Name: Digital Asset Summit 2021 | New York
Start: 2021-09-14T04:00:00.000Z
End: 2021-09-15T21:00:00.000Z
Location: Cipriani, South Street, New York, NY

Monday, September 13

Limited to VIP ticket holders only; pre-registration required.

VIP & Speaker Dinner

Tuesday, September 14

Registration will remain open throughout the event.

Registration & Welcome Breakfast

Michael Ippolito is a co-founder at Blockworks in charge of content and finance.&nbsp; Previously to co-founding Blockworks, Michael was a consultant where he advised mid-market manufacturing-focused companies on operational and capital efficiency as well as M&amp;A strategy.

Michael Ippolito

Greeting & Welcome

David Mercer is the Chief Executive Officer of LMAX Group, a global, high-growth financial technology company based in London. A former City banking executive and currency specialist, he joined LMAX Group in 2011 and after a successful management buyout, rapidly built LMAX Group into the leading operator of institutional FX and cryptocurrency exchanges with offices in 11 countries and global client base. An outspoken industry commentator, David is a long term champion of the UK’s fintech sector and passionate about supporting entrepreneurship in the UK.

David Mercer

Fireside Chat: LMAX Digital

Prior to founding Ikigai Asset Management in 2018, Travis spent 10 years in traditional finance. From 2008-2010, he was an investment banker at Simmons &amp; Company in Houston, focusing on energy M&amp;A. From 2011- 2015, he was a senior analyst at Magnetar Capital in Chicago, investing in long/short energy equities and non-control private equity and debt. From 2015-2017, Travis was a Portfolio Manager at Point72 in New York, where he managed a L/S portfolio of energy and materials equities. Travis has a BS in Accounting and a MS in Finance from Texas A&amp;M University.

Travis Kling

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

Peter is a Managing Director and co-founder of the Firm. He is a senior member of the research team, and a member of the Investment Committee and the Board. Peter is a Co-Portfolio Manager for several registered investment companies, private funds, and institutional separate accounts. He is also responsible for oversight of the Firm’s marketing and sales activities and is the Vice President of FRMO Corp. Previously, Peter was with Bankers Trust Company (1985-1994) as a Senior Investment Officer, where he also served on the Finance, Utility and REIT Research sub-group teams. Peter received a BS from St. John’s University and an MBA from Fordham University.

Peter Doyle

David is a Partner at Finality Capital where he leads liquid investments. He was previously an investor at Tephra Digital, Head of Research at Grayscale Investments, and Head of Digital Asset Strategy at Fundstrat Global Advisors.

David Grider

Perspectives from the Buy Side: Inside a Bull Market

Zac Prince is the CEO and Founder of BlockFi, a crypto financial services company focused on driving access and inclusion in digital markets for all investors. Founded in 2017, the firm started with a singular crypto-backed lending product offering for retail clients. Since then, under Zac’s leadership, BlockFi has now grown to support more than 650,000 retail clients and 400 institutions worldwide providing a suite of retail and institutional investment products, including the world’s first crypto rewards credit card.&nbsp;



Throughout his career, Zac has held leadership roles at multiple successful tech companies and contributed to two successful acquisitions, Admeld (Acquired by Google) and Sociomantic (acquired by DunnHumby). Prior to founding BlockFi, he led business development teams at Orchard Platform, a broker dealer and RIA in the online lending sector, and Zibby, an online consumer lender.&nbsp;



Zac graduated Cum Laude from Texas State University with a B.A. in International Business and a minor in Spanish.

Zac Prince

Michael Shaulov, a renowned cybersecurity entrepreneur, is the CEO and co-founder of Fireblocks, the leading secure digital asset infrastructure company. Prior to Fireblocks, he co-founded Lacoon Mobile Security, which was acquired by Check Point, where he was then appointed the Head of Products, Mobile and Cloud Security.In 2017, the infamous Lazarus Group hacked into four South Korean exchanges and stole $200M of Bitcoin. Working for the cybersecurity leader Check Point at the time, the would-be founders of Fireblocks were part of the task force that investigated the massive cyber breach. It was this assignment that gave Michael and his two co-founders the inspiration to start Fireblocks.Michael is also a recognized industry speaker, delivering talks at RSA Conference, BlackHat, and Infosec. Before his commercial endeavors, Michael pioneered the mobile security field in Israel’s elite Unit 8200, where he received the Israeli Presidential Excellency Honor for his contributions. He holds a BSc in Computer Sciences and Physics from Ben-Gurion University, Israel.

Michael Shaulov

Mrinalini “Ria” Bhutoria has an extensive background in digital finance. Before her current role as principal at Castle Island Ventures, she was director of research at Fidelity Digital Assets, and previously a senior analyst at Circle Research, a spin-off of digital payments giant Circle. Prior to that, Bhutoria worked as an equity research analyst at Credit Suisse. Her work has given her prominent status in the Bitcoin industry, as Fidelity was one of the first asset managers to embrace Bitcoin openly.

