Name: Permissionless III
Start: 2024-10-09T04:00:00.000Z
End: 2024-10-11T21:00:00.000Z
Location: Salt Lake City, UT

Permissionless is a conference for founders, application developers, and users. Come meet the next generation of people building and using crypto.

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Speakers 

Balaji S. Srinivasan (@balajis) is an angel investor, tech founder, and <a href="https://twitter.com/balajis/status/1552329807437844480?ref=balajis.ghost.io">WSJ bestselling</a> author of <a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09VPKZR3G?ref=balajis.ghost.io">The Network State</a>. Formerly the CTO of Coinbase and General Partner at Andreessen Horowitz, he is an early investor in many successful tech companies and crypto protocols, including Akasa, Alchemy, Benchling, Cameo, CoinTracker, Culdesac, Dapper Labs, Deel, Digital Ocean, Eight Sleep, EPNS, Farcaster, Gitcoin, Golden, Instadapp, Lambda School, Levels Health, Locals, Messari, Mirror, OnDeck, OpenSea, Orchid Health, Prospera, Replit, Republic, Roam Research, Skiff, Soylent, Stability AI, Starkware, Stedi, Superhuman, Synthesis, and Zora Labs, to name a few. Balaji was also an early investor in many important crypto protocols including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Avalanche, NEAR, Polygon, Chainlink, XMTP, ZCash, and more. Dr. Srinivasan was the cofounder of Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase), Counsyl (acquired by Myriad), Teleport (acquired by Topia), and Coin Center. He holds a BS/MS/PhD in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Chemical Engineering from Stanford University.

Balaji S. Srinivasan

Chris Dixon founded and leads a16z crypto, which invests in web3 technologies through four dedicated funds with more than $7 billion under management. He has been a general partner at Andreeseen&nbsp;Horowitz since 2013.



Chris is the author of&nbsp;<a href="https://readwriteown.com/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Read Write Own</a>:&nbsp;Building the Next Era of the Internet&nbsp;(Random House).



Previously, Chris was the cofounder and CEO of two startups, SiteAdvisor and Hunch. SiteAdvisor was an internet security company that warned web users of security threats. The company was acquired by McAfee in 2006. Hunch was a recommendation technology company that was acquired by eBay in 2011.



Chris has been a prolific seed investor, cofounding Founder Collective, a seed venture fund, and making a number of personal angel investments in various technology companies.



Chris started programming as a kid, and was a professional programmer after college at the high-speed options trading firm, Arbitrade. He has a BA and MA in Philosophy from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard.

Chris Dixon

Samara Cohen, Senior Managing Director, is Global Head of Market Development for BlackRock where she helps to shape the evolution of market structure to support investor access and product innovation. She is a member of the firm’s Global Executive Committee (GEC).



Samara works with stakeholders across the capital markets ecosystem, including investors, academics, market makers, trading venues and service providers. In partnership with Global Corporate Affairs, Global Product Solutions, BlackRock Global Markets &amp; Index Investments, and Digital Assets, she is focused on advancing market structure priorities on behalf of investors. Samara previously was Chief Investment Officer of ETF and Index Investments and led teams delivering the market quality and investment integrity for BlackRock’s index funds and iShares ETFs. Samara is a member of the GEC Investment Subcommittee and the GEC Talent Subcommittee. She is also the GEC sponsor for BlackRock’s Women’s Initiative &amp; Allies Network (WIN) and Co-Head of the Global Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Steering Committee (GDSC).



Prior to rejoining BlackRock in 2015, Samara was a Managing Director in the Securities Division of Goldman Sachs, where she built and led the Global Market Transition team to develop and deliver solutions to clients in the evolving market structure and regulatory environment following the 2008 global financial crisis. Samara first joined BlackRock in 1993 as an analyst in the Institutional Client Business. Samara has been recognized for her leadership in the financial services industry. In 2023 and 2024, Samara was named one of American Banker’s Most Powerful Women in Finance.



She has been honored as one of Barron’s Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance for the past four consecutive years. In 2025, she received the Women’s Bond Club Merit Award for her outstanding contributions to the industry. She is a member of the Board of the Directors for the Securities Industry Financial Markets Association (SIFMA), and a member of the Board of the BlackRock Foundation. She earned a BS Econ in Finance from the Wharton School and a BA in Theatre Arts from the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Pennsylvania. She earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Samara Cohen

Congressman Tom Emmer joined the U.S. House of Representatives on January 6, 2015 and currently represents (MN-06). Tom was recently elected by his fellow Republican colleagues to serve as Majority Whip entering the 118th Congress. Prior to that he served as Chairman of the NRCC during the 116th Congress and 117th Congress. House Republicans picked up seats in back-to-back cycles and reclaimed the House majority for just the third time since 1954. Tom also sits on the House Financial Services Committee and is a member of the House Republican Steering Committee. Born in 1961, Tom grew up in Minnesota and attended St. Thomas Academy. He received his BA in Political Science from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks and his JD from William Mitchell College of Law. After practicing law for several years, he opened his own law firm. The next 20 years were spent balancing family, business, coaching hockey, and serving on the city councils in Independence and Delano. Before coming to Congress, he served in the Minnesota House of Representatives from 2004-2008. He and his wife Jacquie have been married for over 30 years and have seven children. They reside in Delano, MN.

Rep. Tom Emmer (R-MN)

Elected to the United States Senate in 2010, Senator Mike Lee has always been a champion of constitutional principles and the protection of individual freedoms. With a background in both law and government, Lee has focused much of his legislative work on fostering competition in emerging markets, including tech and cryptocurrency, and ensuring that innovation is not stifled by overregulation. He has become a leading voice on tech and digital policy in the U.S. Senate. Senator Lee’s early exposure to the U.S. legal system came through his father, Rex E. Lee, who served as the U.S. Solicitor General. After graduating from Brigham Young University with a degree in Political Science and a J.D. from BYU Law School, Lee clerked for Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito and specialized in appellate and Supreme Court litigation, which provided him with a deep understanding of how law and government affect society, technology, and innovation. As the Ranking Member on the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy, and Consumer Rights, Lee plays a key role in shaping policy on issues related to big tech, blockchain, and antitrust enforcement. He also serves on the Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining—where he addresses the energy demands of emerging technologies like blockchain and AI—and the Senate Committee on the Budget, where he advocates for responsible fiscal policies that support tech-driven growth.

Senator Mike Lee

Paul Grewal is the Chief Legal Officer of Coinbase Global, Inc., where he is responsible for Coinbase’s legal, compliance, global intelligence, risk management and government relations groups. Before joining Coinbase, Paul was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at Facebook. Prior to Facebook, Paul served as United States Magistrate Judge for the Northern District of California. Paul was previously a partner at Howrey LLP. Paul served as a law clerk to Federal Circuit Judge Arthur J. Gajarsa and United States District Judge Sam H. Bell. He received his JD from the University of Chicago Law School and his SB from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Paul Grewal

Caroline D. Pham was sworn in as a CFTC Commissioner on April 14, 2022, after being nominated by President Biden and unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Commissioner Pham is an internationally recognized leader in financial services compliance and regulatory strategy and policy, with deep expertise in derivatives and capital markets and emerging issues such as digital innovation. Her substantial experience spans key international issues such as prudential regulation and systemic risk, financial markets including currencies and commodities, fintech and digital assets, and the impact of major disruptions like the savings and loan crisis, the 2008 great financial crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic. Commissioner Pham is the sponsor of the CFTC’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cftc.gov/About/AdvisoryCommittees/GMAC">Global Markets Advisory Committee</a>.



Prior to her appointment, Commissioner Pham advised boards of directors, executive and senior management, policymakers and regulators, and industry leaders on changes to the regulatory landscape and implications of emerging issues, trends, and economic and market developments to the global financial system, markets, and banking. Her engagement includes international standard setters such as the Financial Stability Board (FSB), International Organization of Securities Commissions (IOSCO), Basel Committee on Banking Supervision (BCBS), and Bank for International Settlements (BIS), as well as central banks, government ministries, regulators, and other stakeholders across North America, Latin America, United Kingdom, Europe, Middle East and Africa, and Asia-Pacific regions.



