On 4 June, we hosted our first-ever XRPL Meetup in the sunny city of Lisbon, Portugal.
The occasion was the annual NFC (Non Fungible Conference), held in the quirky Unicorn Factory — a former industrial site transformed into one of Lisbon’s most vibrant startup hubs, just a short drive from the city centre.
Lisbon has been a booming tech hub for years. The city has become a magnet for entrepreneurs, developers, creatives, and remote workers from around the world. Portugal introduced its dedicated Digital Nomad Visa (D8) in October 2022, further strengthening its appeal to international talent. Today, Portugal is home to more than 1.5 million foreign residents, and Lisbon remains one of Europe's leading destinations for globally minded builders and founders. This makes it an ideal hotspot for blockchain innovation and the XRP Ledger ecosystem, especially as several founders, partners, and community members from our programmes are already based there.
We were delighted to have our founder, David Bchiri, on stage introducing the XRP Ledger through his own lens, sharing insights relevant to both developers and startups. During his talk, he also announced our ongoing Buildathon, Make Waves.
Make Waves is a challenge by XRPL Commons: a 90-day open challenge for builders to ship live applications on XRPL Mainnet and help grow the ecosystem's user base. The challenge kicks off on 22 June, and we can't wait to see what builders create.
It was also a pleasure to welcome our local partner, Nova SBE, to the stage. Their team highlighted the many opportunities available through the university and its esteemed Blockchain Academy. Their events calendar is packed year-round, so if you're based in Lisbon, make sure to follow their work and join their trainings, workshops, hackathons, and roundtable discussions.
Last but certainly not least, Eslam Anbar, founder of PhiWallet, took the stage to present his business: tokenized gold on the XRPL.
Eslam not only explained the rationale behind investing in gold and tokenizing ownership as a way of helping people build financial security, but also shared a detailed "recipe" for building a successful startup in the blockchain and XRPL ecosystems. His session was packed with practical advice on creating genuinely user-centric products, solving clearly defined problems, and identifying opportunities to scale.
We welcomed around 70 people into the room. Conversations were lively, the food and drinks were flowing, and there was a great synergy between the artsy NFC crowd, local founders and developers, former Aquarium residents, and long-standing community members.
Events like these remind us that the XRPL community is built not only online, but also through meaningful in-person connections between builders, entrepreneurs, and ecosystem supporters.
Até breve, Lisboa — we'll be back.
Want to organise a meetup in your city? Reach out to us at meetup@xrpl-commons.org.