Mrinalini "Ria" Bhutoria

Christine Sandler is head of Sales and Marketing for Fidelity Digital Assets SM , which provides enterprise-grade digital asset solutions for institutional investors. She leads all sales, marketing, and business development activity to accelerate business growth. Prior to joining Fidelity Digital Assets SM , Christine served as U.S. Head of Sales for Coinbase, Inc. She has extensive experience in sales leadership and previously served as Head of Equity Electronic Sales for the Americas at Barclays Investment Bank, where she led cross-selling efforts and new business generation, and as Executive Vice President and Global Head of Sales for NYSE Euronext. Christine also previously served as Head of Electronic Sales at Merrill Lynch and worked as a buy-side trader. An advocate for women’s leadership and the autistic community, she co-founded the Women’s Leadership Action Network, has chaired the Women in Finance Committee for the Security Trader’s Association, and serves as a Trustee of two public charter schools serving autistic students in New York. Christine earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and is a graduate of the INSEAD Global Executive Program.

Christine Sandler

Casey Wagner is a New York-based business journalist covering digital assets and macro economics. Prior to joining Blockworks, she reported on markets at Bloomberg News. She graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in Media Studies.

Casey Wagner

Institutional Market Access and the Rise of Prime Brokerage

Coffee Break

Asen Kostadinov is Copper’s head of strategy and joined the company from MMC Ventures where he led the blockchain/crypto investment portfolio and also led the fund's research department.



Prior to his career in venture capital, he spent four years as an equity research analyst at Barclays, covering European media and video and internet gaming.



Previously, Asen worked in the aerospace industry as an engineer the Airbus Flight Physics Division, after completing his engineering degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics. Asen is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA).

Asen Kostadinov

Trey is Chief Executive Officer of GSR Services USA, a subsidiary of GSR’s global operation. Trey leads GSR's efforts in establishing a presence in US regulated markets. Prior to joining GSR, Mr. Griggs led efforts to locate and evaluate acquisition opportunities at Kindle Energy, a Blackstone portfolio company. Mr. Griggs also worked at independent power producer Calpine in roles including President, Chief Commercial Officer and Executive Vice President. Earlier in his career, Mr. Griggs worked at Goldman Sachs’ J. Aron division for 14 years alongside GSR founders Cristian Gil and Richard Rosenblum. Trey led Goldman’s North American Energy Risk Management activities and went on to establish and lead the Houston based Commodities Sales &amp; Trading Office from 2011 to 2015

Trey Griggs

Fireside Chat: Solving for Capital Efficiency and the Pre-Funding Problem

Rebecca Rettig is the Chief Legal Officer at Jito Labs, where she leads legal, compliance, and policy strategy. She previously held the same role at the Aave Companies, a DeFi software developer, and Polygon Labs, a blockchain technology company; at both, she built the policy function and managed all legal and compliance matters. Ms. Rettig is a pioneer in shaping legal and regulatory frameworks for blockchain systems and applications, advising on matters including decentralization, token launches, and mechanisms. DeFi, structuring, and decentralized governance. She has liaised with policymakers and regulators globally on how DeFi systems operate and the appropriate intersection of law with this novel technology. Ms. Rettig began her legal career at Cravath, Swaine &amp; Moore LLP, litigating complex financial disputes, as well as a landmark peer-to-peer file-sharing case and one of the largest airline mergersin history. She was a partner at Manatt, Phelps &amp; Phillips and currently is Of Counsel at Arktouros pllc, a boutique law firm specializing in cutting-edge technology companies. She has been recognized as one of Crain’s Top Women Lawyers in New York City.

Rebecca Rettig

Kalin Metodiev, CFA is the Co-founder and Managing Partner of leading digital assets institution Nexo. His professional focus has always been directed towards investor wealth maximization and company growth, allowing him to take on the responsibility of managing the Sales, Trading, and Corporate Finance departments at Nexo. Kalin boasts 20+ years of experience in investment banking, corporate finance, securities issuance, M&amp;A, private equity, and executive management for multinational financial institutions, including Prudential Securities, Allianz, and Metlife, among others. As an MBA graduate with a track record that exceeds $1 billion worth of transactions, Kalin is currently overseeing Nexo's bank acquisition efforts in Europe and the U.S.

Kalin Metodiev, CFA

Patrick Corker leads treasury, finance and strategy and corporate development for Circle. Previously, Patrick was a Finance executive at LedgerX and Goldman Sachs after beginning his career as an Auditor at Deloitte &amp; Touche.

Patrick Corker

As founding partner and COO, Cynthia oversees the business operation and leads global business development and sales. Previously Investment Director at Bitmain Technologies, Cynthia focused on investments in blockchain technology and decentralized applications.



Prior to venturing into crypto, Cynthia was Vice President at Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX), responsible for derivatives product development and institutional sales. She started her career in HK as a commodities trader.