Commissioner Pham was previously a managing director at a large global financial institution where she served on firm-wide governance forums and held various senior executive roles in the chief administrative office, legal, compliance, and the institutional clients group, including as head of capital markets regulatory strategy and engagement; deputy head of global regulatory affairs; global head of swap dealer and Volcker compliance; and most recently, head of market structure for strategic initiatives, working closely with innovation, strategic investment, and business and product development teams on digital assets and other opportunities. She has built global programs and teams and led initiatives for implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act and other global regulatory reforms, including the design of compliance risk management, governance, and oversight frameworks and policies and procedures across all institutional and retail businesses. She also had oversight of U.S. regulatory change management for global markets, including rates and currencies, credit, securitized markets, commodities, municipal securities, equities, and financial market infrastructures.



Commissioner Pham’s past experience in the public and private sectors includes serving as Special Counsel and Policy Advisor to former CFTC Commissioner Scott O’Malia; and in enforcement at the CFTC, Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), and for the former chief judge of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims while in law school.



Commissioner Pham is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation. She was also a Visiting Fellow at the George Washington University Center for Law, Economics, and Finance, and has served on the Dean’s Advisory Council for the Business and Finance Law Program. Her former leadership roles with the American Bar Association (ABA) include member of the Council of the Business Law Section; Vice Chair of the Banking Law Committee; and Co-Chair of the Securities, Capital Markets, and Derivatives Subcommittee. She is a former Co-Chair of the Business Law Fellows Committee, a program to develop future diverse leaders, and also a former Fellow herself. In addition, Commissioner Pham has served in leadership roles on a multitude of industry forums, including on the Executive Committee of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.



Commissioner Pham has a B.A. from UCLA and a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School. Among other professional awards, Commissioner Pham received the National Conference of Vietnamese American Attorneys Cornerstone Award for lifetime achievement as the first Vietnamese-American woman appointed by the President to a Senate-confirmed executive branch position. She received the George Washington University Law School 2024 Belva Ann Lockwood Society Award. She was born and raised in California’s Central Valley, the “food basket of the world.”

Commissioner Caroline D. Pham

Sreeram Kannan is Founder of EigenLayer and CEO of Eigen Labs, a Seattle-based technology company pioneering protocols for verifiable applications and services. Previously, he was a tenured associate professor at the University of Washington, where he directed the UW Blockchain Lab. He holds a PhD from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and completed postdoctoral research at UC Berkeley. Kannan left academia in 2018, recognizing blockchain's potential to accelerate human coordination. At Eigen Labs, his team is building the tools to extend crypto's trustless verification to any developer building any application. Today, hundreds of applications and rollups are building on EigenLayer's verifiable services (AVS) backstopped by billions of dollars in staked Ethereum and EIGEN.

Sreeram Kannan

Kristin Smith is President of Solana Policy Institute, a non-profit organization devoted to advocating for public policies that allow networks like Solana to flourish. She serves as a liaison between policymakers and the Solana ecosystem to assist in the creation of legislation and regulation that promotes the growth of the industry in the U.S. Prior to SPI, Kristin was CEO of Blockchain Association, the Washington, D.C.-based trade association representing the crypto industry’s leading companies.



Kristin has been a renowned voice for the industry, having been featured on Fortune’s 40 under 40 list, Washingtonian’s Most Influential People and Tech Titans, CoinDesk’s 50 people who defined the year in crypto, The Hill’s Top Lobbyists, and CoinTelegraph’s top 100 Influencers in Crypto and Blockchain. Prior to leading Blockchain Association, Kristin helped blockchain and technology companies achieve their public policy objectives in Washington. She served as a Senate and congressional aide on Capitol Hill for nearly 10 years, much of which was spent focusing on technology policy.

Kristin Smith

John R. Curtis proudly represents Utah’s 3rd Congressional District where he is known for his reputation as someone who gets things done. Since being elected to Congress in 2017, John has passed 15 pieces of legislation into law, ranging in diverse topics such as better managing public lands, combatting human trafficking, reducing burdensome regulations on small businesses, and more. He has been ranked by the nonpartisan Center for Effective Lawmaking as the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ksl.com/article/50605006/curtis-lee-among-the-most-effective-in-congress-study-says" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">9th most effective</a>&nbsp;Republican member of Congress.&nbsp;



John serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee including as Vice-Chair of the Energy, Climate and Grid Security Subcommittee and a member of the Communications &amp; Technology Subcommittee. On the Natural Resources Committee, he serves as Vice Chair of the Federal Lands Subcommittee and member of the Energy &amp; Mineral Resources Subcommittee.&nbsp;



John has established an international reputation for his work on American energy solutions that unleash US clean fuels, put the US economy on steroids, strengthen our national security, make America energy independent, and reduce global pollution at the same time. John believes America should not just be energy independent. We should be energy dominant.



Before coming to Congress John was a small business owner. Where he was known as a real-world problem-solver. John served as the Mayor of Provo City for 8 years where he enjoyed a 94% approval rating and was named the “Top Elected Official on Social Media” in 2015. During his time as mayor John was recognized as Silicon Slopes Community Hero, UVU’s Civic Innovator Award and Person of the Year by Utah Valley Magazine.



John has been married to his wife Sue for 41 years and together they have 6 children and 16 grandchildren.

Rep. John R. Curtis (R-UT)

Keone Hon is the co-founder/CEO of Monad Labs, a team of systems engineers bringing parallel execution and high performance to the Ethereum Virtual Machine.

Keone Hon

Dan founded Pantera Capital Management in 2003, managing over $1 billion of institutional investor assets in its global macro strategy. He previously served as Head of Macro Trading and CFO at Tiger Management with Julian Robertson. Dan began his career at Goldman Sachs as their first Asset-Backed Securities trader. Dan graduated magna cum laude from Princeton University with a B.S. in Civil Engineering and received the Carmichael Prize for his thesis.

Dan Morehead

Ben is a co-founder of Optimism, a leading Ethereum L2 ecosystem. He served as Chief Scientist before becoming a director at the Optimism Foundation. In his free time, he makes Ethereum-based parody songs under his stage name, Weird ETH Yankovic.

Ben Jones

Pacman

Devin Finzer is an American entrepreneur and technology executive. He is the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of OpenSea, the world’s leading peer-to-peer marketplace for NFTs. Inspired by the release of CryptoKitties, Devin and Alex Atallah founded OpenSea in December 2017. Devin has led several fundraising rounds for OpenSea, which have included investors such as: YCombinator, a16z, Paradigm, and Coatue. Prior to founding OpenSea, Devin founded Claimdog, a personal finance app that was acquired by Credit Karma. Devin is also a former software engineer at Pinterest. He grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from Brown University.

Devin Finzer

Rich Widmann is the Global Head of Strategy for Web3 at Google Cloud and a founding member of Google’s Web3 business. Since the launch of Google Cloud’s Web3 efforts, the team has launched a robust suite of developer products and tools leveraged by Web3 developers across a number of the largest protocols in the ecosystem. In addition, Rich has led several Alphabet-wide initiatives aimed at broadening Google’s exposure to Web3, including efforts which enabled Google to custody cryptocurrency.  More recently, he led the effort to execute the first-ever stablecoin payment for services at Google. Prior to Google, Rich was a litigator and member of the firm’s regulatory and white-collar investigations team, where he helped investigate and recover millions of dollars stolen in connection with the FIFA World Cup bribery schemes. Rich’s experience in handling federal regulatory investigations led him to the world of cryptocurrency, where he began representing founders in the Ethereum ecosystem in high-stakes regulatory engagements and litigation. Rich has held director-level roles at two regulated institutions, including a cryptocurrency custodian and a nationally chartered bank. Rich is an adjunct professor at Northwestern Pritzker University School of Law where he teaches a JD/MBA course on cryptocurrency technology and regulations. Richard holds a Juris Doctorate from Northwestern University School of Law, a Master's from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in History from the College of New Jersey. Before he practiced law, he was a middle school English teacher in Philadelphia with Teach for America.

Rich Widmann

Nick White

Casey Caruso is the founder and managing partner of Topology, an engineering-centric frontier tech VC firm. Casey started her career as an engineer at Google and went on to become Bessemer Venture Partner's crypto specialist. She was recruited out of Harvard to join Paradigm as an Investment Partner and is Forbes 30 Under 30 awardee for Venture Capital. Casey holds her B.S. in Computer Engineering, and MS in CS/AI.

