This “Crypto City” guide looks at Austin’s crypto culture, the city’s most notable projects and people, its financial infrastructure, which retailers accept crypto and where you can find blockchain education courses — and there are even the juicy details of a famous controversy. Everything is bigger in Texas, including its enthusiasm for crypto.

Fast facts

City: Austin

Country: United States

Population: 974,000

Founded: 1839

Language: English

The capital of the largest state in the contiguous United States, Austin is known as a live music mecca, with festivals drawing in thousands of people from around the world each year, including Austin City Limits and South by Southwest. The Texas city is a unique blend of liberal and conservative values, yet in many ways, it still operates under the old motto “keep Austin weird,” with the University of Texas at Austin home to a diverse student body and the popular Texas Longhorns football team.

Long before becoming a hub of major tech companies — earning it the nickname “Silicon Hills” — Austin drew settlers from Mexico and the United States around the time Texas became an independent nation in 1836. Texas has stood under three flags with Austin as its capital: the Republic of Texas, the Confederacy and the United States of America. Though the city was largely centered around the capitol building completed in 1888, it later became known to many as a college town. For some years, the University of Texas at Austin was the largest university in the country by enrollment.

Austin and the surrounding area have also been…