Cynthia Wu

Institutional Lending and Yield Generation in Digital Assets

Jeremy Allaire is Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Circle, a global financial technology firm that enables businesses of all sizes to harness the power of stablecoins and public blockchains for payments and commerce. Founded in 2013, Circle is the pioneer of USD Coin (USDC), the fastest growing, fully-reserved, and regulated digital dollar stablecoin. Governed by the Centre Consortium, and led by Circle and Coinbase, USDC has grown by nearly 500% in 2020, from a market cap of just over $400 million to more than $2.9 billion. Previously, Mr. Allaire co-founded and led multiple global internet technology companies with thousands of employees, hundreds of millions of consumers served, and multiple successful public offerings on NASDAQ. He has provided expert testimony on digital assets and monetary policy before the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security &amp; Government Affairs, US Senate Banking Committee, and he has been named to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) High-Level Advisory Group on FinTech. Mr. Allaire provides perspective and policy recommendations at the highest levels inside financial bodies across the US, UK, and Europe.&nbsp;

Jeremy Allaire

Jason Yanowitz

Fireside Chat: Stablecoins and the Future of Banking and Capital Markets

Lunch & Networking

Andrew is Head of Digital Asset Markets at Morgan Stanley; he is currently developing the Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) digital asset funds strategy. Andrew has been a practitioner in bitcoin and other digital asset markets for over 10 years and strives to bridge the world of credible crypto with the current TVL in TradFi. Andrew has privately run crypto arbitrage and systematic futures funding strategies and various on-chain DeFi strategies as well as being closely embedded in the ecosystem.  Prior to joining MS in 2018, Andrew spent most of his career as a structured products trader and market maker, has 15 years of professional investment experience and holds the Chartered Financial Analyst designation.

Andrew Peel

Ben Reynolds joined Silvergate in January 2016. He is the Chief Strategy Officer and is responsible for crafting our strategy, product development, marketing and M&amp;A activities. Prior to his current role, Ben was responsible for growing the digital currency business.



Over the past twenty years, Ben was an entrepreneur for two different businesses that he co-founded, VP of product at HSBC and a CPA in the audit practice at KPMG. He is an experienced builder who is passionate about creating remarkable products for customers and extraordinary businesses for shareholders.



Ben earned a B.S. in accounting from San Diego State University, an MBA from Pepperdine University, and is a licensed CPA.

Ben Reynolds

Ziad heads client engagement within Advanced Solutions &amp; Digital Assets Unit at BNY Mellon. Ziad is a senior lead assisting with the deployment of our assets around artificial intelligence, machine learning and leads the Digital Assets Execution workstream



Ziad Iskandar joined BNY Mellon from BNP Paribas where he was head of Global Markets Digital Solutions for the Americas.



In this role, he focused on improving the platform’s overall efficiency leveraging AAI/ML, Blockchain and managed connectivity with FinTech companies which met the organization’s R&amp;D needs.



Ziad led and executed digital client initiatives to improve productivity &amp; connectivity.



Formerly Ziad was Head of sales and global head of Fixed Income Listed Derivatives execution at BNP Paribas, RBS and UBS

Ziad Iskandar

Joel Edgerton is Head of Sales Americas at Ledger Enterprise where he is responsible for overseeing clients' strategic growth in the United States, Canada, and Latin America. Joel previously served as COO and Board of Directors of bitFlyer, where he helped increase their presence in the United States.&nbsp;He has over 17 years of experience in traditional finance and insurance through State Street, Citigroup, and BNP Paribas.&nbsp;

Joel Edgerton

Jacquelyn Melinek is a senior crypto reporter at TechCrunch based in New York City. She was previously a crypto reporter for Blockworks covering DeFi, DAOs and crypto venture capital funding and prior to that covered energy markets for S&amp;P Global Platts and Bloomberg News.

Jacquelyn Melinek

The Future of Financial Services and Digital Assets

David Easthope is a senior analyst and heads up fintech research on the Market Structure and Technology team and has over 20 years of experience in the capital markets sector.



Prior to joining the Firm, he led Celent’s (a division of Oliver Wyman, Inc.) Capital Markets practice, where he focused on technology and operations in the sector. His expertise includes digital transformation, innovation, SaaS, data and analytics, crypto and digital assets, and other emerging technologies.



He regularly advises financial institutions, technology firms and strategic investors on strategy, growth, digital, vendor selection, and investments. Prior to Celent, he was a director of Corporate Strategy at Charles Schwab, Inc. where he advised on cross-firm initiatives.



David has been widely referenced in the press, including Bloomberg, Financial Times and CNBC and is a regular speaker at industry events (ISITC, SIBOS, SIFMA Ops, InvestOps, DerivOps, and TradeTech). He is a Chartered Financial analyst.

David Easthope

Colleen Sullivan is Co-Head of Ventures at Brevan Howard Digital. Prior to joining Brevan Howard Digital, Colleen co-founded and served as CEO of CMT Digital, where she was also a partner with the broader CMT Group and commenced activities in the crypto industry in 2013. Prior to starting CMT Digital, Colleen co-founded Sullivan Wolf Kailus, a boutique law firm that specializes in hedge fund, private equity, venture capital, digital assets, and other alternative investment products. Colleen also previously practiced law in the Investment Funds and Derivatives group at Sidley Austin LLP and, at age 25, co-founded a company called iOptions Group LLC, which developed hedging and monetization strategies for holders of employee stock options. Ms. Sullivan currently serves on the Advisory Board of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.