Casey Caruso

Harry Kalodner is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Offchain Labs where he leads the engineering team. Before the company he attended Princeton as a PhD candidate where his research explored economics, anonymity, and incentive compatibility of cryptocurrencies. When not up at 3:00am writing code, Harry occasionally sleeps.

Harry Kalodner

Georgios is the CTO &amp; General Partner at Paradigm, and CEO at Ithaca. He spends his time investing, researching, and leading teams building open source crypto infrastructure &amp; tools.

Georgios Konstantopoulos

Spencer Bogart is a General Partner at Blockchain Capital and leads the firm’s research efforts. Spencer is a fundamental investment analyst with a rare combination of deep experience analyzing cryptocurrencies as well as traditional equity opportunities. Spencer joined in February 2017.



Prior to joining Blockchain Capital, Spencer was a Vice President at Needham &amp; Company, where he authored Wall Street’s first industry report highlighting the use-cases, companies and potential of blockchain technology. Aside from leading all research efforts related to crypto and blockchain during his time at Needham &amp; Company, Spencer also covered public SaaS, FinTech, and internet companies, authored reports on those sectors and issued price targets on companies under coverage.



Spencer is a CFA charter holder, holds an Economics degree from UCSB, and enjoys spending time with family in Ireland and California.

Spencer Bogart

Ram Ahluwalia, CFA is a seasoned investor with an uncanny knack to identify investment themes before they become mainstream.



His contrarian "non-consensus" perspectives have earned him a reputation as one of the sharpest minds for uncovering undervalued opportunities across asset classes.



Featured in WSJ, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, American Banker, and CNBC; Ram has co-authored editorials with luminaries like former SEC Chair Arthur Levitt.



His market insights are read by 50,000+ loyal followers across social media and the influential Lumida Ledger newsletter.



Ram was born in Detroit to immigrant parents. He attended the Phillips Exeter Academy before studying Philosophy &amp; Economics at Columbia University.



His investing philosophy was shaped by Warren Buffett and Peter Lynch, as well as his experience navigating financial crises as the youngest VP at Merrill Lynch and executive at Bank of America.



As founder of Winged Foot Capital, Ram built his expertise in spotting dislocated assets and profitably invested in distressed securitization after the crisis.



Ram also invested in early stage and late stage venture - profitably exiting winners like LendingClub, Lyft, and Digital Ocean after their IPOs.



Ram positioned himself ahead of the credit lending boom with his next firm, PeerIQ, which was later acquired by Cross River Bank.



Ram was the executive responsible for building the Digital Assets business at Cross River where he managed key relationships such as Coinbase and the FDIC.



Ram was dissatisfied by legacy wealth management’s conflicts of interest and outdated concepts such as ‘60/40’. He saw the business from the inside at Merrill Lynch and saw that there is a better way.



Ram favors a ‘quantamental’ approach to investing - a combination of top-down themes, bottoms-up fundamentals, and quantitative factor analysis. He sees an important role for alternative investments such as real estate, private credit and digital assets in a portfolio.



Ram co-founded Lumida to bring an innovative, endowment-style approach to compound and preserve wealth.



<a href="https://www.lumidawealth.com/ram-ahluwalia#https://twitter.com/ramahluwalia" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Click here to read Ram's insights</a>&nbsp;and learn how&nbsp;<a href="https://www.lumidawealth.com/ram-ahluwalia#https://www.lumidawealth.com" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Lumida</a>&nbsp;is revolutionizing ultra-affluent investing.

Ram Ahluwalia

Kain Warwick

Vance Spencer is the co-founder of<a href="https://framework.ventures/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Framework Ventures,</a> one of the largest VC firms in the blockchain industry. Under the leadership of Vance and his co-founder Michael, Framework was arguably the first VC firm to <a href="https://decrypt.co/16943/why-framework-ventures-is-going-all-in-on-defi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“go all in”</a> on the emerging Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) ecosystem, notching up major early investments in several multi-billion dollar apps and networks like Chainlink, Aave, Synthetix, The Graph, and more. Over the last year, the firm has raised $400M for its third fund, and has also expanded into additional maturing verticals like web3 gaming, real world assets, and social crypto. Before Framework, Vance and his co-founder Michael launched and sold Hashletes, a digital collectible startup with official licensing from the NFL. Prior to entering the crypto space, Vance worked at Netflix in Los Angeles and Tokyo, where he was part of the team responsible for the relaunch of the Japan business, eventually joining the team leading corporate development for most of northern Asia.

Vance Spencer

Soona Amhaz is founder and managing partner of Volt Capital, a venture firm that backs early-stage crypto startups including many leading protocols and companies like Nansen, Sound, Magic Eden, Squads, Farcaster, LayerZero, and Magic. Prior to starting Volt Capital, Soona co-founded On Deck and operated in the big data/AI space, scaling companies from seed stage to post-Series C.

Soona Amhaz

Bryan Pellegrino is a co-founder of LayerZero. He is focused on building an interoperability solution that scales to every chain while maintaining the core principles of censorship resistance, permissionlessness, and immutability. Before LayerZero, Bryan worked in AI research and ranked among the best poker players in the world.

Bryan Pellegrino

Founding Partner <a href="https://x.com/Delphi_Ventures" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@Delphi_Ventures</a> | Co-Founder <a href="https://x.com/Delphi_Digital" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">@Delphi_Digital</a>

Tommy Shaughnessy

Kevin Owocki is a blockchain expert, computer scientist, co-founder of <a href="https://gitcoin.co/">Gitcoin</a> and podcast host at <a href="http://greenpill.network/">Greenpill.network</a>, a network-society of thousands of hackers, dreamers, and doers focused on using crypto to bring positive digital systems to the world. After completing his BS in Computer Science, Kevin spent 15 years in the world of web2, working in engineering leadership serving as a CTO and founder for open source software and web startups. Kevin co-founded Gitcoin in 2017 where his vision of a positive-sum ecosystem supported by public goods helped raise and distribute over<a href="https://impact.gitcoin.co/"> $50 million to projects in the ecosystem</a>.   Gitcoin has grown into a pillar of the Ethereum ecosystem, upon which hundreds of projects rely on for financial support + for marketing.  In 2021, Gitcoin DAO launched and Gitcoin Grants relaunched as a suite of modular + decentralized protocols.   As of 2023, web3 projects can use Gitcoin Grants in their ecosystem with <a href="https://www.gitcoin.co/grants-stack">Grants Stack</a> or <a href="https://allo.gitcoin.co/">Allo Protocol</a>, <a href="https://passport.gitcoin.co/">Gitcoin Passport</a> or <a href="https://publicgoods.network/">PublicGoods.Network</a>

Kevin Owocki

Tushar Jain is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital, a thesis-driven investment firm that invests in cryptocurrencies, tokens, and blockchain technology. Prior to founding Multicoin, he co-founded ePatientFinder (Elligo Health Research, May 2018), a healthcare IT company that leverages data science to identify eligible patients for clinical trials. Originally from New York City, Jain holds degrees in Finance and Political Science from NYU Stern and now lives in Austin, Texas. Follow him on Twitter @tusharjain_.

Tushar Jain

Fred Thiel, the Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer of MARA (NASDAQ: MARA), brings over 35 years of leadership and innovation in the technology sector. Recognized as an expert and thought leader, he has successfully led companies across diverse sectors including digital assets, AI, semiconductors, IoT, digital media, industrial process control, enterprise software, venture capital, and private equity. As a frequent speaker on these topics, Fred offers valuable insights into the energy and digital transformation.&nbsp;



Throughout his career, Mr. Thiel has consistently driven rapid growth and created substantial shareholder value. Prior to MARA, Mr. Thiel served as the CEO for two other public companies, Local Corporation (NASDAQ: LOCM) and Lantronix, Inc (NASDAQ: LTRX). He has successfully raised billions in equity and debt through private and public offerings, led companies through IPOs, executed high-value exits to strategic and financial acquirers, and implemented effective M&amp;A and roll-up strategies.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Mr. Thiel attended the Stockholm School of Economics and executive classes at Harvard Business School, and is fluent in English, Spanish, Swedish, and French. Mr. Thiel is the Chairman of the Board for Oden Technology, Inc. and is a current member of YPO, and has served as Chairman of the YPO FinTech Network, Chairman of the YPO Technology Network, and chapter chairman of the YPO California Coast chapter.&nbsp;



