The fourth edition of the Ibiza Tech Forum took place between May 19 and May 22 across the south of the island, dividing its program between Caló de s’Oli Auditorium, Romeos Hotel, Hotel Bonito Ibiza, Es Jardins de Fruitera and Cova Santa.
After four daysThe forum brought together six tracks – AI, Bank & Fintech, Smart Islands & Smart Mobility, Health Tech, Web3 & Blockchain, and SportTech – but for digital economy companies, the gravity of the event was on Thursday, May 21.
That was the day BeInCrypto took to the main stage.
Ibiza Tech Forum: two panels, one row
BeInCrypto Poland Editor-in-Chief Jakub Dziadkowiec had two sessions of the day’s themeboth at the Caló de s’Oli Auditorium.
First, “On-Chain and Unfiltered,” it was presented as a Stelar Fireside Chat and ended up being exactly that: an exchange, sometimes recklessly with Evan Luther (General Partner at KOL Capital) and Yana Makhnyk (CBDO at Generis) about influence, economy, region and the success of Web3. The conversation refused to entertain the room. It challenged the ideal of corporate meritocracy and instead asked who moves the capital, who creates the influence, and what survives once the noise subsides.
The second was the Digital Assets round – “Redefining Financial Markets: Stablecoins, RWA and Global Futures Markets” – and brought to the table people who build the railway: Sam Buxton (Founder & Chairman, Damex), Víctor Sáez (Director, Development & Strategic Partnerships, Kraken), Nelson Enrique Moran (Founder & Chief Innovation Officer, Trezora), María Sánchez (Investor Relations Specialist, Reental), Erick VA Advisor), Erick VA Advisor Siedentopf (Founder CRS Advisory & Head of Sales at Qapture Investments).
The discussion went beyond what the stablecoin talks about and laid out what infrastructure must be delivered — guarantees of stability, regulation, global economic growth — before any interest can be trusted in the pipeline.
What Thursday told us about European crypto in 2026
Thursday’s program was read as an examination of where the European crypto industry is post-MiCA. The first roundtable on the main stage – straight to the point “No More at Sea: How European Crypto Companies Survived to See MiCA” – brought together MoonPay, Bit2me, Criptan, Bitvavo and Mandioca together with legal advisors from Asensi Abogados. The shared message, heard throughout the day, was that European workers should stop treating the law as an existential threat and begin to see it as a moat.
This change is also reflected in the neighboring sectors. “New Financial Backbone” the group led by the exchange that followed the BeInCrypto cycle, brought Bitget, Bybit EU, Solana Foundation, TradingView and FX Street – the kind of line that would have been considered ambitious two years ago and is now considered a working order. And Dynex CEO Daniela Herrmann’s quantum-computing keynote earlier in the morning emphasized that the company’s frontier is no longer “will crypto survive?” but “what’s next?”
Ibiza Tech Forum 2026: Different types of conferences
The content of the panels was only half of what made the ITF 2026 work. The island shaped the rest.
The opening of the first day at Romeos Hotel was also more like a semi-final of The Next Unicorn starting competition, registering all the events that are reserved: organized during the day, sports and evening. The second day – based on Spanish-language panels on smart travel, AI in business, predictive cities and a personal brand for founders – gave the chance to SportTech in the afternoon, the TradingView business competition at the Hotel Bonito Ibiza, and dinner on the roof of the same place.
The lunch of the third day at Es Jardins de Fruitera and the session of Female Founders & Investors connected the closing program at Cova Santa, a place whose sounds and features do most of the work that other famous places have to do.
The fourth day was reserved for the smallest, most sophisticated group: a boat trip to Formentera, lunch on board, and swimming in crystal clear waters to make the last 72 hours feel like a different experience. This difference is the structure of the ITF – it gives the main workers a reason to stay until Friday, and it gives the discussion that started on stage to continue.
What BeInCrypto got away with
Beyond the two shows, BeInCrypto held about nine interviews and established more than thirty C-level relationships in exchanges, infrastructure providers, asset managers and neighbors – fintech, sport, longevity, AI:
- Teresa Castagnino – CEO and Co-Founder at Like Group Management; Forbes Mexican Caribbean title
- Yossi Goldsmith and Cristo Millar — IKAL
- Iñaki Zubeldia – CEO and Co-Founder at Yoseyomo and Inheritans, and Mayte Clara – Investor & Strategic Partner at Yoseyomo
- Oleg Morgunov – Head of Growth & Partnerships, Europe & LATAM, TradingView
- Jordi Urbea – CEO at Ogilvy Spain
- Javier Pastor – Head of OTC at Bit2me
- Georg Harer – Co-CEO at Bybit EU
- Daniela Herrmann – CEO and Co-Founder at Dynex
- Maria Sanchez – Treasurer at Reental
These discussions will appear in the Study of BeInCrypto in the coming weeks, and several of them followed directly to the questions asked during the main session on Thursday: what the post-MiCA European stack looks like in practice, where the stablecoin and RWA infrastructure go, and the organizations that are ready to work on the chain in 2026 and not in slide sheets.
The decision from the BeInCrypto chair is straightforward. Ibiza Tech Forum 2026 was small enough that you could talk to anyone you wanted to talk to, deep enough that the discussions deserved to be there, and Mediterranean enough that the people you wanted to follow were still on the island three days later. The combination is much rarer than it appears on the scene.
For digital companies, the question after MiCA has not appeared in Europe. That’s where Europe appears. Ibiza, on this evidence, has just made its case.
A note Inside the Ibiza Tech Forum 2026: Stablecoins, RWA and the State of Post-MiCA European Crypto appeared for the first time BeInCrypto.