Colleen Sullivan

Glenn Barber is the Head of Sales &amp; Business Development, Americas at&nbsp;Copper.co. – a pioneering digital assets custody and settlement provider. Prior to joining&nbsp;Copper, Glenn led sales as a consultant at FalconX, an institutional digital asset brokerage, and he was also the Chief Institutional Officer at Voyager Digital, a publicly-traded holding company whose subsidiaries operate a crypto-asset platform to trade crypto assets. Glenn also has over 25 years experience in global capital markets, and was a Managing Director in Equities at Deutsche Bank and Barclays.



Glenn holds a Masters in international Management and Finance from the Thunderbird School of Global Management and graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a BSc in Business Administration and Management.

Glenn Barber

Bart Smith is Head of the FICC, ETF &amp; Portfolio Trading Group at Susquehanna International Group (SIG). As such, Mr. Smith oversees the Firm's activities in the crypto space, including private investments, market making and OTC trading, and also works with regulators on the developing market structure. In addition, Mr. Smith is responsible for the Firm’s ETF lead market making and exchange-related business, ETF issuer relationships, ETF client trading (through SIG affiliate Susquehanna Financial Group, or SFG), global equity and fixed income portfolio trading (also SFG), and other strategic ETF initiatives.



Prior to his current role, he helped Emerging Global Advisors launch its EGShares lineup of ETFs. Mr. Smith has also worked at AllianceBernstein and UBS in variety of sales and consulting roles.



Mr. Smith is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.S. in Human &amp; Organizational Development.

Bart Smith

The State of Crypto Market Structure: Liquidity, Arbitrage, and Security

Three-time entrepreneur, life-long investor, and now operator, John Wu is the President of Ava Labs, a software services company behind the Layer 1 blockchain Avalanche. In this role, he leads commercial and product teams building tools for technology, finance, consumer, and gaming verticals to develop blockchain-based solutions. John has over 20 years of experience as a fintech executive and technology investor, running Sureview Capital, a global hedge fund backed by the Blackstone Group and managing a global technology portfolio at Kingdon Capital previously. He began his investment career at Tiger Management. With a BS from Cornell and MBA from Harvard, he enjoys working with his alma maters, mentoring the next generation of builders. He is an advisor to the Cornell Blockchain Club and regularly supports students through his family scholarship trust.

John Wu

Fireside Chat: Ava Labs

Coffee Break & Networking

Robert Materazzi is the CEO of Lukka, the leading provider of enterprise software &amp; data for crypto middle and back office solutions. Robert has diverse experience leading Product, Customer, Risk, and Marketing and other teams.&nbsp; Prior to Lukka, he led large scale risk, cybersecurity, &amp; technology transformations while at PricewaterhouseCoopers for 6 years. Before joining PwC, Robert was a Marine AH-1W Super Cobra pilot for nine years.

Robert Materazzi

Julian Sawyer is the CEO of Bitstamp where he leads the global team and is in charge of the company’s overall strategy and vision. Julian brings 30 years of experience in financial services and&nbsp; consulting, as well as hands-on experience building finance companies from the group up. Prior to Bitstamp, Julian worked as Gemini’s Managing Director for Europe.&nbsp;



Prior to that, Julian built an extensive career in traditional finance as the co-founder of Starling Bank, where he served as Chief Operating Officer until 2019, overseeing the expansion of business services and growing Starling into one of the largest mobile banks in the U.K. Before Starling, Julian founded Bluerock Consulting, a financial management consulting firm where he advised challenger banks, and eventually, successfully sold.



Julian is also an advisor to the board of the leading Australian challenger bank, Volt, and an Honorary Senior Visiting Fellow at CASS Business School’s Faculty of Management.

Julian Sawyer

Flori has spent her career managing alternative lending products. In the marketplace lending industry, she helped build, scale, and optimize a $125MM portfolio for Bond Street (acquired by Goldman Sachs). As Head of Portfolio Management, Flori managed all operations from point of origination through default and litigation. Prior to Bond Street, Flori helped develop and maintain institutional partnerships at Oak Hill Advisors, a $30B fixed income asset manager. Flori graduated from Cornell University, majoring in pre-law with a minor in economics.

Flori Marquez

Daniel Payne is a member of Murphy &amp;amp; McGonigle’s FinTech &amp;amp; Blockchain Practice. He advises companies of all stripes concerning the emergent regulatory structure surrounding cryptocurrencies and new applications built on blockchain technology. Such advice is critical with the number of companies launching Initial Coin Offerings and Security Token Offerings and facing enforcement actions and civil litigation.&nbsp; 



Mr. Payne is the architect of Murphy &amp;amp; McGonigle’s Blockchain Litigation Database, an innovative tool for clients that brings cryptocurrency cases from different jurisdictions into a single, searchable location. Forbes, Bitcoin News, Bitcoinist, CoinGeek and Crowdfunder Insider, among others, have all saluted the launch of the Blockchain Litigation Database, which contains hundreds of cases from this emerging technology.



