JAIPUR, India, November 2, 2026 — Bitmela Jaipur 2026, billed as India's first Bitcoin festival, successfully concluded its inaugural edition after two days of discussions, workshops and community experiences at InterContinental Jaipur on October 30–31. Bringing together more than 40 speakers, entrepreneurs, investors and Bitcoin enthusiasts, the festival explored Bitcoin, artificial intelligence, financial regulation, personal finance and entrepreneurship while celebrating its theme, "Play the game of money."
The festival set out to do something different from a typical crypto conference. It took the Indian mela, a fair where people meet to trade, eat, play and swap ideas, and built a conversation about money around it. Talks ranged across Bitcoin, AI, law, personal finance and entrepreneurship, under the line “Play the game of money.”
Bitmela was run by a small team: Anuja Chokshi on partnerships and sponsors, Santosh Vadivelu on programming and speakers, and Palash Agrawal on the ideathon and operations.
Bitmela Jaipur 2026: Two Stages and 40+ Speakers
The Cake Stage carried stories, gatherings and debates. Prasanna Sankar, co-founder of Rippling and founder of Vorflux, asked whether AI will bring back the Roaring Twenties. Actor and investor Kunal Kapoor, co-founder of Ketto, sat down with Anuja Chokshi for a fireside chat.
Cake Wallet founder Vik Sharma spoke online from the USA, while COO Seth for Privacy appeared in person. Harish BV of Unocoin joined Vaibhav Parikh and Suril Desai of Nishith Desai Associates to revisit the 2020 Supreme Court crypto banking verdict. Author Manoj Arora and Ravi Handa debated whether Bitcoin helps or hurts early retirement.
The Bitshala Stage was built for hands-on learning, with sessions on self-custody with Coconut Wallet, privacy basics and open-source Bitcoin development. Foundation’s Ken Carpenter led a hackathon on building apps for Passport Prime. A small Vault room hosted closed-door sessions for Gala Pass holders, capped at 18 seats each.
Ideathon: where AI meets money
The festival’s pan-India Ideathon put ₹2 lakh on the table for teams working across three tracks: UPI, Bitcoin and payments made by AI agents. After weeks of mentorship, finalists pitched on the main stage on October 30 to judges Kunal Kapoor, Freddie New of BHODL, Adi Shankara of Summer of Bitcoin and Alex Mann of Fulgur Ventures.
The finalists listed were EdgePay, Zave, PayAgents, SPOT, Zynk and LilPay.
After the talks: Gala, Comedy, Mela and Party
Gala Night, October 30. Billed as Cake Wallet’s launch party, the first evening brought speakers and VIPs together for dinner and an open bar in true Rajasthan style. It was limited to 100 seats.
Comedy show, October 31. Comedian Aashish Solanki took the stage for an hour of live stand-up, just before the Mela opened.
The Mela, October 31. From 6 PM the outdoor grounds took over, with street food, market stalls, performances and games, including the chance to win five games and pick any merch.
The Party, October 31. The festival closed with a party from 9 PM, open to every pass holder and running until midnight.
The sponsors and partners behind it
Cake Wallet was the title sponsor, lending its name to the main stage. The open-source, non-custodial wallet is used by more than two million people.
Bitshala is India’s Bitcoin developer community and hosted the hands-on stage. Foundation makes the Passport hardware wallet. Trezor Academy is Trezor’s free education programme.
Coconut Wallet is the air-gapped self-custody system from Seoul-based NonceLab. Fedi is a community custody app built on Fedimint. Bitasha offers Bitcoin hardware built and supported in India. Unocoin has served Indian customers since 2013.
Valuete offers multisig-secured Bitcoin lending. Fulgur Ventures backs Bitcoin infrastructure worldwide. HashrateUp works on Bitcoin mining deals and advice. NeoWealth provides Bitcoin education and consulting for businesses across the Middle East and Africa.
Student of Bitcoin is a venture studio for Bitcoin-powered organisations. Travel with Bitcoin hosts Bitcoin trips across four continents. The Nivaas was hospitality partner, and InnovHer was venture building partner.
Community partners included Crypto Waley, LinQ, Onchain Gujju, Singularity, Techeve, Bitcoincierge, The Bitcoin Thread and No Promotion Labs.
Media partners included Coin Gabbar, Bitnxt, Cryptothreads.io, Block24Seven, Y Axis Technologies, Crypto Hindi News, GrowthFi Studio, JU Verse, Nukelancers, Infini3, Ready for the Run and Bitnxt.
Bitnxt in Jaipur
Bitnxt, the crypto B2B directory, media and discovery platform, took part as a media partner. Its team met NonceLab CEO Louis Ko in person and is publishing a series of stories on the companies behind the event.
Crypto assets carry risk. This release is for information only and is not financial advice.
About Bitmela
Bitmela is a two-day festival on the future of money, combining talks, workshops and a traditional Indian mela. Its first edition took place in Jaipur on October 30 and 31, 2026. Learn more at thebitmela.com.
About Bitnxt
Bitnxt is a crypto B2B directory, media and discovery platform, and a media partner of Bitmela. Learn more at bitnxt.io.
Media contact
Bitmela: hello@thebitmela.com
