TezDev 2025: Catalyst

New site, new location — same mission.

The countdown is on: TezDev 2025 lands in Cannes on July 3, bringing the Tezos community together for a day packed with demos, discussions, and creative expression. The new landing page is now live at tezos.com/events/tez-dev, giving attendees their first glimpse at what to expect from this year’s gathering.

Set against the stunning backdrop of Hôtel Martinez, right on the Boulevard de la Croisette, this year’s event is more than a conference, it’s a catalyst.

From breakout talks to ecosystem showcases, TezDev: Catalyst will explore how Tezos teams are lowering barriers for developers, pushing the limits of user experience, and building for what comes next. Attendees can expect:

• Developer sessions highlighting the latest tools and frameworks.

• First-look demos of upcoming projects across DeFi, gaming, art, and beyond.

• A curated dive into Tezos art — a nod to Tezos’ significant role in the art world.

Last year’s TezDev brought together over 700 attendees in Brussels, with names like Arthur Breitman, Justin Drake, and Tarun Chitra sharing their perspectives on where this space is headed. Expect 2025 to go even bigger.

Secure your spot now and be part of the momentum:
Register here.

State of Tezos: Q1 2025

Growth on Etherlink, real-world assets, and a network shifting into high gear

A new quarter, a new benchmark. According to Messari’s latest State of Tezos report, Q1 2025 marked a major turning point for the ecosystem driven by protocol upgrades, real-world asset traction, and an undeniable surge on Etherlink.

Let’s break it down:

• Quebec upgrade activated: The 17th Tezos protocol upgrade went live in January, cutting block times from 10 to 8 seconds and introducing refinements to staking parameters and Adaptive Issuance.

• Data Availability Layer gains momentum: While still pending activation, the groundwork for DAL is in motion — setting the stage for massive rollup throughput improvements.

• Etherlink steps into the spotlight:

  • TVL soared 6,200% QoQ to $10.8M

  • Monthly transactions averaged 1.4M, a 189% increase

  • Transaction fees on Etherlink (10,302 XTZ) outpaced Tezos Layer 1 (8,500 XTZ) for the first time

  • Apple Farm helped fuel the rise, bringing DeFi and yield-hunters into the fold

• Real-world assets on-chain:

  • Uranium.io hit $6.7M in TVL by tokenizing uranium

  • Spiko Finance launched tokenized Euro bills

  • Hanji Protocol brought remittances to the underbanked with $3.37M in TVL

• Ecosystem growth:

  • 167+ active devs

  • Fortify Labs’ second cohort is underway

  • Trailblazers activated contributors with task-based rewards

  • Cross-chain liquidity deepened with $2.8M+ bridged from other EVM chains

• NFTs and culture still thriving:

  • Genuary campaign by @editart_xyz minted 10.6K NFTs

  • MoMI’s Compositions in Code showcased generative works in NYC

  • New platforms like @infiniteink_art are reimagining smart contract publishing for creators

Meanwhile, the validator landscape stayed steady and secure: active validator stake climbed 9.5%, bringing total stake to 97M XTZ. And as Etherlink gears up for more throughput and DAL integration, all signs point to a network laying serious groundwork for scale.

So what does it all mean?

Tezos is growing in a very Tezos way, not by hype cycles, but by deploying resilient infrastructure, surfacing real use cases, and enabling builders to shift the experience of what blockchains can do. From Apple Farm yields to tokenized uranium, this quarter shows that the foundations laid in 2023 and 2024 are beginning to deliver in 2025.

For the full deep dive, check out the full Q1 2025 report from Messari.

This Week in the Tezos Ecosystem

Tezos at Consensus 2025: Builders, Bytes, and Breakfast

The week kicked off with a bang at Futurist Conference on May 13, where Arthur Breitman introduced JSTZ, Tezos’ native JavaScript environment built for Web3 developers. In a concise but powerful talk titled Justice for All!, Arthur made the case for bringing the full JavaScript ecosystem onchain—no VM translations, no workarounds. Just JavaScript, running natively on Tezos Smart Rollups.