He was also instrumental in the development of the Blockchain Law Center, a website dedicated exclusively to the legal and regulatory developments in the application of blockchain technology. He is a frequent writer and blogger on the BLC.



Mr. Payne has been a regular speaker and panelist at blockchain events around the world, including Blockchain Expo Global, Blockchain Expo North America, CryptoEvolved and CryptoLex. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, and he earned his J.D. from the University of Richmond School of Law.

Daniel Payne

Felix Salmon is the chief financial correspondent at Axios. He writes the weekly Axios Capital newsletter and covers all the ways that money drives the world.

Felix Salmon

The Rise of Crypto Banks

Closing Remarks

Networking Reception

Block(works) Party sponsored by Algorand

Wednesday, September 15

Greeting & Welcome Back

Fireside Chat: The Hunt for Yield and the New Token Economy

Mr. Steinberg founded WisdomTree and has served as Chief Executive Officer since 1998 and from August 2012 to September 2019 as a President. He has been a member of the Board of Directors since October 1988, serving as Chairman of the Board of Directors from October 1988 to November 2004. He also served as Editor-in-Chief of Individual Investor and Ticker, two magazines formerly published by WisdomTree. Mr. Steinberg was responsible for the creation and development of WisdomTree’s proprietary index methodology. Prior to founding WisdomTree, Mr. Steinberg was employed as an analyst in the Mergers and Acquisitions Department of Bear, Stearns &amp; Co. Inc., an investment banking firm, from 1986 to 1988. Mr. Steinberg is the author of Midas Investing, published by Times Books, a division of Random House, Inc. He attended The Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Jonathan Steinberg

Ben founded ParaFi in 2018 as one of the earliest investment firms focused on the blockchain and digital asset ecosystem. Prior to founding ParaFi, Ben spent the first 10 years of his career in institutional investing roles at leading asset managers including KKR and TPG. While at KKR, Ben served as a Director in the credit business, investing across a wide array of industry sectors and parts of the capital structure, including distressed special situations, private credit, and opportunistic and liquid credit. Ben also led KKR's blockchain research as part of the firm's Innovation and Disruption Council beginning in 2016. Prior to KKR, Ben served as a Vice President with TPG’s former credit business, Sixth Street Partners. As one of the first investment professionals to join the platform, Ben helped scale its private credit vehicle, TPG Specialty Lending, which went public in 2014. Earlier in his career, Ben was a member of the private equity team at Littlejohn &amp; Company and investment banking team at Rothschild &amp; Co. Ben has a passion for capital markets, behavioral economics and game theory, all of which drew him to the blockchain space. He grew up playing chess competitively and continues to play actively to this day (peak ELO 1871). He graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Ben Forman

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

The Investment Case for DeFi

Tatiana Metodieva, CFA leads Nexo’s global corporate finance and M&amp;A processes. She plays an integral role in developing strategic relationships and identifying key market opportunities for Nexo. Tatiana boasts more than 12 years of leadership and hands-on experience with a dedicated focus on the commercial banking and fintech sectors. Prior to joining Nexo, she worked in leading banking institutions, as well as the Big Four of consultancy and accounting, where she gained versatile analytical and advisory credentials. 



Tatiana’s strong business acumen and proven track record in advising on and executing M&amp;A transactions are key to accelerating Nexo’s market outreach and increased capacity to grow. In addition to having a strong background in traditional finance, she is a firm believer that Nexo will help bring the needed level of credibility, compliance, and institutionalization to the digital assets space and establish cryptocurrencies as a mainstream asset class that large institutions can easily invest in.

Tatiana Metodieva, CFA

Fireside Chat: Investing To Build the Next Tech Giant in Crypto

Arjun Balaji is an Investment Partner focused on crypto investments. Previously, Arjun was an independent cryptocurrency analyst, consulting with NY-based hedge funds and family offices on allocation models, mining, crypto-derivatives, and other financial services and infrastructure businesses. He earned his B.S. in Computer Science from Northeastern University.

Arjun Balaji

Elodie is currently Head of Growth at Kaiko, the leading global market data provider for digital assets. Previously, she spent 9 years in Silicon Valley: in Investment Strategy at VMware where she worked in M&amp;A, working on 18 acquisitions and led the finance integration of CarbonBlack ($2.2B EV acquisition) and Corporate Venture Capital (direct investments in startups), and as Vice President at Silicon Valley Bank.

Elodie De Marchi

Vanessa Grellet

Matthew Roszak is chairman and co-founder of Bloq, a leading blockchain infrastructure and innovation company. He is also the co-founder of Vesper Finance, a billion-dollar platform for easy-to-use DeFi products and the first to en



Matthew is the co-founder and chairman of Bloq, and a co-founder of Vesper Finance. Mr. Roszak is also a founding partner of Tally Capital, a private investment firm focused on digital assets and blockchain-enabled technology with a portfolio of over 20 investments, including Block.One, Civic, Factom, Rivetz and Qtum.



