-quality projects, and promoting the prosperity and development of the Ethereum ecosystem;
Long-term security and resilience: Improve the security and stability of Ethereum and build a sustainable and resilient open network ecosystem.

Sponsor Announcement

The success of ETHShanghai 2025 would not have been possible without the strong support of numerous industry partners. The following are the first sponsors of this conference:

Diamond Sponsor

ESP is the Ethereum Foundation's ecosystem support program, dedicated to funding and supporting developers and organizations building Ethereum public goods. Since its launch in 2018, ESP has provided funding and resources to hundreds of projects worldwide, awarding nearly $3 million to 105 projects in 2024 alone. ESP supports areas including developer tools, core infrastructure, research, community education, and public goods. Its vision is to strengthen Ethereum's foundation, support future builders, and promote long-term sustainable development through public goods. Currently, ESP is actively aligning with the Foundation's new EcoDev strategy, shifting from passive grants to more proactive strategic support, continuously injecting vitality into the Ethereum ecosystem's key public goods.

BitSeek , hailed as the "Bitcoin moment of the AI industry," is the world's first decentralized AI model provider. By combining model atomization technology with a globally distributed GPU network, BitSeek achieves decentralized execution of trillion-scale AI models. Its mission is to build a new paradigm of open, verifiable, and user-owned intelligence, freeing AI from the control of tech giants. Its vision perfectly aligns with the "AI x ETH" track of this hackathon.

Platinum Sponsor

HashKey Chain is the preferred public blockchain for financial institutions and RWA asset on-chain, dedicated to promoting compliant and scalable on-chain finance. It inherits the decentralized security of Ethereum and significantly improves transaction efficiency through high-performance optimization, offering low gas fees and high throughput. HashKey Chain is collaborating with global financial institutions and compliant Web3 projects to provide optimal solutions for institutional-grade DeFi, RWA tokenization, and stablecoin settlement, accelerating the digital upgrade of the financial system.

Gold Sponsor

GCC is the first non-profit crypto foundation in the Chinese-speaking world, focusing on funding the development of public goods, including open source software, open copyright works, protocol standards, and public service talent. GCC has funded over 45 projects, with donations exceeding US$1.3 million, and is committed to promoting the development of digital public goods in the Chinese-speaking world and supporting the long-term value creation of the community.

Nantang DAO investor Liu Bing : A longtime investor focused on cryptocurrency and rural development, he has been supporting the Nantang DAO and its cooperative through ETH donations since 2017. Nantang DAO is China's first DAO to integrate Web3 technology with rural development. Born in Nantang Village, Fuyang, Anhui Province, a village steeped in democratic governance, it aims to explore a new, sustainable path for rural development by introducing digital technologies and innovative governance models. It is a groundbreaking social experiment in the Web3 space.

Hackathon Sponsorship

BGA (Blockchain for Good Alliance) : Launched by Bybit in 2024, BGA is a long-term non-profit collaborative initiative that aims to use blockchain technology to solve real-world problems and contribute to social welfare. Its goals are aligned with the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Chainlink : As the industry's leading decentralized computing platform, Chainlink provides the core infrastructure for the scalable development of on-chain finance. It securely connects blockchains with real-world data, identity, and compliance systems, has facilitated trillions of dollars in transaction value, and is trusted by many of the world's top financial institutions and DeFi protocols, including Swift, Mastercard, and Aave.

Shaping the future together

ETHShanghai 2025 is not only a celebration of Ethereum’s tenth anniversary, but also the starting point for the next phase of ecosystem expansion. With the participation of developers, researchers, and sponsors from around the world, the conference will become a key engine driving Ethereum into the next decade.

From October 18th to 22nd, Shanghai will once again become the global focal point for crypto and Web3. ETHShanghai 2025 is a highly anticipated event for all builders, researchers, and investors.

Official website : https://ethshanghai.org

Official X (Twitter) : x.com/EthereumSH

Registration link : https://lu.ma/n11m5knq

For collaboration, please contact : ethpanda.org@gmail.com / panews@panony.com

About the Organizer

Wanxiang Blockchain Lab was established in 2015 by China Wanxiang Holdings Co., Ltd. It brings together experts in the field to conduct research and discussion on technology development, commercial applications, industrial strategy, etc., to provide guidance for entrepreneurs, reference for industry development and policy making, and promote the use of blockchain technology to serve the progress and development of social economy.
ETHPanda is an Ethereum community composed of Chinese-speaking builders. It is committed to connecting Chinese-speaking builders with the international Ethereum ecosystem through education, public services, events, and technological innovation, and jointly promoting the continued development and innovation of Ethereum.
PANews is a leading think tank information platform in the field of blockchain and Web3.0, created by traditional media professionals and senior industry professionals.
TinTinLand is a technology community that empowers the next generation of developers. By gathering, cultivating, and delivering developers to various open networks, we jointly define and build the future.