Marrakech – Dubai will host the 17th edition of Blockchain Life on December 1 and 2, gathering the global cryptocurrency, blockchain, and artificial intelligence industries at Festival Arena in Dubai Festival City. The forum, established in 2017, runs alongside the co-located AI Future Forum, and every ticket category includes access to both events.
The organizers expect more than 15,000 attendees from over 130 countries, 200-plus speakers, 200-plus sponsors, and more than 200 exhibition booths.
The program opens on December 1 with registration and the exhibition from 8:00 a.m., followed by the opening ceremony and conference sessions at 10:00 a.m. On December 2, registration reopens at 8:30 a.m., with the Startup Pitch and Blockchain Life Awards scheduled for the afternoon. All times are local to Dubai.
Content spans cryptocurrencies, Web3, digital finance, institutional investment, Bitcoin mining, artificial intelligence, regulation, security, and entrepreneurship. The preliminary December 1 agenda lists sessions on institutional crypto acquisitions, next-generation exchanges, crypto privacy in an era of AI and quantum computing, stablecoin payment cards, decentralized compute infrastructure, and tokenized real-world assets.
The preliminary program names Blockchain Life founder Sergei Khitrov, also founder of Listing Help and Jets Capital, who delivers the opening keynote, alongside Bybit co-founder and CEO Ben Zhou, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, DWF Labs managing partner Andrei Grachev, Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz, VeChain co-founder and CEO Sunny Lu, Mastercard’s Rajat Sakhuja, Ripple’s Luke Judges, MEXC CEO Vugar Usi Zade, and Kaiko CEO Ambre Soubiran.
The confirmed lineup also includes Maelstrom CIO Arthur Hayes, crypto whale Garret “Bullish” Jin, Animoca Brands co-founder and executive chairman Yat Siu, The Spartan Group co-founder and managing partner Kelvin Koh, Rockstar Games co-founder Jamie King, Ethereum Institutional co-founder Marius Smith, Trust Wallet CEO Felix Fan, BlackRock’s Tony Ashraf, Circle managing director international Saeeda Jaffar, and Daniil and David Liberman, creators of Gonka ai.
The agenda further references figures from Galaxy Digital, KuCoin, Coin Bureau, and BCG.
The exhibition will be arranged across the Space Stage, the MEXC Stage, and the AI Future Stage, with networking areas, an outdoor food court, and a VIP lounge. Announced exhibitors include MEXC, OKX, EMCD, BingX, Bitget, and MicroBT.
The Startup Pitch on December 2 invites selected companies to present before investors and venture capital representatives, with a projected audience of around 1,000. Participation is paid: a three-minute pitch costs $4,900, and a six-minute pitch costs $6,900.
The Blockchain Life Awards recognize companies and projects across more than 30 categories through free public online voting. Voting opens on November 9, closes on November 27, and the ceremony takes place on December 2.
The wider Blockchain Life & AI Future Week runs from November 27 through December 6, with side events, business meetings, and networking gatherings. The organizers put the number of side events between 100 and 300-plus. The official afterparty begins at 9:00 p.m. on December 2 and expects more than 1,300 VIP guests and speakers.
Tickets range from a Standard pass at $189 to a Business pass at $329 and a VIP pass at $999, with prices rising before the event. Payments are processed in UAE dirhams, so the final checkout amount may differ slightly. The event’s networking app becomes available to ticket holders on November 10.
Partner hotels include the InterContinental Dubai Festival City, Crowne Plaza, and Holiday Inn & Suites. Practical provisions cover free parking, simultaneous interpretation, a prayer room, and an online request for an invitation letter, though the organizers note that such a letter does not guarantee a UAE visa.
Blockchain Life is organized by a Dubai-registered entity, JETS CAPITAL EVENTS ORGANIZING AND MANAGING EST., with founder Sergei Khitrov and the Listing.Help and Jets.Capital network.
The organizers reported that the October 2025 edition drew 16,730 participants, more than 160 speakers, and 200 booths, and featured an appearance by Telegram founder Pavel Durov, who introduced a decentralized AI computing project called Cocoon.