Mr. Roszak is a blockchain investor, entrepreneur and advocate. He has spent over 20 years in private equity and venture capital with Advent International, Keystone Capital Partners, Platinum Venture Partners and SilkRoad Equity, and has invested over $1 billion of capital (from start-up to IPO) in a broad range of industries. Mr. Roszak is a director and beneficial owner of Eboost, Enter Financial, MissionMode, Neu Entity, Onramp, SolidSpace and TrueLook.



Mr. Roszak serves as chairman of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world’s largest trade association representing blockchain. In addition, Mr. Roszak serves on the board of BitGive, a non-profit foundation targeting public health and the environment. Mr. Roszak is also the founder of the Chicago Blockchain Center, a public-private partnership with the State of Illinois, CME Group, DRW and Lightbank. Mr. Roszak was a producer of the industry’s first-ever documentary, The Rise and Rise of Bitcoin.



Mr. Roszak is a sought-after thought leader on blockchain technology, and has testified as an expert before US Congress and spoken at the US Federal Reserve. Mr. Roszak has been featured on CNBC and quoted in The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and Financial Times. In addition, Mr. Roszak has presented at FinTech conferences worldwide, including Money20/20, CES and American Banker.

Matthew Roszak

Bond is the CEO of ADAM, a private, non-profit, membership-based association of firms operating in the digital asset industry. ADAM’s mission is to foster fair and orderly digital asset markets where participants can transact with confidence. ADAM is a standard-setting body and the leading industry voice for digital asset market integrity.



Serving in both the public and private sector, Bond brings with her a wealth of strategic, regulatory, and legal experience. Most recently, Bond has served as the global head of policy and regulatory affairs at two fintech companies, where she developed and executed global regulatory strategy for digital assets, blockchain, global payments, and fintech. Bond has engaged directly with global regulators, legislators, and industry associations, in addition to overseeing teams of attorneys and regulatory affairs professionals. Bond also worked at Bloomberg LP, serving as head of global regulatory affairs – and she is an expert in securities, derivatives, banking, and fintech regulation.&nbsp;



Before joining the private sector, Bond served as international counsel at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for implementation of the Dodd-Frank Act, with a specific focus on securities and derivatives regulations, the Volcker Rule, and banking and fintech issues. Bond was also a subject matter expert on the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs for the Dodd-Frank Act and its technical corrections bill, and for the Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (JOBS Act). In her capacity as Banking Committee counsel, Bond wrote legislation that was enacted into law and oversaw the federal financial regulatory agencies. Bond launched her legal career at the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) before practicing law at Hogan Lovells and WilmerHale. Bond is a summa cum laude graduate of both Baruch College and The Catholic University of America’s Columbus School of Law, graduating first in her law school class. Bond is licensed to practice in both New York and DC and has been covered by Fortune’s Most Powerful Women, as well as featured in Forbes,The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, CNBC, Barron’s,Business Insider, POLITICO, The Hill, RealClearMarkets, CoinDesk, Traders Magazine, and other leading publications.

Michelle Bond

The Convergence of Centralized and Decentralized Market Structure

Diana Pires is the senior vice president of institutional sales at Crypto.com where she is the driving force behind institutional business development, partnerships and liquidity globally. Diana boasts over eight years of financial sales experience having held positions across the US, Europe and APAC at S&amp;P Global, Numerix and ICE. In 2018 Diana pivoted to the crypto industry as the first institutional sales manager at OKEx, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world, where she established the institutional sales team and launched institutional events later that year before being named AVP of financial markets. After a brief stint at market maker and liquidity provider B2C2 as head of OTC sales, Diana joined Crypto.com to head the institutional sales team driving the growth of exchange business for the firm.



Today Diana is currently working towards her MSc in Digital Assets &amp; Blockchain and a Leadership &amp; Management Certificate from Wharton online.

Diana Pires

Haohan Xu is CEO of Apifiny, a global digital asset trading network. Prior to Apifiny, Haohan was an active investor in equities markets and a trader in digital asset markets. Haohan recently spoke at DACOM DeFi 2021 and Hyperledger's Capital Markets event series.  He has been quoted in Blockworks, Coindesk, Cointelegraph, Cheddar, Forbes, Seeking Alpha, and Benzinga among many other publications. Haohan holds a B.S. in Operations Research with a minor in computer science from Columbia University.

Haohan Xu

Fireside Chat: Crypto.com

Young has a diverse background with over 24 years of banking and startup experience, and is the Chief Financial Officer of Hedera. Previously, he was the Chief Investment Officer at Abra where he built their institutional crypto lending and trading business. Prior to Abra, he was the Chief Financial Officer of Celsius Network and Alt Lending, both in the crypto lending space. Before getting involved in startups, he was an Executive Director at UBS Private Finance, the Managing Director and Co-founder of Newtonian Capital, and the Director at Citigroup Global Special Situations Group. Young has a BS in Electrical Engineering and a Masters in Financial Engineering from Cornell and an MPA in Economic Policy Management from Columbia.

Young Cho

Oli is part of the Digital Assets team at Goldman Sachs, responsible for North America.



