Event Recap – The Bridge 2025, Presented by The Tie

On Wednesday, November 12th, 2025, The Tie hosted the third edition of The Bridge, our annual gathering that brings together people from across TradFi and Crypto to talk honestly about where this space is heading.

More than a thousand attendees from banks, asset managers, trading firms, market makers, foundations, exchanges, and builders joined us at Convene Brookfield Place for a full day of conversations, panels, and high-intent meetings. Throughout the day, more than a hundred speakers shared their views on everything from market structure to governance to tokenization, while hundreds of introductions were made between funds and token teams.

The format this year stayed true to what makes The Bridge work. It was a mix of real conversations, panels led by people who are shaping the industry, and a packed schedule of one-on-one meetings between institutions and crypto projects. By the end of the day, more than 200 funds and 200 crypto projects had met, compared notes, and started new relationships.

Even with the range of sessions, a few ideas kept resurfacing across panels.

In the Future of Stablecoins panel, speakers talked about stablecoins not as a side product but as the settlement layer that a lot of activity now depends on. The discussion also questioned whether stablecoins should be treated as revenue-generating businesses or if their long-term role is closer to basic financial plumbing.

This theme came up in several other conversations whenever liquidity, settlement, or payments were mentioned.

During the fireside chat with SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce, the room leaned in. Her comments about balancing innovation with simple and predictable rules set the tone for many of the regulatory conversations happening throughout the day.

Panels focused on tokenized assets, DATs, and new market structures kept returning to the same idea. Builders will move faster when they understand the boundaries they need to operate within.

During the exclusive session with the Monad and Coinbase team, speakers walked the audience through how token launches are changing in practice. The MON token sale was the first token sale ever hosted directly on Coinbase, and it opened the door for everyday US investors to participate in a primary token sale in a way that has not been possible since the early ICO days.

The conversation explored what this model could mean for future launches, whether exchanges will become the preferred venue for new tokens, and how this shift might affect liquidity, distribution, and the path from private rounds to public access. Other panels referenced this moment too, connecting it to broader questions about market access and how new assets should reach users.

Privacy came up often throughout the day, not as an ideological debate but as something that is becoming necessary for real on-chain activity. Speakers pointed to the renewed interest in networks like Zcash and to the growing number of projects working on privacy tooling. Both builders and institutions are paying close attention to this.

The broader conversations framed privacy as something that will shape how users interact with onchain products, how data is handled, and what kind of protections are needed for broader adoption. Several panels raised this indirectly during discussions about compliance, market structure, and the limitations of current L1 and L2 systems.

Alongside the panels, we also shared updates from our team at The Tie. Attendees got an early look at our new crypto-first messenger Bridge, built for institutions that need a secure and verified way to communicate. Bridge launches January 2026 and you can join the waitlist here. We also previewed the launch of our proprietary fundraising dataset, which has been built from the ground up to give the market a clearer and more reliable view of capital formation in crypto. It’s available to all users of The Tie Terminal and you can read more about it here. 

Across all of these discussions, the energy in the room felt grounded and focused. This was not a conference built on hype or distant predictions. It was a day of people comparing real experiences, talking openly about the problems they are trying to solve, and looking for practical ways to move the industry forward.

Thank you to all our speakers, partners, projects, and sponsors for being a part of The Bridge this year. The conversations and connections that happened in the room are what make this event special, and we are already excited for what comes next.