Mr. Thiel has substantial expertise in energy and technology, regularly appearing in media outlets such as Bloomberg TV, CNBC, and FOX Business. His insights and analysis on the future of innovation provide meaningful contributions to industry discussions.&nbsp;

Fred Thiel

Faryar Shirzad is Chief Policy Officer at Coinbase, where he leads the company’s engagement with policymakers around the world and has become a trusted source for thought leadership in the global crypto policy space. Under Shirzad’s leadership, Coinbase has become a driver of crypto-regulation discourse in the U.S. He oversaw the creation of Coinbase’s Digital Asset Policy Proposal (or dApp), which laid out a fit-for-purpose regulatory framework for the rapidly-emerging industry and was recognized as “a dramatic shift from current policy in the United States”, sparking an ongoing conversation on how crypto should be regulated while safeguarding American innovation. Before joining Coinbase, Shirzad was Global Co-Head of Government Affairs at Goldman Sachs. Shirzad has served as counsel to the highest levels of the U.S. government, including as deputy national security advisor for international economic affairs for President George W. Bush. In that role, he served as The President’s personal representative to the G 8 (the “G-8 Sherpa”). Prior to his time in the White House, Shirzad was assistant secretary for import administration at the U.S. Department of Commerce and international trade counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance. Earlier in his career, he practiced law in Washington, DC. Faryar earned a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law, a MPP from the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, and a BS from the University of Maryland, College Park.

Faryar Shirzad

Lucas Bruder is the CEO of Jito Labs, which builds high performance MEV infrastructure for Solana. Jito Labs' main products, Jito-Solana and the Jito Block Engine, are running on more than 27% of Solana stake. Before co-founding Jito Labs, Lucas worked on robotics control systems for self-driving bulldozers and embedded firmware at Ouster and Tesla. He has a degree in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Lucas Bruder

Brian Quintenz is the Head of Policy for a16z crypto, where he helps to translate between the crypto and policy communities. Brian has long stood out as an innovative thinker in crypto and DeFi and was one of the earliest leaders in Washington to recognize the value of crypto. Brian initially joined a16z crypto as a senior advisor. In December 2022, he moved to the full-time role leading its policy team. Prior to joining a16z, he was nominated by both Presidents Obama and Trump to serve as commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) and, in August 2017, was unanimously confirmed by the U.S. Senate. He also led the agency’s Technology Advisory Committee, which hosted the most comprehensive set of public crypto-related policy discussions and briefings of any federal financial regulator. During his service, the CFTC oversaw the listing of the first U.S. regulated Bitcoin and Ether futures contracts on derivatives exchanges, and the rapid expansion of DeFi. All the while, he was a champion for tailored, risk-calibrated regulation. Prior to his appointment to the CFTC, Brian was the Founder and Managing Principal of Saeculum Capital Management, LLC where he developed and implemented Saeculum’s long term, momentum-based investment process for both traditional discretionary accounts as well as a managed-futures, commodity pool hedge fund. Brian began his career on Capitol Hill, where he worked for 6.5 years and served as senior policy aid to a Member of Congress. He received his B.S. from Duke University and M.B.A. from Georgetown University.

Brian Quintenz

Jake is Chief Legal Officer at Variant, where he works with our portfolio to develop legal and regulatory strategies that help them effectively execute their visions. He is the former Chief Policy Officer at Blockchain Association, the largest advocacy group for the crypto industry in Washington, D.C. Before that, he was General Counsel at Compound Labs, where he helped pioneer “progressive decentralization,” a playbook that became hugely influential across the crypto industry.



He began his legal career with Baker McKenzie LLP, where he focused on anti-corruption and anti-money laundering compliance and investigations. He later represented individual and corporate clients in cryptocurrency-related securities litigation and government enforcement defense matters at Kobre &amp; Kim LLP. Jake also clerked for the Honorable Fernando M. Olguin of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

Jake Chervinsky

Meltem Demirors is Founder and General Partner at Crucible, an early-stage fund investing in the foundations of our digital future. Before launching Crucible in 2024, she served as Chief Strategy Officer at CoinShares, Europe’s largest and longest standing digital asset investment firm which oversees $7B in AUM. Meltem started her crypto career on the founding team at Digital Currency Group, which grew from 40 to 200 portfolio companies and 2 to 4 subsidiaries during her tenure. Beyond her corporate positions, Meltem has lectured at MIT and Oxford and is an active angel investor in over 100 startups. She leverages her vast network – ranging from major institutions to builders at the fringe – to find and fund unique opportunities for Crucible. Before joining the crypto industry in 2015, Meltem began her career trading and working in the oil and gas industry. She studied math and econ at Rice University and has an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management. When she isn’t talking about data centers, the energy grid, or forward curves she can be found reading, wandering in the woods, or scheming with her magical internet money friends.

Meltem Demirors

I am a cofounder and the CTO of&nbsp;<a href="https://megaeth.systems/">MegaLabs</a>, a start-up that is building MegaETH, the first Real-Time Blockchain. I recently finished my PhD in Computer Science at MIT, advised by&nbsp;<a href="https://people.csail.mit.edu/alizadeh/">Mohammad Alizadeh</a>. I was part of the&nbsp;<a href="http://nms.csail.mit.edu/">Networks and Mobile Systems Group</a>&nbsp;(NMS) of MIT CSAIL. My thesis is on efficient consensus and synchronization for distributed systems. I received my SM from MIT in 2020 and my BS in Computer Science from Peking University in 2018.



I love designing and building systems that are robust, performant, and easy to use. My current research focuses on computer network problems in the setting of blockchains. Some examples are&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/yangl1996/dispersed-ledger">DispersedLedger</a>, a framework for building BFT state machine replication protocols that run fast on fluctuating networks;&nbsp;<a href="https://github.com/yangl1996/riblt">Rateless IBLTs</a>, a family of universal and near-optimal rateless codes for reconciling set differences. I have also published on the security aspect of blockchain protocols. My work has been supported by generous gifts from the Ethereum Foundation.



Occasionally, I write about what I do in&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.leiy.me/">my blog</a>. When away from the keyboard, I enjoy hiking, cycling, sailing and travelling. Plus, I am a licensed amateur radio operator. My callsign is KC1NOR.

Lei Yang

Dan Tapiero is the Managing Partner, CEO &amp; CIO of 50T. Dan brings 30 years of experience in macro and commodity investing and trading, research and economics, as well as entrepreneurship. Dan has an extensive set of relationships in the institutional investment management space and is a thought leader that regularly speaks and contributes on macroeconomic topics. Before founding 50T, Dan was the managing partner of DTAP Capital Advisors, a global macro investment fund, that he founded in 2003. He is the co-founder of Gold Bullion International (GBI), a physical precious metals platform for the wealth management industry that also expanded into the cryptocurrency universe in 2014. He is a co-founder of the Agricultural Company of America (AGCoA), one of the largest farmland REITs in the U.S. at the time of its sale in 2013. Previously, from 1992-2012, Dan was a macro-focused portfolio manager and analyst at Tiger Management, Duquesne Capital Management, Steinhardt Management Co., and SAC Capital Advisors. Dan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, where he also earned his B.A.’90 and M.A.’91 in European History. Dan has been on the Board of Trustees of the Lawrenceville School for the past twelve years and currently leads the Investment Committee for its endowment.

Dan Tapiero

Sebastian Pedro Bea, OLY, is President of Coinbase Asset Management. Sebastian focuses on building Coinbase AM's investment platform and global client base. Sebastian helps clients understand, access, and stay connected to the investment capabilities of Coinbase AM. Sebastian has 20 years' experience across liquid public markets and institutional investing. Prior to Coinbase's acquisition of One River Digital, Sebastian also served as the Head of Sales and Strategy for One River Asset Management, growing the firm from $1B to $3B aum. Sebastian previously worked at BlackRock (2012-2020), most recently as Managing Director, co-leading investment strategy globally for BlackRock Systematic Active Equity. Prior, Sebastian worked at Credit Suisse (2001-2012), building relationships with institutional investors, delivering the firm’s proprietary data, capital markets product, and firmwide capabilities. Sebastian holds a UC Berkeley double major in English and Economics and is a World Champion and Olympic Silver Medalist, in rowing, for the USA.