Previously, he was at J.P. Morgan where he created the Corporate &amp; Investment Bank’s Digital Strategy &amp; FinTech team, including their InResidence incubation programme, before becoming Head of Digital-Assets Strategy &amp; Quorum.



Prior to J.P. Morgan, he was seconded to the Office of Tony Blair, was a Project Manager at the World Economic Forum where he led their New Energy Architecture Initiative, and was a Strategy Consultant at Accenture.



Oli is a passionate design thinker, having spent time at Stanford’s d.school, a mentor at selected accelerators, and a member of Allen &amp; Overy’s selection committee for their Fuse innovation program. He is a graduate of Cambridge University.

Oli Harris

Jeff Billingham is VP of Capital Markets with Chainalysis, the leading provider of anti-money laundering solutions for cryptocurrency businesses, financial institutions, and government agencies. In his role he works with financial market leaders to help them understand the economics of the cryptocurrencies, mitigate their cryptocurrency business risk, and pursue new crypto market opportunities. Prior to joining Chainalysis, Jeff led blockchain and cryptocurrency partnerships at IHS Markit.

Jeff Billingham

Rob is Co-CEO of B2C2.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Prior to joining the firm in 2019, he ran Hibernia Metallum, a consulting firm advising major financial institutions on the set-up, structure and day-to-day operation of capital markets, cryptocurrency and blockchain businesses in the United States.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Previously, Rob spent over 25 years building and managing global businesses at investment banks, most recently Credit Agricole where he was head of fixed income market sales – Americas (2012-2016) and head of foreign exchange – Americas (2006-2012).&nbsp; During this time, he led the bank’s Dodd-Frank and MiFID regulatory programmes in the Americas.&nbsp; He also served on the Federal Reserve Bank of NY FX Markets Committee (2008-2016) and was Chairman of the Chief Dealers Working Subcommittee and Market Risk Subcommittee.&nbsp;&nbsp;



Earlier roles included global head of foreign exchange sales at Merrill Lynch (2002-2006) and vice president, foreign exchange sales at Goldman Sachs (1996-2002).&nbsp;&nbsp;



Rob holds an MBA from the University of Pennsylvania Wharton Graduate School of Business (1993), with a concentration in Finance and Statistics, and a BA in Electrical Engineering from Villanova University (1986), with a minor in Mathematics.

Rob Catalanello

Institutional Participation in Digital Asset Markets

Matthew Trudeau is a serial entrepreneur and has participated in the successful launch of 10 electronic trading venues. Matt was most recently Co-Founder and President of Tradewind Markets, an electronic trading platform and blockchain-based post trade system for physical precious metals. Prior to Tradewind Matt was Head of Product and Ventures at IEX, Global Head of Product at Chi-X Global and COO at Chi-X Canada. Previously Matt held strategic development, product, and operations positions at Instinet and CyberTrader, a subsidiary of Charles Schwab. Matt holds a BA in Anthropology from the University of Massachusetts and an MBA from the University of Texas.

Matthew Trudeau

Joshua Lim is Managing Director, Head of Derivatives at Genesis Trading. He previously managed the spot and derivs trading desk at Galaxy Digital and built the treasury and OTC trading desk at Circle. Before crypto, Josh traded equity vol at Goldman Sachs.

Joshua Lim

Tim McCourt serves as CME Group’s Senior Managing Director and Global Head of Equity and Foreign Exchange Products. He is a member of the company’s management team and is responsible for leading the development and execution of the company’s global equity index, foreign exchange, cryptocurrency and alternative investment product strategies. He serves on the CME Ventures Investment Committee and the S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices U.S. Advisory Panel.&nbsp; Before joining CME Group in 2013 as Global Head of Equity Products, McCourt worked for the Royal Bank of Scotland, where he was responsible for building and managing the Americas Index and Delta One trading book.&nbsp; Prior to RBS, he held a senior trading role with JPMorgan in New York, spending 10 years with the Equity Derivatives Group.&nbsp; McCourt holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston College and an MBA from The University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School.

Tim McCourt

The Rise of Crypto Derivatives: The Next Frontier of Trading and Risk Management

Juri joined Foundry as VP of Strategy in March 2021. He comes from Fidelity Investments, where he spent 8 years, most recently as the Director of Bitcoin Mining, building and managing the company's self-mining operation. Prior to that he held research, strategy, and product management roles at Blockchain Incubator within Fidelity Center for Applied Technology. Before that he worked in Fidelity’s internal management consulting unit working on the most strategic projects for the firm's senior leadership, including the Bitcoin/Blockchain strategy project in 2015. Juri graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics and Economics.

Juri Bulovic

Amanda Fabiano is Head of Mining at Galaxy Digital. The GDM team is building a one-stop financial services shop for miners. Prior to joining, Amanda was at Fidelity Investments for six years in various roles, including Director of Bitcoin Mining and Senior Program Manager. During her time at Fidelity, she scaled their mining operations, created bitcoin-focused products, and organized its first Bitcoin-related public events. As Head of Mining at Galaxy Digital, Amanda works across principal investments, trading, investment banking, and asset management to ensure we deliver the full firm to our mining clients.

