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Serbia Ethereum Ecosystem Overview
This month, let's explore Serbia's thriving Ethereum ecosystem.
Special thanks to Bogdan Jovicevic, Petar Popovic and Tanja Mladenovic for the review and the feedback.
Tl;dr
Serbia has become a leading blockchain hub in Eastern Europe, driven by early innovators like MVP Workshop, Tenderly and DeFi Saver, with a strong focus on Ethereum development.
A dynamic ecosystem thrives through collaboration between startups, grassroots communities, academia, and ventures, with companies actively giving back to foster growth.
Key players like MVP Workshop and Tenderly lead with cutting-edge Ethereum solutions, supported by a robust developer talent pool skilled in engineering and mathematics.
Progressive policies, such as the Digital Assets Law create a supportive environment for blockchain innovation.
Despite government support, Serbian startups face challenges in raising venture capital compared to EU member states, limiting their ability to scale.
Policy
Digital Assets Law (2020): Serbia’s Law on Digital Assets, effective December 2020 and implemented by mid-2021, legalized cryptocurrency trading, issuance, and mining. It regulates virtual currencies (including Ethereum) and digital tokens, providing legal protection for transactions. The National Bank of Serbia (NBS) oversees virtual currency services, while the Serbian Securities Commission (SSC) handles token investments, ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering (AML) and counter-terrorist financing (CTF) rules.
Taxation: Crypto transactions not involving fiat conversion are VAT-exempt, making Serbia tax-friendly for Ethereum users. Capital gains tax (15%) applies to profits from ETH sales, with deductions available for reinvesting in Serbian companies within 90 days. Mining costs are deductible if documented, but the lack of a standardized tax return form for digital assets has caused minor delays.
Society and Culture
Resilience and Innovation
Serbia’s history of economic and political challenges, including 1990s international sanctions, hyperinflation, and restricted access to global payment systems like PayPal and Stripe in their early days, has fostered a resilient, problem-solving culture. Political instability from the Yugoslav wars and slow EU integration pushed developers toward crypto like Ethereum for cross-border transactions, spurring early Web3 innovation. This “underdog mentality”, a drive to succeed despite adversity, as noted by Ivan Bjelajac, ex-MVP Workshop (now with Tenderly), fuels Serbian developers to create globally competitive solutions from day one.
Community and Collaboration: Giving It Back
Serbian culture's emphasis on mutual support during challenging times indirectly shapes its blockchain ecosystem. Events like Belgrade Blockchain Week and ETH Belgrade unite local and global Web3 communities for knowledge-sharing and networking, reflecting values of openness and collaboration. Major players like Tenderly, Decenter, MVP Workshop, and Ethernal actively support the local community through educational programs such as the Petnica Ethereum bootcamp, by mentoring and hiring top mathematics and computer science talents, and by sponsoring grassroots hackathons and conferences like ETH Belgrade. This commitment to community development strengthens Serbia's position as an emerging Ethereum development hub.
Local Grassroots Communities
ETHBelgrade: ETH Belgrade hosts regular meetups, Solidity workshops, ZK and Security bootcamps, monthly coworking sessions, and the annual ETH Belgrade conference and hackathon. These grassroots activities, led by Petar, Tanja and the local community, have established Belgrade as a regional Ethereum hub.
Garaža by Tenderly: A community of Serbian tech startup founders, initiated by Tenderly cofounders to strengthen the local startup ecosystem. It focuses on three main pillars: connection, education, and startup promotion, focusing on peer exchange with the goal of giving back and promoting pay-it-forward culture.
Web3Academy: An offline and online free educational initiative that introduces Ethereum and Web3 to technical high school students, university students, and junior developers looking to enter the Ethereum ecosystem.
Belgrade Blockchain Week (3–5 June 2025): A week-long gathering featuring ETH Belgrade, the CEE region’s premier Ethereum conference and hackathon. These events connect Web3 founders, builders, and enthusiasts, fostering innovation and collaboration.
Serbia hosts numerous Ethereum and blockchain startups with different specializations. Here are some of the most prominent ones:
Tenderly: A leading Ethereum developer tooling and infrastructure platform that supports creation, testing, and monitoring of every stage of the smart contract lifecycle, providing fundamental framework for developer onboarding to the Ethereum technology stack.
DeFi Saver: An advanced DeFi platform product that provides hassle-free user experience and gateway to DeFi—enabling users to create, manage, and track DeFi positions across various protocols. Available on Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base and Optimism.
Decenter: An R&D center and project incubator (behind DeFi Saver) focused on building Ethereum-based products, including dApps and DeFi solutions.
Attic42: A venture builder focused on Web3 products, contributing to Ethereum’s ecosystem through startup launches like MVP Workshop, Route3 and innovation hubs.
MVP Workshop: A Web3 venture builder and developer workshop instrumental in creating over 50 blockchain products, including work on Polygon and Celsius Network. The company was founded by Malisa Pusonja and Ivan Bjelajac and played a pivotal role in Polygon's development before part of its team was acquired by Celsius to form their Belgrade development center. Some of the notable MVP Product Suite includes:
3327: An R&D digital collective focused on developing cutting-edge Web3 technologies with an emphasis on Ethereum-based solutions, backed by MVP Workshop.