Sebastian Bea, OLY

Zaki Manian is a Co-Founder of Sommelier, the most powerful coprocessor yet for DeFi traders and Liquidity Providers. He’s also a Co-Founder of iqlusion, which provides infrastructure like a data center and a Cosmos validator for next-gen crypto technologies. Previously, Zaki helped build the Cosmos ecosystem, including launching the first public Cosmos testnet, and served as a director of Tendermint. Zaki has been a leading developer in the blockchain space since 2014, when he taught himself cryptography and began contributing to projects including Bitcoin, Ethereum, Zcash, and Tendermint. Having studied history of science at the University of Pennsylvania, Zaki’s skill sets in software engineering, programming, and computer science are largely self-taught.

Zaki Manian

Avery is the Co-Founder &amp; CEO of Aptos, the safe and scalable layer 1 blockchain. Avery spent over a decade leading teams at Meta, most recently as the Tech Lead of the crypto platform which covered projects across general blockchain development and ecosystems, wallet infrastructure, strategy and most notably the Diem blockchain. Prior to that, Avery was the overall tech lead of all of Meta’s batch processing teams including Spark, Graph processing (Apache Giraph), Facebook Hive/Hadoop (Corona), distributed scheduling, and the unified programming model for pipelines.  These technologies power analytics for all of Meta’s products and scale to hundreds of thousands of machines.



Born and raised in Honolulu, Hawaii, Avery studied computer engineering at Northwestern University where he also received his PhD in Computer Engineering specializing in the area of supercomputing, parallel computing frameworks, and high-performance file systems.

Avery Ching

MacKenzie Sigalos is an award-winning journalist who is a cross-platform contributor to CNBC, NBC, and MSNBC, where her reporting is featured on digital, broadcast and streaming networks, as well as CNBC’s social platforms. Her international and domestic field reporting has included coverage in Africa, Asia-Pacific, Europe and multiple cities across the U.S. MacKenzie is also a founding co-host and contributor on Crypto World. Previously, MacKenzie spent five years at CNN in New York and Hong Kong, where she had varied beats, writing and producing for a range of TV business and news programs, including Fareed Zakaria’s weekly foreign affairs program and Anderson Cooper’s daily news hour.

MacKenzie Sigalos

CEO @ Helius

Mert Mumtaz

Matt Hougan is one of the world’s leading experts on crypto, ETFs, and financial technology. He is Chief Investment Officer for Bitwise Asset Management, a pioneer in cryptoasset index funds with more than $1.2 billion in assets under management. He was previously CEO of ETF.com, where he helped build the world’s first ETF data and analytics system, the leading ETF media site, and the world’s largest ETF conference, Inside ETFs. Hougan is co-author of both "A Comprehensive Guide to Exchange-Traded Funds" and "Cryptoassets: The Guide to Bitcoin, Blockchain and Cryptocurrencies for Professional Investors" from the CFA Institute’s Research Foundation. He is a crypto columnist for Forbes, and a three-time member of the Barron’s ETF Roundtable.

Matt Hougan

Dan Robinson is a General Partner at Paradigm, focused on crypto investments and research into open-source protocols. Previously, Dan was a protocol researcher at Interstellar. Before Interstellar, Dan practiced as a litigation attorney at Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton &amp; Garrison LLP. He earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an A.B. from Harvard University.

Dan Robinson

Kyle Samani is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner at Multicoin Capital, a thesis-driven cryptofund that invests in tokens and companies reshaping entire sectors of the global economy. Prior to Multicoin Capital, he co-founded Pristine (Upskill, 2017), an enterprise software company that enables deskless workers with solutions for smart glasses. Based in Austin, Texas, Samani is widely recognized as a thought leader on blockchain and cryptoeconomics. He holds degrees in Finance and Management from NYU Stern and has been programming since he was 10 years old. 



Follow him on Twitter @KyleSamani.

Kyle Samani

Jill is co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Espresso Systems, working on bringing interoperability and decentralization to rollups. Previously, Jill ran crypto investments for early stage venture capital fund, Slow Ventures. Jill was also a co-founder of the Open Money Initiative, a non-profit organization that researches how those without access to a free and open financial system manage their money. Jill has also conducted academic research on the use of cryptocurrencies in emerging markets as part of her graduate studies at Oxford University. She started her career as a fixed income trader at Goldman Sachs. She received an A.B. in Classics from Harvard University.

Jill Gunter

Artem Kotelskiy

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Mike Dudas

Jeff John Roberts is the Finance &amp; Crypto Editor of Fortune. A former lawyer and Executive Editor of Decrypt, Jeff is the author of the critically acclaimed Kings of Crypto, which was published by Harvard Business Review Press in 2020. He has written for numerous other news outlets, including The Economist, Reuters and the New York Times. Jeff studied law at McGill University and completed the Knight-Bagehot fellowship at Columbia University’s business and journalism schools.

Jeff John Roberts

Mr. van Eck joined the Firm in 1991 and its Executive Management Team in 1998. He serves as the President, Chief Executive Officer and an owner of Van Eck Associates Corporation. Additionally, he is the President and CEO of Van Eck Securities Corporation. Furthermore, Mr. van Eck is a Trustee, the President and Chief Executive Officer of VanEck ETF Trust, VanEck Funds and VanEck VIP&nbsp;Trust.



Furthering VanEck’s mission to anticipate asset classes and trends, Mr. van Eck has created strategic beta, tactical allocation, emerging markets, and commodity-related investment strategies in mutual fund, ETF, and institutional formats. Mr. van Eck founded the Firm’s ETF business in 2006. One of the world’s largest ETF sponsors, the Firm offers ETFs, branded VanEck, globally across equity and fixed income asset&nbsp;classes.



Mr. van Eck holds a JD from Stanford University and graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Williams College with a major in Economics. He has registrations with the National Futures Association and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Mr. van Eck is a Director of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. He routinely appears in the media, including CNBC and Bloomberg Television.&nbsp; Mr. van Eck was a 2013 Finalist for Institutional Investor's Fund Leader of the Year and was a finalist for ETF.com’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2019 and 2022.

Jan F. van Eck

Lekker Capital is a global macro hedge fund with a particular focus on the emerging digital asset industry. Prior to founding Lekker, Quinn served as the Head of Capital Markets for two institutional lending businesses in the digital asset ecosystem, most recently at Maple Finance. Quinn spent five years in fixed income and capital markets at Guggenheim Partners in New York before his full-time foray into crypto.

Quinn Thompson

Seth Wilks is a seasoned professional in the taxation and digital assets space, bringing a wealth of expertise to his new role as Executive Director, Strategy &amp; Development in the Office of Digital Asset Initiative (DAI) at the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). The DAI serves as a Program Office that will help the IRS set consistent, global digital asset strategy, including internal IRS procedure and policy. With a robust background in tax technology and compliance, Seth ‘s private sector experience will be a huge asset to the IRS.



Prior to the IRS, Seth was a senior leader at the digital asset tax and accounting SaaS company, TaxBit. He built a world-class subject-matter expert team, which contributed to the company's reputation as a leader in the fintech industry. His keen insights into regulatory compliance and emerging trends in digital assets positioned him as a trusted advisor to both private and public sector clients navigating the evolving digital asset landscape. As the policy leader, Seth oversaw all government relations efforts, which included interfacing with policymakers on Capitol Hill, regulators, and industry associations. Seth worked closely with all facets of the business, including product, engineering, sales and implementation.



Seth came to the digital assets world after leading several multi-national tax departments, focusing on&nbsp;complex supply chains, transfer pricing and cross-border transactions.



Seth has both a Master’s and Batchelor’s Degree in Accounting with an emphasis in taxation from Brigham Young University’s Marriott School of Management.

Seth Wilks

Nana Murugesan is the President of Matter Labs. He has extensive experience in scaling businesses in crypto, social, and consumer tech.



Previously, he was Vice President of Business Development, International, and Listings at Coinbase and held executive roles at Snap Inc. and Samsung.

Nana Murugesan

Eva Beylin

Alex W.

Matt Schultz is co-founder, executive chairman and former CEO of CleanSpark (CLSK). During his tenure, Matt led CleanSpark from its early days as an alternative energy generator focused on converting biomass into energy using CleanSpark’s patented gasifier technology. He then transitioned CleanSpark into the renewable energy sector, helping to identify critical software that was used to deploy microgrids, most notably at Camp Pendleton. In partnership with CleanSpark’s CEO, Matt has helped raise over a billion dollars in capital. His leadership has been instrumental in making CleanSpark one of the largest and most recognizable bitcoin mining companies in North America.