Amanda Fabiano

Mason is the CEO and Founder of Blockware Solutions and a Managing Partner of M31 Capital. Blockware Solutions is a first-of-its-kind operation that gives global Bitcoin and Cryptocurrency miners a turnkey solution to access an emerging and fast-growing market. Blockware is vertically integrated - it offers mining rig hardware procurement, owned and operated mining rig colocation services , advisory, mining software, pool operations, and node operations. The company has sold over 300,000 mining rigs since its launch in 2017, placed over 400 MW's of hosting clients, mined thousands of Bitcoin, and publishes Proprietary Research through its research arm Blockware Intelligence, which has been translated in over 15 languages and has garnished hundreds of millions of views. Mason has played a pivotal role in bringing Bitcoin Mining to North America through Blockware Solutions.

Mason Jappa

Jen Wieczner is a features writer at&nbsp;New York&nbsp;magazine, covering business, Wall Street, cryptocurrency, and technology. She was previously a senior writer at&nbsp;Fortune, where she co-founded The Ledger, a newsletter, video, and event franchise dedicated to money and tech.&nbsp;Her recent writing includes an award-winning investigation into Paul Singer's activist hedge fund Elliott Management; cover stories on legal marijuana and the Bitcoin bubble; and profiles of controversial business titans—from billionaire Steve Cohen to Mylan CEO Heather Bresch to Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon. She has also been published in&nbsp;The Wall Street Journal,&nbsp;Time, Fast Company,&nbsp;The Atlantic,and&nbsp;Glamour. She graduated from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.

Jen Wieczner

Bitcoin Mining: Energy Efficiency and Economic Utility

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

Mark Yusko is the Founder, CEO and Chief Investment Officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management. He is also the Managing Partner of Morgan Creek Digital. Morgan Creek Capital Management was founded in 2004 and currently manages close to $2 billion in discretionary and non-discretionary assets. Prior to founding Morgan Creek, Mr. Yusko was CIO and Founder of UNC Management Company (UNCMC), the Endowment investment office for the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Before that, he was Senior Investment Director for the University of Notre Dame Investment Office. Mr. Yusko has been at the forefront of institutional investing throughout his career. An early investor in alternative asset classes at Notre Dame, he brought the Endowment Model of investing to UNC, which contributed to significant performance gains for the Endowment. The Endowment Model is the cornerstone philosophy of Morgan Creek, as is the mandate to Invest in Innovation. Mr. Yusko is again at the forefront of institutional investing through Morgan Creek Digital Assets, which was formed in 2018. Morgan Creek Digital is an early stage investor in blockchain technology, digital currency and digital assets. Mr. Yusko received a BA with Honors from the University of Notre Dame and an MBA in Accounting and Finance from the University of Chicago.

Mark Yusko

Dan Tapiero is a renowned macro-focused investor with over 25 years of investing and entrepreneurial experience. He is the Founder, CEO and CIO of 1Roundtable Partners (1RT) and 10T Holdings (10T), which collectively manage over $1.4 billion of investments in 24 active companies across the Digital Asset Ecosystem (DAE). 1RT is a growth equity fund focused on mid-to-late stage companies in the DAE. Dan serves on several boards including Ledger, LEDN, Futureverse, and Quicknode. Before founding 1RT and 10T, Dan was Managing Partner of DTAP Capital Advisors, a global macro investment fund that he founded in 2003. He is Co-Founder of Gold Bullion International (GBI), a physical precious metals platform for the wealth management industry. GBI expanded into the cryptocurrency business through its integration with Uphold (fka Bitreserve) in 2014. Prior to GBI, he was formerly 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 to the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) in 2013. Previously, from 1992-2012, Dan was a macro-focused portfolio manager and analyst at Duquesne Capital Management, SAC Capital Advisors, Tiger Management and Steinhardt Management Co. Dan graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University, where he 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 15 years and currently leads the Investment Committee for its endowment.

Dan Tapiero

Fireside Chat

<h1 class="wp-block-heading"></h1>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">DAS is the institutionally focused crypto conference for asset managers and financial services professionals. </h2>



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Returning in 2021 as a two day, in person event, industry leaders from the world of finance and digital assets will gather to discuss crypto from the perspective of industry practitioners.</h2>

Panel Recordings

Watch the recordings of every panel from this sold-out event.

Crypto could hit $40T in 5 years | Dan Tapiero, Mark Yusko, and Dan Morehead

Mapping Out DeFi: Explosive growth ahead?

The Rise of Crypto Derivatives: The Next Frontier

The State of Crypto Market Structure

Institutional Participation In Digital Asset Markets

Fireside Chat: Building a Crypto Bank

The Convergence of CeFi and DeFi Market Structure

Fireside Chat: Investing to Build The Next Tech Giant In Crypto

Fireside Chat: The Hunt For Yield and The New Token Economy | Bill Barhydt

The Future of Financial Services & Digital Assets

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Tuesday & Wednesday, September 14 & 15, 2021