Buenos Aires has a unique vibe. It is a city where European elegance collides with Latin American intensity, a place where economic theory is not an abstract concept discussed in ivory towers, but a concrete, daily struggle to preserve values. Therefore, it is no coincidence that this metropolis was chosen to host Devconnect 2025. Argentina, a country synonymous with both monetary volatility and people-driven crypto adoption, provided the perfect backdrop for an industry that is finally maturing.
If previous years in the crypto cycle were characterized by noise, spectacular events, and dazzling lights from speculative mania – not unlike a casino in Las Vegas – Buenos Aires provided a strong and sober contrast. The air did not smell of “easy money” and castles in the air, but of strong coffee and serious engineering. Here the narrative changed. We are no longer making toys for the rich and restless; we are building infrastructure for a world that is unraveling at the seams.
To navigate this deep shift, we gathered insights from key industry builders: Arthur Firstov (Mercuryo CBO), who focused on the privacy mandate; Vivien Lin (BingX CPO), who described the integration of AI into trading ecosystems; and Ivan Machena (8lends CCO), who provided a critical assessment of Layer-2 adoption.
Through extensive backroom conversations with these leaders, a clear picture emerged. We are entering a new epoch. This is the story of how privacy became a mandate, how artificial intelligence demands its place at the financial table, and how global diversity finally shattered the myth of the “archetypal user.”
The privacy mandate: From feature to foundation
The most powerful message from Buenos Aires was not broadcast with fireworks or star-studded celebrities. It was whispered in the tight technical workshops and overcrowded hacker residences. The message is simple: Openness is a feature, but total exposure is a weakness.
In Bangkok, at previous gatherings, privacy was just a “track,” a side project visited by cypherpunks and idealists. In Buenos Aires, it was the main attraction. The industry has collectively realized that without privacy there is no mass adoption, only mass surveillance.
Arthur Firstov, Chief Business Officer at Mercuryo, captures this paradigm shift perfectly. When he reflects on which research areas dominated the event, he points to a clear temperature shift.
“Privacy was the defining theme,” asserts Firstov, before he continues:
“Compared to Bangkok, where privacy was just an important track, Buenos Aires lifted this to the main stage.”
His observation aligns with a sentiment that permeated all arenas during the conference. A verbal slogan began to circulate in the coworking spaces and lecture halls, becoming the unofficial motto of Devconnect 2025:
“If your wallet does not have privacy protection by default, it is outdated.”
This is not a technological trend, but a reaction to an increasingly transparent world where financial data is weaponized. Firstov points out that the tone was set from the top, with Vitalik Buterin providing a “review of his own privacy stack, from operating system and mobile to private RPC.”
But the important development is about how this technology is now packaged. It is no longer interfaces for the particularly interested; it is about invisibility.
Firstov explains:
“Developers focused on stealth addresses, smart AA [Account Abstraction] patterns, selective sharing, and ‘creating better standard choices so that the user does not even notice how much complexity is managed underneath the surface.'”
This “invisibility” is the great goal. The user does not want to understand zero-knowledge proofs; they just want to know that the bank balance is not publicly accessible.
Alongside the focus on privacy, Firstov saw a pragmatic development in DeFi: the emergence of “pre-confirmations for stablecoin payments that feel immediate” and new revenue models offering “simple, money-market experiences without being fully degenerate.” The industry is moving away from 10,000% APY Ponzi schemes towards boring, reliable, and private finance.
“Black box” controversy: Who do we trust?
No revolution is without internal divisions. Although consensus on the need for privacy was total, the way to achieve this triggered the week's most heated debates. The focal point was dependence on Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs), hardware-based secure zones.
Does the future of privacy lie in cryptographic math or in silicon production?
Firstov describes this split as the “most unexpected or controversial technical debate” at the conference. On one side stood the pragmatists. He elaborates:
“One group believed that TEEs are ‘practically necessary for high capacity, low latency, and private computations,’ especially for private settlements, derivative strategies, and agent-driven executions.”
The argument is compelling: If we want Wall Street speed on the blockchain, pure mathematics may become too slow. We need hardware acceleration.
But the opposition was loud, principled, and strongly skeptical. Firstov relays their warning: “If the trust model becomes ‘trust this black box in a data center,’ crypto does not do much more than traditional finance.”
If we just replace the bank's server with Intel's SGX enclave, have we really decentralized anything?
This led to an unresolved meta-question that will likely shape research priorities for the rest of the decade:
“How much of the world's stablecoin and payment systems are we comfortable running on obscure hardware... and what does ‘sufficiently trust-minimized’ really mean in this context?”
The rise of machines: AI as the new financial architect
While cryptographers discussed hardware trust, another giant quietly crept into the crypto stack: artificial intelligence. Devconnect 2025 was not just about the ledger; it was about the inevitable marriage between the decentralized database and the autonomous brain.
Vivien Lin, product director and head of BingX Labs, provided a perspective from the front lines of centralized exchanges (CEXs), which are rapidly evolving into something far more complex. For her, the main theme was indisputable.
Lin states:
“The main theme for me was the integration of AI into exchange infrastructure and the insight that exchanges are evolving into complete financial ecosystems – not just trading applications.”
She paints a picture of a future where AI serves as the glue in the financial world.
“Developers focused on how AI can consolidate trading, storage, payments, risk management, and user knowledge into one unified ‘superapp’ experience.”
But, just like the TEE debate within privacy, the integration of AI brings its own security paradox. How can one trust an AI with their life savings? Lin notes a strong focus on “secure, verifiable systems, including privacy-friendly computation and blockchain-based proofs, so that AI-driven functionalities do not come at the expense of user data or money security.”