Matthew Schultz

Tom is a Partner at Dragonfly Capital. He previously led product at 0x, worked as a product manager at Facebook and Instagram, and worked in software engineering at Apple and Microsoft.

Tom Schmidt

Michael Anderson is the co-founder of<a href="https://framework.ventures/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> Framework Ventures,</a> one of the largest VC firms in the blockchain industry. Under the leadership of Michael and his co-founder Vance, Framework was arguably the first VC firm to <a href="https://decrypt.co/16943/why-framework-ventures-is-going-all-in-on-defi" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">“go all in”</a> on the emerging Decentralized Finance (“DeFi”) ecosystem, notching up major early investments in several multi-billion dollar apps and networks like Chainlink, Aave, Synthetix, The Graph, and more. Over the last year, the firm has raised $400M for its third fund, and has also expanded into additional maturing verticals like web3 gaming, real world assets, and social crypto. Before Framework, Michael and his co-founder Vance launched and sold Hashletes, a digital collectible startup with official licensing from the NFL. Before entering the crypto space, Michael served as a product manager at both Snapchat and Dropbox, where he helped build out their monetization platforms.

Michael Anderson

Natalie is currently an investor at Bain Capital Crypto, where she focuses primarily on consumer-facing applications, emerging media formats &amp; UX. applications. Prior to making the full-time leap into crypto, Natalie worked on Risk Operations &amp; Policy at Meta, leading high-profile cases related to election interference and domestic terrorism.

Natalie Mullins

Sam is the Head of Product and Strategy at Skip, a team building cross-chain infrastructure for application-specific blockchains. He is also Co-founder of Timewave, an organization that creates tools for intelligent on-chain resource allocation and trustless cooperation.

Sam Hart

Ridhima Ahuja Kahn is the VP of BD &amp; Strategy at Dapper Labs (creators of Flow Blockchain, Cryptokitties, NBA TopShot, Disney Pinnacle, NFL All Day, Miquela and more). Her focus is building meaningful partnerships with the world's top brands and developers as they look to build blockchain-based experiences. Prior to Dapper Labs, she was a Partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and an Investor at the Hewlett Foundation ($13 billion in aum), as well as Grosvenor Capital Management ($46 billion aum). Kahn holds a Bachelors of Business Administration from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

Ridhima Ahuja Kahn

Uma Roy is the co-founder and CEO of Succinct, which builds infrastructure tooling to make zero-knowledge proofs accessible to any developer.

Uma Roy

Christopher Jensen is the director of Digital Asset Research for Franklin Templeton's Digital Asset Investment Strategies Group and co-leads its Investment Committee. With almost 20 years of technology investing experience spanning venture capital, private equity, and private credit, Christopher's focus is on developing and leading the fundamental research efforts for Franklin's Digital Asset Token strategies.



Christopher joined Franklin Templeton in 2015 as a Vice President and Senior Research Analyst in the firm's Fixed Income group. He went on to become Head of Credit for Franklin's Data Science and Digital Lending Strategies team in 2019. Before joining Franklin, he was a Principal with SLR Capital Partners, an alternative asset manager in New York focused on cash flow, asset-based lending, and specialty finance. He also served as an Assistant Vice President at the commercial lending firm, CIT Group, now a division of First Citizens Bank.



Christopher holds a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Princeton University, an MBA from the Yale School of Management, and a Certificate in Data Science from Stanford University.

Christopher Jensen

Kieran Warwick is an accomplished entrepreneur and technology innovator with a deep passion for the gaming industry and decentralized finance. As the Co-Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Illuvium, Kieran has spearheaded one of the most ambitious projects in the blockchain gaming space, blending AAA-quality gaming with the power of decentralized ecosystems to deliver cutting-edge experiences.



At Illuvium, Kieran leads a visionary team of engineers, designers, and artists to bring to life a groundbreaking open-world RPG and autobattler built on the Ethereum blockchain. The platform is redefining the gaming landscape by seamlessly integrating collectible NFTs with immersive gameplay, allowing players to explore vast worlds, capture powerful creatures called Illuvials, and participate in competitive battles. Illuvium’s ecosystem is designed to be interoperable with DeFi protocols, providing users with earning opportunities in the growing play-to-earn space.



&nbsp;Kieran’s journey into blockchain and gaming began after founding and advising several successful ventures in the technology and cryptocurrency sectors. A self-taught entrepreneur with an eye for disruptive trends, Kieran previously worked at Blueshyft, one of Australia's leading crypto gateways. His deep understanding of the intersection of gaming, blockchain, and finance has positioned Illuvium as one of the most anticipated projects in the web3 space, attracting a global community of players, investors, and developers.



Kieran’s leadership has earned him recognition as one of the key thought leaders in the blockchain gaming space, and Illuvium has garnered widespread attention from media, industry leaders, and players alike. Through his relentless focus on innovation and quality, Kieran is building a new frontier for gaming, where players are not just participants but co-owners in the world they inhabit. Under his guidance, Illuvium continues to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the gaming and NFT space, shaping the future of decentralized entertainment.

Kieran Warwick

Haseeb is a Managing Partner at Dragonfly. He was previously a partner at Metastable Capital, and has a background in software engineering at Airbnb and Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase).

Haseeb Qureshi

Sandy Carter is a leading voice in technology, AI, and blockchain who has been recognized as TOP10&nbsp;most powerful women in tech per CNN and top 10 Responsible AI leader.&nbsp;She is currently COO and Head of All Go To Market at Unstoppable Domains and founder of Unstoppable Women of Web3 and AI.



As COO, she is responsible for&nbsp;creating business strategies,driving growth, and moving forward the company’s long-term goals.In this role, she is responsible for driving new partnerships and integrations for Web 3.0 and the Metaverse. Her mission is to onboard the world onto the blockchain based identity platform and to optimize the business using AI tools.. Her previous role was at AWS, where she was a VP, creating and growing businesses in emerging tech with AI, blockchain, and AR/VR.. She was also a General Manager at IBM covering Watson AI and a Silicon Valley start-up founder. She’s been active in AI since 2016.



Sandy Carter is also Board Member at Altair, an AI company, Chairman of the board for the non-profit organization Girls in Tech and a past member of Diversity Community at the World Economic Forum and the founder of Unstoppable Women of Web3 and AI as well as a founding member of BFF. She joined the first ringing of the bell on NASDAQ in the metaverse.&nbsp;



Sandy is a leading voice in technology, AI, blockchain and the metaverse who has been recognized as 2023 Top 10 Responsible AI Leader, 2023 Business Insight Top AI Influencer, 2023 Women of the Future, 2023 AI Executive Champion - WLDA,&nbsp;2023 Crunchbase Influential Women in Sales List, 2023 CRN Channel Chief,&nbsp;Top 100 Global Thought Leader by Awards Magazine, Constellation Top 150 Business Transformational Leaders, a Top 100 Chief Tech Leader, Top 115 Most Inspirational Women of Web3/AI, 100 Women Davos, Two Lovies Awards for Best Metaverse HQ, Top 14 Edge Leader, Federal 100 Award Winner, CRN Channel Chief, and a member of Fortune Most Powerful Women.



She is fluent in eight programming languages and is the author of six books, one of which won the Platinum MarCom Award and the Silver MarketingSherpa award.

Sandy Carter

Alex Thorn is a Managing Director and Head of Firmwide Research at Galaxy Digital. At Galaxy, Alex leads a team of researchers dedicated to understanding and unpacking developments in the cryptocurrency ecosystem, producing insights for internal and external audiences. Prior to joining Galaxy Digital, Alex spent 12 years at Fidelity Investments, mostly recently co-managing Avon Ventures, the early-stage crypto venture fund affiliated with FMR LLC, the parent company of Fidelity Investments. Before that, Alex was Director of Blockchain Research at Fidelity Center for Applied Technology where he directed technology experimentation and published research on the cryptocurrency and blockchain ecosystem, and held several roles in Legal and Compliance functions before that. Alex has a B.A. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University.

