Reflections from Zebu Live London 2025
Zebu Live has been a great boon for blockchain infrastructure and for London itself.
It felt like the city is back at the centre of something big: the development of a new, blockchain-based financial system that’s starting to deliver real-world results.
Last year was all about AI. Everywhere you turned, someone was promising to reinvent the world with it.
This year the industry feels like it’s back on track. The talk has shifted from hype to projects that deliver real world value.
And the most exciting part is that London’s Fintech innovators are shifting their attention to this, now mature, technology.
The Three Big Topics Everyone Was Talking About
1. Stablecoins
The message around stablecoins was loud and clear: the technology is ready. International payment rails can already be replaced by stablecoins that offer immediate global settlement at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems.
This isn’t something that depends on future regulation, it’s already in play. Companies are building, deploying and scaling right now.
The general feeling was that within the next two to three years, this will move from pilot stage to mainstream use. And when that happens, the world’s payment system changes.
2. BTC Fi
One of the strongest threads throughout the event was Bitcoin finance or BTC Fi.
There’s about $2 trillion currently invested in Bitcoin. Unlocking that capital through new financial tools and products could transform both the crypto sector and the wider financial markets.
It’s a huge opportunity - still early, but growing quickly.
If gold represents roughly $30 trillion in value globally, then Bitcoin clearly has a long way to go. But the sentiment in the room was that now is the time to build the tools that will make BTC a functional part of the global financial system.
As Dan Held (Asymmetric) said:
“BTC Fi is an exciting new source of liquidity. It’s a massive opportunity for the future.”
3. CBDCs
Then there was the uneasy topic: Central Bank Digital Currencies or CBDCs.
You could sense the tension every time it came up. The Web3 community is, understandably, wary of the idea of governments controlling the supply of money. Many see it as a step backwards, a move away from decentralisation.
But the discussion wasn’t black and white.
There’s still a lot of uncertainty about how CBDCs could actually be implemented and that lack of clarity is creating the same kind of concern that’s followed the industry since its earliest days.
My read? The real issue isn’t whether CBDCs are good or bad – it’s about governance. If governments can keep their reach in check, CBDCs could streamline systems and cut inefficiencies. But if they use them as a lever for control, capital and talent will flow to freer economies, leaving others more tightly bound to state oversight.
Voices and Perspectives
There were plenty of opinions shared on stage and a few good one-liners:
Nigel Farage: “I want to bring digital assets and crypto in from the cold in London, to have that regulatory framework under which everybody can operate.”
Joey Garcia (Xapo Bank): “Lack of enforcement capacity will undermine regulations.”
Tommy Dancers (TokenTraxx): “I’m looking forward to a bear market - it takes out a lot of the noise. It allows you to focus on building good tools that solve real problems. We need to get rid of Trump and Farage - I don’t know what the f@*k he’s doing here.”
Declan Fox (Consensys): “We built it to mirror the Ethereum network, think internet vs intranet.”
Adam Chorley (Alkimi Exchange): “Crypto will win when people don’t even know they’re using it.”
That last one stuck with me. Because that’s exactly where this is heading - blockchain so embedded in the infrastructure that users don’t even see it. They just experience faster, cheaper and fairer systems.
London’s Place in All This
A few speakers talked about London’s position in the global ecosystem. There’s a lot going for it - the talent, the infrastructure, the common law system.
But there was also a word of caution: “almost too much arrogance.”
As Joey Garcia (Xapo Bank) pointed out, someone in the UK government remarked:
“We created the internet. We’re the most advanced country, so of course most companies will want to be based here.”
That kind of overconfidence, Joey suggested, could lead to complacence.
The reality is that regulations remain misaligned across the world and that won’t be fixed quickly. Open networks and open thinking will move things forward. Closed networks are a distraction.
The Feeling Leaving the Event
More than anything, Zebu Live felt like a conference where the noise had settled. People weren’t chasing trends, they were solving problems.
Yes, there’s still plenty of nervous energy in the air. But it’s the kind that comes right before something big happens.
Builders are building again.
As Tommy Dancers said, a bear market cuts out the nonsense and lets the people who are serious about the future get on with the work.
And that’s exactly what it felt like this year in London.
