At Paris Blockchain Week, institutions showed up. Africa didn’t

Even as someone who doesn’t follow pop culture closely, it’s hard to miss how Paris is romanticized — a dream for tourists, romantics, the affluent, and anyone with the means. The sentiment resonated with me when I visited for Paris Blockchain Week.

Abdulfatai Suleiman, cofounder of Blockradar, put it best when he wrote on X: “Walking around Paris is like being inside a museum, where art and history surround you at every turn.”

Paris Blockchain Week offers a perfect excuse to visit. It’s a two-in-one deal: you do business, stretch your thinking through sessions and side chats, and, if you can spare a few days, play tourist too. That was certainly the case for me. After a brilliant time at the conference, I saw the magnificent Eiffel Tower, the Arc de Triomphe, and the Palais Garnier — a breathtaking opera house commissioned by Napoleon III in the 1800s. Sadly, I couldn’t make it to the Louvre, even though the event took place right above it, in the Carrousel du Louvre.

From a business perspective, the experience was just as rewarding. The sessions were well-curated, covering themes such as Bitcoin, stablecoins, DePIN, tokenization, institutional and retail adoption, and regulation. Notably, there was very little hype around speculation. It felt good to be among people focused on real-world utility rather than price action.

If the signal at the conference was anything to go by, institutions — especially those in finance — weren’t just present; they were actively participating in the conversation. You only had to look at the lineup to see how well represented they were: Accenture, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), Mastercard, PwC, UBS, Goldman Sachs, Visa, the London Stock Exchange, KPMG, the Bank of France — to name a few. BIS even had a dedicated session.

One major takeaway, echoing a 2018 KPMG report, is that the very institutions blockchain set out to disintermediate may now be its most powerful adoption drivers. That’s because the scale, distribution, and consumer trust they already possess are incredibly difficult to build from scratch. And that reality is quietly shifting the conversation, from ideological decentralization to something more pragmatic: distribution of access.

It’s less about removing institutions and more about ensuring broader participation through them. That’s not an easy pill to swallow for decentralization maxis. Still, as with most evolutions, institutionalization may be a necessary step — one that helps the industry earn public trust before decentralization can truly take hold. That’s a deeper thought experiment, one that probably deserves its own piece. For now, the headline is simple: the institutions are here.

As an African immersing myself in the experience that is Paris Blockchain Week, it didn’t take long to notice how few people like me were in the room. On the surface, that’s understandable — it’s a European event, and most attendees, from my observation, came from across the continent. Still, participants from other regions — Asia, North America, the Middle East — were unmissably present.

This contrast is especially striking considering how prominent African narratives are in global blockchain conversations — financial inclusion, cross-border payments, leapfrogging infrastructure — all themes that were discussed at the conference. And yet, African builders and entrepreneurs remain underrepresented.

That raises two critical questions:

• Is Africa being left behind in yet another global economic evolution?
• And if so, will the continent once again become a consumer market — a place where others spot the opportunity first, build the tools, and eventually sell them back to us?

I’ve come to realize, through my own experience, that presence matters. These are the rooms where ideas are exchanged, influence is shaped, and opportunities emerge — often the kind you didn’t even know you were looking for.

But showing up is harder than it sounds. For many Africans, global events remain out of reach, hindered by visa hurdles, steep travel costs, and participation fees that overlook local realities.

The phrase “anyone with the means” in the intro was intentional. Because access is often less about talent or interest, and more about privilege. Until these barriers are named and addressed, inclusion will remain performative.

If Africa is to truly benefit from this wave of innovation, it must act on two fronts. And this isn’t a matter of choosing one over the other:

• The continent needs its own flagship blockchain event, one that welcomes global participation but is rooted in and supported by local ecosystems. That’s a gap we’re actively working to fill at Mariblock. We’ll share more in the coming weeks.
• Its builders must be well represented at global conversations — not occasionally, not by exception, but as a norm.

I do hope to return to Paris next year. But more than that, I hope we’ll see more African builders there — not as exceptions, but as essential voices in the room.