Alex Thorn

Alexis began passively investing in cryptocurrencies early 2017 and, during the spring of 2018, launched the<a href="https://www.lightnodeventures.com/"> Light Node </a>Ventures subsidiary, a growth &amp; advisory company and venture studio which targets the Blockchain community. In summer of 2019, Alexis founded <a href="https://www.legendsinvestmentnetwork.com/">Legends Investment Network</a>, the largest private investment network for professional athletes and entertainers in North America, another subsidiary. Athletes and entertainers come together to learn about alternative investments and asset classes.



Alexis serves as President of the Johns Hopkins Blockchain and Fintech network which is an affiliate group of the university that connects students, alumni and professors that work or express interest within the Blockchain space.Alexis graduated with Cum Laude distinction from Loomis Chaffee, an independent boarding school in Windsor, CT and part of<a href="https://www.tenschools.org/index.cfm"> Ten Schools Admissions Organization</a>. A recipient of the Little Rock 9 Scholarship, Alexis holds a bachelors in Civil Engineering from Johns Hopkins University's Whiting School of Engineering.

Alexis Johnson

Dan Elitzer is a co-founder of Nascent (nascent.xyz), a team of builders who have backed over 100 early-stage founders creating products and primitives for an open financial world.



Previously, Dan co-founded IDEO CoLab Ventures, a crypto-focused venture firm associated with the renowned design agency, IDEO. During that time, he also helped launch YAM Finance.



Dan began his career in social enterprise and microfinance, working with both domestic social impact organizations and international development agencies. Dan earned an MBA from MIT Sloan, where he co-founded the MIT Bitcoin Club and MIT FinTech Club, and a bachelor's degree in Psychology from Pomona College.

Dan Elitzer

Marc Boiron is CEO of Polygon Labs,&nbsp;a software development company building and developing a network of aggregated blockchains via the AggLayer.



A highly regarded Web3 veteran and innovator, Marc has strong leadership experience across legal, business and engineering functions. He brings together first-principles pioneering legal thinking and hands-on experience helping grow some of the most successful decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.



Before joining Polygon Labs, Marc served as Chief Legal Officer at dYdX Trading, helping drive the development of one of the biggest DeFi derivative trading protocols. Prior to that, he was a partner in the blockchain and cryptocurrency and financial services groups of Manatt, Phelps &amp; Phillips LLP, where he advised top-tier Web3 projects.



In August 2022, Marc joined Polygon Labs as Chief Legal Officer, responsible for crafting the legal and regulatory strategy for Polygon Labs as a whole and managing the legal team. Having accomplished that mission, he took on the CEO role in July 2023.



Marc’s Web3 journey began in 2013 in a restaurant, where he convinced a law firm colleague to sell off his Bitcoin holdings now worth a fortune. That colleague now works at Polygon Labs. But the encounter has planted a seed of curiosity about cryptocurrencies that later led Marc down the intellectual rabbithole when he encountered Ethereum.

Marc Boiron

Keerthi Moudgal is Head of Product for Kinexys Digital Assets, J.P. Morgan’s premier blockchain platform for tokenized assets and digital asset exchange. Keerthi was instrumental in launching this platform in 2020, alongside its initial use case for intraday financing. Her primary focus now centers on scaling ODA by building up its asset and participant ecosystem and introducing new functionality. She is responsible for setting the platform’s strategic direction and driving its roadmap, as it now supports 3 applications and a growing pipeline. She’s been a part of J.P. Morgan’s blockchain program since 2018, prior to which she worked within the firm’s Securities Services group.

Keerthi Moudgal

Joe McCann is the Founder, CEO, and CIO of <a href="http://asymmetric.financial">Asymmetric</a>, a contemporary digital assets investment firm. Asymmetric is backed by Marc Andreessen, Chris Dixon, and Circle Inc., as well as the founders of Solana, Multicoin, CoinFund, and many other reputable investors and entrepreneurs. In April 2024, Preqin named Asymmetric’s Liquid Alpha Fund the #1 hedge fund by net performance out of tens of thousands of hedge funds across all asset classes globally.&nbsp;



With over 24 years of experience working on Wall Street to Silicon Valley and with skills ranging from systematic and quantitative trading to fundraising and running a venture-backed, open-source enterprise software company, McCann's perspective on technology and finance is rather unique. McCann is a frequent speaker on the global conference circuit, actively promoting emerging technologies and relevant business use cases to bring pragmatism to futurism.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Most recently, McCann was a Senior Director at Microsoft in the Cloud and AI organization, focusing on incubations, M&amp;A, and startups. McCann also ran Quantitative and Systematic Trading for Cryptocurrencies at Passport Capital, a San Francisco-based hedge fund.&nbsp; Before that, McCann was the Founder and CEO of NodeSource, The Node.js Company, the most popular and widely adopted open source project of the last decade.&nbsp;&nbsp; McCann is also an advisor to a handful of companies like <a href="https://dharma.io/">Dharma</a> (a decentralized finance app on Ethereum, acquired by <a href="http://opensea.com">OpenSea</a>), <a href="https://voltage.cloud/">Voltage</a> (Bitcoin lightning nodes-as-a-service), and <a href="http://zebec.io">Zebec</a> (a money-streaming protocol on Solana) and is frequently mentioned in publications ranging from <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2015/04/18/the-unbundling-of-everything/">TechCrunch</a> to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/09/22/the-meteoric-rise-of-open-source-and-why-investors-should-care/#3fbdc35d5484">Forbes</a> and the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-firms-grapple-with-how-to-make-open-source-pay-1457031731">Wall Street Journal</a>.

Joe McCann

Sam Hogan is the Founder and CEO of Kuzco, a distributed GPU network for AI inference. Prior to Kuzco, he spent ten years working as a software engineer at early state technology companies.

Sam Hogan

Avichal is a successful entrepreneur with executive experience at Google and Facebook, which acquired his previous company. As an angel investor, Avichal has invested in 15 unicorns and 5 decacorns including Airtable, Boom Supersonic, Color Genomics, Cruise, Deel, Figma, Newfront Insurance, Notion, Nova Credit, Pulley, and others. He co-founded Electric Capital in 2018 and has grown it to one of the largest crypto venture firms globally. Electric is an investor in many of the leading web3 protocols and companies such as Bitwise, Bitnomial, dYdX, Frax, Kraken, Magic Eden, NEAR, and Solana.

Avichal Garg

Stani Kulechov is a pioneer in decentralized finance and web3 social, a strong believer in decentralized solutions, and an advocate for a more open and fair internet. He is the Founder and CEO of Avara, the software development company behind decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol Aave, stablecoin GHO, web3 social protocol – Lens, and mobile crypto wallet, Family. Avara’s vision is a people-powered internet that benefits all.

Stani Kulechov

David Hoffman is co-founder of Bankless and is a steward of crypto culture. David focuses on writing fundamental investment theses for Ether&nbsp;and Ethereum, while also making deep connections to impacting culture and the psyche of those who adopt a crypto lifestyle. David&nbsp;holds 99% of&nbsp;his wealth outside of Banks and inside of Ethereum, and is focused on leading the way for others to do the same.&nbsp;

David Hoffman

Ryan Sean Adams&nbsp;is a crypto investor &amp; co-founder of Bankless. He’s an open finance maximalist who propagates the message of financial sovereignty. His mission is to help onboard the first billion people to crypto through memes, media, and education.

Ryan Sean Adams

Anna is the co-founder and CEO of Vana, building the first network for user-owned data. With Vana, users own their data and the value it creates, including the AI models trained on their data. She believes data will power the AI economic shift over the next decade. Giving users true ownership of their data opens up walled gardens and pushes AI progress forward through data abundance. She studied computer science and economics at MIT, where she got into crypto through mining ethereum in 2015. She left school to start a machine learning company (YC W18) and was an early contributor to Celo. She also did research at CSAIL (MIT's AI lab), the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, and the World Bank, helping her see that the future currency will be data.