Bizzllet: A self-custody wallet for organizations and individuals powered by Account Abstraction and MPC technology, designed to work with Ethereum and other networks.
Polygon Nightfall
Ethernal: Blockchain engineering studio and research hub that designs, builds and audits high-performance distributed-ledger systems for enterprise and public-sector clients, with particular expertise in Ethereum infrastructure.
Ponos Technology: Highly specialized research and development studio, providing proving-as-a-service solutions for the emerging proving market, as well as full-stack solutions for modular, highly optimized blockchain infrastructure.
OriginTrail: Enterprise team of innovators building the Decentralized Knowledge Graph to turn data into discoverable and verifiable “Knowledge Assets” for supply-chain, AI systems, and other complex, trust-critical applications. Recognized by powerhouses like Google and Microsoft, their work serves as a bright example of decentralization paradigm and blockchain technology applied in the fundamental Web2 sectors.
TX Fusion: Innovative blockchain development team building infrastructure, developing products, and assisting projects in onboarding to enhance the utilization of Zero-Knowledge across Ethereum and Bitcoin ecosystems. A Serbian sister company of Shard Labs.
Thales Market: An Ethereum protocol enabling the creation of peer-to-peer parimutuel markets that anyone can join, supporting multiple networks including Ethereum, Polygon, Arbitrum, Optimism, and BNB Chain.
Curvy: Started as a research paper and a stealth address protocol from 3327 kitchen. Now it has become a startup and a privacy-preserving wallet. Similar to Fluidkey, just from Serbia.
Treesury: Tokenizing hazelnut trees with approval and a license from the Serbian Securities and Exchange Commission.
Namespace: 2 times ENS grantee ($600k in total). Namespace is making ENS subdomains more accessible.
Ethereum Users
As of 2021, approximately 200,000 people in Serbia own crypto, out of a population of over 7 million, or about 3% of the population.
Younger, tech-savvy individuals in Serbia are the primary adopters of crypto, often using platforms like Binance for trading.
Crypto and particularly stablecoins offer a cost-effective solution for cross-border payments and remittances, which account for 8–10% of Serbia's GDP annually.
Web2 and Web3 Developers
Serbia's Web2 sector is thriving, with a 20% annual increase in engineering graduates from its universities and expanding Science and Technology Parks in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad, and Čačak. The country is becoming a hub for skilled Web2 engineers, with a growing presence in software outsourcing for EU markets.
Belgrade has emerged as a surprising Web3 powerhouse in Eastern Europe:
40+ Web3 companies based in Belgrade alone.
Major projects like Polygon and Tenderly originated from Belgrade.
Excellent 3 Supercluster: One of the flagship initiatives of Serbia Innovates, a multi-lateral project funded by USAID with $6M investment-conducts a plethora of blockchain community nurturing activities, often leaning into collaboration with educational institutions. Notable projects include:
Web3 & Blockchain Policy Lab: Led by lawyers Ilija Rilakovic, Željka Motika, and Miloš Velimirović, Policy Lab is a working group addressing problems in existing national and regional Web3 regulatory frameworks.
Girl Pow3r: Community-first initiative, established to empower women entrepreneurs and professionals venturing into the Web3 space. It’s conceptualized as an umbrella initiative of networking and educational workshops, conferences, and financial support programs.
Numerous blockchain projects recruit exceptional engineers from Serbia, including Chainlink, Optimism, Status, MetaMask, Reown, Gnosis, Morpho, Nethermind, and Paradigm…
University & Blockchain Clubs
Serbia’s higher education system produces exceptional engineers and developers, particularly in computer science and IT. Universities in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Niš are known for their rigorous STEM programs. This is particularly highlighted in the bedrock research tradition in the fields of cryptography, P2P networks, and blockchain technology, with some of the leading contributors:
Marija Mikić, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Mathematics, University of Belgrade
Darko Čapko, Full Professor, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Srdjan Vukmirović, Full Professor, Faculty of Technical Sciences, University of Novi Sad
Pavle Vuletić, Associate Professor, School of Electrical Engineering, University of Belgrade
Vladimir Ćirić, Full Professor, Dean, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Belgrade
Dragan Janković, Full Professor, Faculty of Electronic Engineering, University of Belgrade
Miodrag Mihaljević, Corresponding Member and Deputy Director of the Mathematical Institute, Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Ethereum NS is a newly launched grassroots initiative in Novi Sad dedicated to empowering students, academics, and professionals to explore Ethereum—both as a technology and a catalyst for community coordination. Led by a team of seasoned professors —its flagship activities encompass hackathons, technical workshops, expert public lectures, student conferences, and open-source educational resources.
Web3 Kamp in Petnica Science Center: Hosted in the oldest and largest independent educational institution in Serbia, Petnica Science Center, Web3 Kamp blends fundamental theory (cryptography and decentralisation paradigms) with practice (smart-contract workshops and mentor-led projects attendants devise). Nurturing academic ethos and immersive research environment, Petnica has propelled generations of Serbian talent.
Matematicka Akademija: Where Marija Mikič also teaches a ZKP cryptography course.
Learning more about faculties, professors, and blockchain clubs that are researching and educating about Ethereum, please visit our friend Bogdan's Serbia Academia list.