🍌 Gateway 2026: where did the hype go?
⚫️ It has been six days since ticket sales started for the ecosystem's main conference — Gateway 2026. If we compare these first days with the same period last time, the dynamics look depressing. In 2024, the first 60 tickets were sold out literally in the first two hours, creating a sense of hype and scarcity. Now the process is moving much more sluggishly, and there are several quite obvious reasons for this.
⚫️ One reason is symbolic: the sales format itself. Many were surprised that a ticket to a crypto conference can only be bought for fiat. For previous Gateways, tickets were issued as NFTs, which could attract not only real participants but also those trying to earn on resale. An NFT ticket was not just a pass, but an asset, an item for bragging rights, and a tool for earning. The current format is just a ticket. Boring, less functional, and absolutely non-native for the blockchain environment that the conference is meant to represent.
⚫️ However, the ticket problem is half the trouble. For most potential guests, the main expenses are not the entrance ticket, but the flight, accommodation in Dubai, and related costs. In the bull market of 2024, these costs did not stop many, but today the general atmosphere in the industry forces people to "tighten their belts." For enthusiasts from the CIS, the conference dates (May 1-2) also coincide with the May holidays, which means air ticket prices are skyrocketing.
⚫️ A separate question is future sponsors. Now the cost of a package for a project is $189,000, and despite the perks included in it, only a few can afford such an amount in the current market conditions. This is a rhetorical question to which the market is already giving an answer. Many projects that shone at Gateway 2024 have either quietly ceased to exist, relocated to other ecosystems, or significantly reduced activity.
⚫️ As a result, we are observing the classic work of crowd psychology, but in reverse. Potential participants see that only a few dozen tickets have been sold in a week, and their brain makes a simple conclusion: "If no one is buying, it means the event is not worth it." The FOMO effect is not working now because there is simply no basis for it — that very initial hype. Expectations from the conference, judging by announcements, have grown, while community interest, judging by figures, has conversely fallen.
👁 Will the situation change in the run-up, or will Gateway 2026 become a symbol of general cooling towards the ecosystem? We await your thoughts and forecasts in the comments.