Anna Kazlauskas

Randy Little is a Partner at 50T with 25+ years of experience in roles at the intersection of finance and technology. He also currently serves as the chairman of 50T portfolio company, Zenrock Labs. From 2018 to 2023, Mr. Little served as Managing Director at Financial Technology Partners (“FT Partners”), the largest investment bank solely focused on FinTech globally. He exclusively focused on the Digital Asset and Capital Markets FinTech sectors, advising dozens of clients and institutional blockchain infrastructure companies. Mr. Little entered investment banking in 2006 at J.P. Morgan in the Financial Institutions Group focused on the Market Structure and WealthTech sectors. He was an early leader in advising the quantitative trading sector leading to several landmark transactions in the market-making space as well as executing public and private deals for exchanges, broker-dealers, trading technology, and WealthTech firms. Before joining J.P. Morgan, Mr. Little was a Software Architect at Sun Microsystems with a focus on optimizing hardware and software for low-latency environments in the financial services sector. He also served as a Senior Consultant for Ernst &amp; Young Consulting, where he led software development projects for large-cap financial services and U.S. government clients.

Randy Little

Rushi Manche is a pioneering engineer and the visionary architect behind Movement Labs’ groundbreaking technology. With a strong background in smart contract engineering and extensive experience in the Ethereum DeFi ecosystem, Rushi brings a wealth of technical expertise and innovative thinking to the Web3 space. His journey in blockchain led him to work closely with Cosmos protocols, notably contributing to the development of a decentralized file storage system. During the buildup of Aptos, Rushi became a core contributor to the ecosystem, particularly within the DeFi scene, where he engineered a leading DEX. This hands-on experience with multiple blockchain platforms equipped Rushi with an unparalleled understanding of the limitations and potential of various technologies.



Driven by a passion for pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with Move and a commitment to democratizing access to cutting-edge solutions, Rushi co-founded Movement Labs to bring the power of Move to Ethereum. His engineering prowess, forward-thinking approach, and ability to navigate complex technical landscapes inspire confidence in Movement Labs’ capacity to revolutionize the blockchain industry and empower developers worldwide.

Rushi Manche

Barry is the cofounder of&nbsp;<a href="https://events.trustifi.com/api/o/v1/click/65c23bc8f626382a3afbcd5b/fff0f6/330618/38c45c/eb3beb/0a1240/119436/f394ce/c4bf49/e8666a/ef542d/85972d/627493/9a11d6/1f4096/1d247f/d58d79/c530d9/839df2/bdfa01/7316c5/c788a3/f74902/a30c45/38dabe/f58113/4f8f27/36d8f7/9ee4f4/99129c/db2655/8d1e66/9e626e/290212/fc3550/6d7b1f/38082b/616b1b/af8c50/8ebcbb/0df7b0/6423c4/c07c0b/e6dd1c/ba8ce6/6803c4/c37876/920221/297bc7/5a440b/f85ffc/ca2926/bacf60/3d1195/dc47d9/40aefc/e48a96/0052d7/57fa75/8cf655/c16b6b/f92718/0e7d73/abcb55/0dd73b/1b064a/069f8a/d5bc25/7c51b1/b0bcbd/28ac11/48d164/a0df45/7476ec/8558c8/dbcc78/521501/f2f211/13e330/aab4a2/b0ca1a/dd21ab/280ef4/e749da/debe9d/4974dc/0fb4a3/78f438/fb99c5/187646/4b3a51/0845db" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Skip</a>&nbsp;— the leading infrastructure platform for app chains. Skip's products deliver users, tokens, and data to the best app chains in crypto — Osmosis, Stride, dYdX, Celestia, and many more.&nbsp;

Barry Plunkett

Jonah Van Bourg is a professional crude oil and cryptocurrency trader with 18 years of experience managing trading teams and running risk in volatile markets. Most recently, he was Global Head of Crypto and Precious Metals Trading at DRW. Prior to this, Jonah spent 7 years as a partner and oil trader at Vitol. In his early career, he ran the global oil trading desk at Goldman Sachs. Jonah graduated with a BA in Economics and Statistics from Columbia University.

Jonah Van Bourg

Claire Kart

Anand Iyer is a venture capitalist with a focus on AI x blockchain infrastructure. He is the Managing Partner of Canonical Crypto and Venture Partner at Lightspeed. With over 2 decades of experience in the tech industry, Anand has a deep understanding of the blockchain ecosystem. Prior to Canonical and Lightspeed, Anand was a Venture Partner at Pear where he focused on their blockchain investments. And prior to that he was the CEO &amp; Founder of Trusted, which was acquired in 2018. Anand has held leadership roles at startups as well as technology giants such as Microsoft and Cisco. He holds a degree in computer engineering Purdue University.

Anand Iyer

Sunny Aggarwal is the Co-Founder of Osmosis, the core team responsible for developing Osmosis, an appchain that serves as the DeFi hub for the Cosmos ecosystem. Sunny dropped out of UC Berkeley to join Tendermint, where he served as a Core Developer of the Cosmos SDK and Gaia blockchain, and contributed to the development and launch of Cosmos and IBC. Sunny then decided to build on top of the core infrastructure he had developed at Tendermint, and co-founded Osmosis with the goal of developing a DEX appchain that rivals even the most robust centralized exchanges.

Sunny Aggarwal

Alex is a software architect with over 15 years of experience in engineering and startups. He is the co-inventor of ZKsync and currently serves as the co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs. At Matter Labs, he leads a talented team focused on addressing blockchain scalability challenges using zero-knowledge proofs. Alex's passion lies in using technology to advance personal freedom, self-ownership, and decentralization

Alex Gluchowski

Tarun Chitra is the Co-Founder and CEO of Gauntlet, the leading model provider in crypto and premier DeFi vault curator. Gauntlet manages risk across custom vault strategies and builds models safeguarding tens of billions of dollars in digital assets across the crypto ecosystem, driving capital efficiency and mitigating risk.



Under Tarun’s leadership, Gauntlet equips investors, builders, and token issuers with data-driven strategies to confidently allocate funds onchain by leveraging the most trusted crypto-economic research and analysis. Tarun’s research collaborations include more than 25 peer-reviewed papers on crypto and DeFi, and he is among the most cited contributors in DeFi economics.



He invests in fintech and blockchain companies through his fund Robot Ventures and is a biweekly contributor to Laura Shin’s investor podcast, “The Chopping Block.” Tarun is an alumnus of D. E. Shaw Research (DESRES) and Vatic Labs, and holds a B.A. in mathematics and a B.S. in applied engineering physics from Cornell University.

Tarun Chitra

Craig is a General Partner at Reciprocal Ventures, leading the investment team's day- to-day operations, overseeing thesis development, deal execution, and portfolio support. Since joining Reciprocal in 2017, Craig has played a pivotal role in the firm’s shift from investing in FinTech to investing exclusively in the crypto sector. Craig has helped Reciprocal become a leading investor in the cryptocurrency sector, investing in some of the most successful projects in the space like Solana, The Graph, Blockdaemon and Kamino. Prior to joining Reciprocal, Craig was one of the first business hires at FiscalNote, a seed stage AI company that would go on to IPO in 2022. At FiscalNote, Craig was responsible for revenue growth and go-to-market as the Head of Revenue Operations &amp; Strategy. Prior to FiscalNote, Craig worked at Morgan Stanley in the Institutional Equity Division as a Jr. Sector Specialist, focusing on the Media &amp; Telecom space. When he’s not experimenting with new money legos and minting obscure NFTs, Craig can be found on the golf course or searching for great surfing locales.

Craig Burel

adcv is a co-founder and Chef at Steakhouse Financial, which provides a range of services to DAOs and companies in the crypto industry. Previous experience including M&amp;A advisory and investment banking, turnaround manager for a small business, various corporate finance roles. Studied engineering and in general a bit too much.

adcv

Lee Bratcher is the President and Founder of the Texas Blockchain Council. The Texas Blockchain Council is an industry association with more than 100 member companies and hundreds of individuals that seek to make Texas the jurisdiction of choice for Bitcoin and blockchain innovation. The TBC helped to research two pieces of blockchain legislation that were passed in the 87 th Legislative session and an additional two bills in the 88 th Session that were signed into effect by Governor Abbott. Lee and the TBC team have a specific focus on the regulatory environment around Bitcoin mining in Texas. The TBC hosts the North American Blockchain Summit at which speakers like Vivek Ramaswamy, RFK Jr., Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Cynthia Lummis and SEC Commissioner Hester Peirce address sold-out audiences. Formerly, Lee was a political science professor at Dallas Baptist University teaching international relations with a research emphasis on property rights. Lee was awarded a master’s in International Relations from St. Mary’s University and a Ph.D. from UT Dallas with a research emphasis on blockchain land registries. Lee lives in Richardson, TX with his wife Becca and their three daughters.

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