TL;DR No one really knows where Central Eastern Europe (CEE) begins or ends. Such a mysterious region. Definitions blur depending on who you ask. Sometimes we are post-Soviet, sometimes we are Balkans, sometimes just “East of Germany.” or simply “Soviet Russia”. People still confuse Slovakia with Slovenia, Czechia with Chechnya, Austria with Australia and Hungary… well, they are always hungry for builders. Romania still has vampires, Serbs Novak, Bulgarians dragons, others have beaches.
Yet somehow, through all this beautiful stereotypes and confusion, the Ethereum community here is quietly building one of the most vibrant and overlooked grassroots ecosystems in whole Web3 space. With this article we aim to explain that: CEE doesn’t mean Central Eastern Europe anymore. It means Central Ethereum Europe. Because while the spotlight has been elsewhere, this part of the world has been heads down, building.
We in Slovakia 🇸🇰, with our ETHBratislava are trying to bring this energy together. The location of the city puts us right in the heart of CEE, yes, geographically, but hopefully also community-wise. In last two years, we organized conference, hackathon, meetups, movie nights, book clubs and brought ETHBratislava presence to Devcon SEA in Bangkok. We expanded east to Košice together with Pararelná Polis Košice, building a second hub for education and meetups.
In neighbouring Czechia 🇨🇿, only a few cities worldwide can match the pace of ETHPrague, whose main event (June 7-9, 2024) brought world-class speakers and builders via ETHGlobal. Next to them, ETHCzech keeps the engine running year-round in Brno and beyond with workshops, meetups, dev education, and community growth from the ground up.
In the south, Hungary 🇭🇺, Ethereum Hungary hosts monthly developer meetups in Budapest, with a rich knowledge base open to anyone looking to onboard into Ethereum.
In Austria 🇦🇹, ETHVienna is small, but growing fast, with their researchers and devs, many of whom regularly participate in hackathons around the region.
Northerners in Poland 🇵🇱 are building momentum too their ETHWarsaw (August 29-30, 2024) combines a major conference and hackathon every year, bringing together builders and investors to showcase the country’s booming Ethereum scene.
Brave Ukraine 🇺🇦 & ETHKyiv continues to build, educate and contribute, despite facing ongoing invasion and hardship. At ETHBratislava, we had the honor of welcoming many Ukrainian hackers, speakers and projects.
In Slovenia 🇸🇮, ETHSlovenia is one of the region’s rising stars. Their meetups are growing stronger every month and proving that even smaller countries in CEE are growing real Ethereum dev bases.
Going south, things keep heating up:
Romania 🇷🇴 has multiple communities. ETHCluj (June 26-28, 2025) steadily grows the local scene in Transylvania & beyond, while ETHBucharest (May 22-24, 2025) is pushing a world-class hackathon and conference level for the entire region.
Serbia 🇷🇸 shines with ETHBelgrade,(June 3-7. 2025) one of the strongest regional forces blending developers, startups and crypto-native builders into one hub.
Bulgaria 🇧🇬 is not sleeping either, ETHSofia is growing fast with their hackathon and conference (Sept 23-25, 2025). bringing AI & blockchain closer together.
Croatia 🇭🇷 is represented by the BlockSplit and Zagreb’s active Ethereum dev community is organizing regular local meetups.
North Macedonia 🇲🇰 is quietly building its base with ETHMacedonia, hosting meetups and slowly growing its local scene, one block at a time.
What connects us all isn’t money or hype. It’s the fact that many of us started out building out of necessity, without VC capital, grants and sometimes without much recognition at all. Many people who show up, do so because they care. They show up after work. On weekends. In cafes, coworking spaces or basements. In many cases, it’s not about following narratives, it’s simply about building what is needed.
This is what makes Central Ethereum Europe so unique. We are not chasing trends. But are chasing products. Not copy-pasting ecosystems but experimenting. We are not waiting for permission. We do the work.