The next day, May 14, Arthur took to the Protocol Village stage to spotlight Uranium.io, a permissionless platform for tokenized uranium ownership. The talk, Uranium On-Chain: Enabling Access to New Markets outlined how Etherlink is making real-world assets like uranium tradable with near-instant settlement and 24/7 access. The big idea? If there’s no market for it, build one.

Meanwhile, throughout the conference, the Tezos and Etherlink booth (#2829) served as home base for the ecosystem. Visitors dropped by for Apple Farm demos, lively technical discussions, and the now-infamous uranium merch drop that had attendees asking, “Do you own uranium?”

The momentum continued on May 15 with a cozy morning at the Tezos Breakfast Club. Builders, contributors, and curious newcomers gathered over coffee and croissants at 11:59 Bar:Café, keeping the conversations flowing before another full day at the conference.

Later that afternoon, Cédric Roche of Nomadic Labs joined the Real Assets, Real Yield panel at INNOVATE TORONTO, hosted by The Tie. The discussion focused on how institutional players are leaning into real-world asset tokenization—and why platforms like Tezos and Etherlink are shaping that shift.

From thought leadership to technical breakthroughs and IRL community connection, Tezos brought substance and style to Toronto.

Dionysus Proposal Injected: A Call to Bakers

Following a strong showing at Consensus, the Tezos community is shifting focus to the next big milestone for Etherlink: the Dionysus upgrade.

Dionysus, the fourth kernel proposal for Etherlink mainnet, has officially been injected and is now in the Proposal period. This upgrade represents a critical leap forward—addressing key issues around gas pricing during periods of network congestion, improving support for large transactions, and enabling faster token withdrawals.

This is the most ambitious Etherlink upgrade to date. If adopted, Dionysus will make the network significantly more resilient during high activity and pave the way for more efficient scaling through tighter integration with the Tezos Data Availability Layer (DAL).

Bakers, your participation is needed. You can vote using either the Octez CLI or by interacting directly with the governance contracts on Better Call Dev. The hash for the Dionysus proposal is:

0x0008105ea6fb0e4331d7bbc93f0e8843ae91eeb235741054cb2b345ac2d19b9ec9 

Voting Timeline:

• Proposal Period: May 13 – May 15

• Promotion Period: May 15 – May 18

For detailed instructions on how to cast your vote (via CLI or Better Call Dev), see the full guide shared by the Etherlink team here.

As the Etherlink ecosystem grows—crossing over $30M in TVL—these protocol-level refinements are what ensure it scales with confidence. Dionysus is not just another upgrade; it’s about reinforcing performance, fairness, and usability for the long road ahead.

Let your voice count. Vote Dionysus.

Upcoming Events

The Digital Art Mile in Basel

June 16–22, 2025 | Basel, Switzerland

This summer, Tezos heads to the heart of Basel for The Digital Art Mile, a week-long exploration of digital creativity woven through the city’s historic center.

Expect a vibrant circuit of exhibitions, talks, and immersive experiences that bring together top artists, collectors, galleries, and platforms—bridging the worlds of traditional and digital art. With Tezos as a recognized home for generative and digital artists, this is a key moment to connect with the community pushing boundaries in the space.

More info: artmeta.org

🔴 Now Streaming: : Identity, Ownership & Pixel Art on Tezos with MEK

This week on TezTalks Radio, Marissa Trew sits down with Michael Alexander, better known as MEK, pixel artist, developer, and one of the minds behind Sbjkt.xyz. From his design roots to building tools that empower digital artists, MEK shares how Tezos helped shape his artistic voice and his vision for the future of Web3 creativity.

Our special guest is MEK, where pixel art meets purposeful tech on Tezos.

🔍 In this episode, we’ll explore:

MEK’s Artistic Path: – How a personal transformation turned a designer into a full-time artist.

Why Tezos: – The role of community, accessibility, and creative freedom in MEK’s decision to build here.

The Sbjkt.xyz Mission: – A collector-first tool simplifying how art is tracked, viewed, and understood.

Art Meets Utility: – Building for artists and collectors, with feedback from the community at the center. People mentioned

Watch the full episode on YouTube.