What Was UNCHAIN Festival 2024?
The UNCHAIN Festival 2024 was the 3rd edition of Central and Eastern Europe's flagship fintech festival, held at Oradea Fortress in Oradea, Romania, on 19 to 20 June 2024. A two-day outdoor gathering at a medieval fortress, UNCHAIN is unique in the European fintech calendar for combining serious financial industry content with a genuine festival atmosphere. Details sat on the official UNCHAIN Festival website. The 2024 edition brought together 500+ business delegates from 250+ unique companies across 40+ countries — with 70% of attendees from the banking and financial industry, including CEOs, upper management, and key decision-makers.
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Key Themes and Event Highlights
The agenda covered four core pillars of financial innovation: Payments 3.0, AI in Finance, Open Finance, and Digital Transformation — with blockchain woven throughout.
Event Highlights
- Chris Skinner book launch: Fintech legend and author Chris Skinner launched his newest book, Intelligent Money, at UNCHAIN 2024 — his first appearance at the Oradea festival. Skinner's attendance drew significant attention from the European fintech media community.
- CEE fintech associations gathering: Representatives from Spanish, Norwegian, Hungarian, Polish, Bulgarian, Romanian, Czech, and Slovakian fintech associations were all present on stage — an unprecedented cross-regional gathering in a single CEE venue.
- Polish-Romanian Fintech MOU: The Polish and Romanian Fintech Associations signed a Memorandum of Understanding on stage during the festival — one of the event's landmark moments captured widely on social media.
- European Digital Finance Association: Niklas Sandqvist (Co-Secretary General, European Digital Finance Association) attended and spoke, giving the event pan-European policy credibility.
- Binance Romania: Ilie Pușcaș (Country Manager, Binance Romania) attended, reflecting growing institutional crypto presence in the Romanian market.
- Partners and sponsors: Main Partner Visa; Banking Partners Banca Comerciala Romana, Raiffeisen Bank Romania, and Banca Transilvania; RegTech Partners Forvis Mazars and Evrotrust; Technology Partner Google Cloud CEE.
- Festival format: 4 content stages, 3 interaction areas, 70+ speakers, startup pitching competition, and 3+ parties and private events across the two days — making it a genuinely hybrid business-and-social experience.
How Fintech and Blockchain Are Growing in Romania
Romania is an EU member state under MiCA's full framework, applicable from 30 December 2024. The National Bank of Romania (BNR) has been exploring digital payment modernization. Binance's active Country Manager presence signals growing institutional confidence. Oradea itself is a growing tech hub in northwestern Romania, known as the "Silicon Valley of Romania" for its density of software companies per capita. Romania's rapidly expanding tech workforce and EU MiCA compliance position it as one of CEE's most important emerging fintech markets. For more shows, see CoinGabbar's digital asset events page.
Impact of the Festival on CEE's Fintech Ecosystem
UNCHAIN is genuinely unique in CEE: no other event in the region gathers the heads of nine national fintech associations in one outdoor fortress courtyard. The Polish-Romanian MOU signing was a tangible output — not just networking, but a formal cross-border fintech collaboration milestone. Chris Skinner's decision to launch Intelligent Money at UNCHAIN rather than a larger Western European conference was a strong signal of the event's growing prestige.
Why Sponsors, Exhibitors and Projects Should Join
- Banks and payment providers: reach 70% C-suite banking decision-makers across nine CEE markets in a single two-day festival.
- Blockchain and digital asset platforms: engage with Romanian, Polish, Czech, and Hungarian financial institutions actively exploring blockchain for payments and asset management.
- RegTech firms: connect with banks navigating MiCA, GDPR, and AML compliance across nine CEE markets simultaneously.
- Fintech startups: pitch in the startup competition for exposure to 500+ senior banking executives and access to potential funding.
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Why KOLs, Media and Influencers Attend
An outdoor fintech festival inside a medieval fortress in Romania, where Chris Skinner launches a book and nine national fintech associations sign cross-border agreements — UNCHAIN generates compelling European fintech content. Coverage can spread through the crypto press release network.
Why Fintech Professionals and Participants Join
Banking executives come because UNCHAIN connects nine CEE markets in one room — you cannot replicate that density of CEE fintech relationships at a London or Frankfurt summit. Startup founders pitch for access to 500+ senior decision-makers. And the outdoor fortress setting makes for networking that people remember.
Tickets and PR Offers With CoinGabbar
CoinGabbar covers major European fintech and blockchain events. Free or discounted press release publishing is available for fintech and Web3 projects. Email event@coingabbar.io.
How the Festival Concluded and What Came Next
UNCHAIN 2024 closed after two days of policy, payments, and AI content punctuated by the Polish-Romanian MOU signing, Chris Skinner's book launch, and the startup competition finale. The 4th edition returned in June 2025 at Oradea Fortress. Track upcoming shows on the crypto events calendar and our digital asset events page.
Glossary of Key Terms
- Chris Skinner: A British fintech author, blogger, and commentator — author of multiple books including Digital Bank, ValueWeb, and Intelligent Money — widely regarded as one of Europe's most influential fintech voices.
- MOU (Memorandum of Understanding): A formal agreement between organizations outlining their intention to cooperate, without binding legal obligations — signed between the Polish and Romanian Fintech Associations at UNCHAIN 2024.
- CEE: Central and Eastern Europe — including Romania, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia, and the Baltic states — a fast-growing fintech region with expanding EU regulatory integration.
- Payments 3.0: The emerging generation of payment infrastructure featuring real-time processing, instant interoperability, open APIs, and blockchain settlement rails.
- EDFA: European Digital Finance Association — an EU-level body representing the fintech industry in policy discussions with the European Commission and Parliament.
Disclaimer
This page is for general information only. It is not financial, legal, or investment advice. The event described was held in June 2024; future dates may differ. Verify with the official source and do your own research.