The goal is to create ecosystems that are “both intelligent and highly secure, providing users with more automation and context without sacrificing trust.” But the most fascinating conflict point, according to Lin, was not about capacity, but about autonomy.
“The major point of conflict was how much autonomy AI agents should actually have in trading environments,” explains Lin. The debate split the meeting.
She adds:
“Some developers believed agents should manage liquidity, rebalance portfolios, or place orders without human oversight. Others warned that giving AI unrestricted access to execution layers could create systemic risk.”
The core of the disagreement touches on the very role of humans in the markets: “Should AI be a co-pilot for traders or a fully autonomous participant in the market structure?” In Buenos Aires, it seemed that consensus was moving towards autonomy, given that the security lines of cryptography are strong enough to hold it in place.
Geography is destiny, lessons from the global south
Perhaps the most transformative aspect of Devconnect 2025 was the very location. Hosting this event in Argentina forced the global developer community into reality. While developers in Silicon Valley are busy optimizing code for milliseconds, people in Buenos Aires are focused on preserving the value of earned income against inflation.
Arthur Firstov observed how this radical variation shifted the conversation from theoretical scaling to survival tools. “Devconnect brought radically different user priorities into the same room,” he says.
“Latin American teams highlighted everyday use such as ‘wallets on affordable smartphones’ and rent or salaries paid in stablecoins,” adds Firstov, continuing:
“In contrast, Asian and American infrastructure teams focused on “perpetual futures, routing, MEV, and latency.”
This collision of worlds forced a synthesis. The conversation moved away from simple “Transactions Per Second” (TPS) bragging rights and towards user experience and practical implementation. Firstov lists the questions that actually matter now:
“How can smart wallets hide complexity so that users experience it as a regular fintech app? How do we support both ‘high-frequency trading flows and monthly salary payments’ without compromising trust or security?”
The biggest realization? “There is no typical crypto user.”
Vivien Lin shares this sentiment, noting how the Argentine presence grounded the high-flying technical discussions.
“The diversity of developers – especially the strong Argentine representation – shifted the discussion to real challenges related to adoption in practice, and not just on theoretical scaling.”
Argentine builders did not want to talk about monetary philosophy. They wanted to solve immediate problems.
Lin explains:
“Argentine developers raised challenges with inflation, capital restrictions, and the need for fast settlement networks that work reliably in volatile economies.”
This expanded view of what an exchange should be, and pushed forward “AI-driven ecosystems that address both local limitations and larger challenges like fragmented regulations, cross-border liquidity, and mobile-first onboarding.”
What is actually being built? Infrastructure over hype
Aside from the philosophical and geographical, we must ask: where are developers actually launching code?
Ivan Machena, Chief Communication Officer at 8lends, provides a sober look at the landscape. The time of “ghost chains” – blockchains with high value but no users – is over. The focus is now on ecosystems that support real products.
“Looking at the industry discussions around Devconnect,” notes Machena, “more layer-2 and application-layer projects continue to attract broad interest among developers.”
On the consumer side, Machena highlights Base. This is often cited for its “rapid growth and efficient onboarding infrastructure” and has become the gateway for private users. In the DeFi segment, Arbitrum retains its position as the “preferred choice thanks to its mature ecosystem and composability,” while Polygon remains the standard for teams seeking balance.
However, Machena points out a migration towards the technically superior.
“There is also increasing attention around zk-based solutions like zkSync and StarkNet, especially from teams looking to build more technically demanding or long-term products. The trend is clear: Discussions around Devconnect point towards L2s that already support actual products, not just experimental concepts.”
Arthur Firstov adds yet another layer to this adoption map, referencing the privacy and “agent-native” sectors. He points out Aztec as receiving “great attention as a privacy-focused environment where products can be ‘private by default, selectively transparent where needed.’”
Crucially, Firstov highlights Privacy Pools as the bridge between the cypherpunk ideal and institutional reality. It has emerged as a “compliance-aware solution… a ‘practical answer to what privacy can look like when regulators and serious capital have to thrive with it.’”
Furthermore, the physical world is moving onto the blockchain. Firstov points to a trend where teams are building DePIN (Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Networks)-style storage and compute services paid in stablecoins, “with the goal of making crypto as easy to use as traditional cloud APIs.”
Outlook 2026: From casino to cathedral
As participants at Devconnect 2025 leave Buenos Aires and return to their respective corners of the world, the atmosphere is undoubtedly different. The industry is maturing. The cultural spirit during the event, with small, technical, and community-driven sessions instead of large marketing shows, is now shaping the narrative for the coming year.
Arthur Firstov predicts a fundamental crossroads in how we tell the story of crypto:
“Expect the stories in 2026 to reflect this shift, ‘infrastructure story instead of casino story,’ ‘stablecoins as the front page for crypto,’ and privacy as a given.”
This is a vision of a world where crypto is no longer synonymous with gambling, but becomes the invisible, solid infrastructure of the global financial system. The questions are no longer about token prices. As Firstov says, the growing question is: “Which Web2–Web3 integrations will actually launch and make a real difference for users?”
Vivien Lin agrees, looking forward to interconnected ecosystems rather than walled gardens.
“It reinforced the view that the future of crypto trading will be ecosystem-first. This attitude is pushing the industry towards interconnected, AI-driven trading ecosystems where liquidity, identity, execution, and strategy automation become increasingly intertwined as we move towards 2026.”
Buenos Aires was a stress test for the soul of crypto. The industry did not pass by coming up with simple answers, but by finally asking the right, difficult questions. We leave here with fewer illusions, but with better tools. The “casino narrative” is dead; the “infrastructure narrative” has begun. And for the first time in a long time, it feels like we are building something that will last.
