Name: Digital Asset Summit 2025
Start: 2025-10-13T04:00:00.000Z
End: 2025-10-15T21:00:00.000Z
Location: Old Billingsgate

Welcome to DAS: London 2025

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

Co-Founder

Blockworks

Zoom Out: Crypto's Long-Term Opportunity

Jenna Wright is the Managing Director of LMAX Digital, part of LMAX Group, and has recently been named as one of the top 25 Women Leaders in Financial Technology of Europe by The Financial Technology Report. Jenna has been instrumental in driving growth of LMAX Digital and building it into the leading institutional spot crypto currency exchange globally. &nbsp;Jenna joined LMAX Group in January 2009 and has held multiple senior managerial roles at LMAX Group, including Head of Broker Operations and Head of Client Services. Prior to LMAX Group, Jenna worked at Cantor and UBS. Jenna holds BA in Economics &amp; Politics from the University of Manchester.

Jenna Wright

Managing Director - Digital Assets

How a Global Multi-Strat Firm Got Comfortable With Crypto

Felix Jauvin

Podcast Host

Chris Rayner-Cook, CIO, leads Brevan Howard’s Digital investment team. Over a 20+ career, Chris has held senior roles including at Coinbase, where he was Global Head of Trading and Financing, managed capital at large hedge funds including Brevan Howard, Citadel and Millennium, and founded and successfully sold a tokenisation business. Chris started his career at Merrill Lynch in 2000. He obtained his BSc in Pharmacology from the University of Bristol in June 2000.

Chris Rayner-Cook

Chief Investment Officer

DATs: Onboarding the Next Wave of Capital to Crypto

Tim has over 15 years of experience across Wall Street, Web2 and crypto. He was previously a Partner at MSA, a multi-billion investment group backed by Middle-Eastern sovereigns that have invested in global consumer plays like Klarna, Nubank, and more. He currently leads Global Strategy at Mantle, helping the ecosystem blend DeFi with TradFi go-to-market via partnerships and new products.

Timothy Chen

Global Head of Strategy 

Mantle

Shaping Up: MiCA 2.0, US Policy, and Crypto's Regulatory Picture

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

Chief Legal Officer

Ian brings over 20 years of experience in capital markets and fintech and is widely regarded as one of the UK’s foremost experts in blockchain and digital assets. He most recently led KPMG’s UK Crypto &amp; Digital Assets practice, and previously served as Executive Director and Board Advisor to CryptoUK, the UK’s digital asset trade association.

Ian Taylor

Chief Operating Officer

Chris is a passionate advocate for the potential of technology and the benefits of diversity and inclusion. His core policy focus is on digital technology for the public good with a particular interest in technologies such as AI and blockchain.



In Parliament, he specializes in legislation that deals with technology. He is a member of the House of Lord’s Digital and Communications Select Committee and was appointed to the Special Bill Committee considering Digital Asset legislation. He introduced a private members’ bill that proposed the regulation of artificial intelligence and was integral to the passing of the ground-breaking Electronic Trade Documents Bill.



On technology, he has previously co-authored House of Lords Select Committee Reports on: Democracy and Digital Technologies [2020], Artificial Intelligence [2018], and Digital Skills [2015] and under his own auspices published an influential report encouraging government testing of blockchain solutions for policy delivery, DLT for Public Good: leadership, collaboration and innovation [2017] He is also adviser to several tech and fintech companies.



On inclusion, and again under his own auspices, he has published influential reports on accessibility in the public realm and support for disabled students as well as Lords reports on Financial Exclusion [2017], Social Mobility [2016] and, for the Cabinet Office, The Lord Holmes Review on opening up public appointments to disabled people. He continues to advise the government on diversity and inclusion.



An ex-Paralympic swimmer, Chris won nine gold, five silvers and one bronze medal across four Games, including a record haul of six golds at Barcelona 1992.

Lord Holmes of Richmond MBE

Member of Parliament

To Be Announced

Manager Pitch: Quant Strategy

Ruud Smets is the Managing Partner and CIO at Theta Capital Management, one of theworld’s largest fund of funds allocators in blockchain-native VCs, having deployed a $650 million into early-stage strategy across 45+ specialized managers since 2018. Under Ruud's stewardship, Theta has secured early, private-stage exposure to 80% of successful blockchain projects, leveraging its unique relationships with top VCs. With Master’sdegrees in Information Technology and  Investment Theory and as a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst, Ruud combines deep financial acumen with blockchain expertise. Ruud joined Theta in 2005 and has positioned the firm as a pioneering, AIFMD licensed fund manager, offering unmatched access to blockchain’s investment potential.

Ruud Smets

Managing Partner & CIO 

Stablecoins, Psychedelics, and Crypto's Next Decade

Christian Angermayer is a serial entrepreneur and investor who builds and invests in companies that are shaping the Next Human Agenda: a future in which technology empowers people to live longer, healthier, and happier lives. He is the world’s leading advocate for human enhancement and believes in advancing scientific progress to usher in an era of physical and mental potential, improving life for all.



Apeiron Investment Group, Christian’s family office and private investment firm, has more than USD 2.5 billion under management and 50 people in London, New York City, Abu Dhabi and Berlin. Apeiron focuses on Life Sciences, FinTech &amp; Crypto, Future Tech, Natural Resources &amp; Clean Energy, and Experiences, Hospitality &amp; Happiness. Over the past 20 years, Christian has founded three unicorns and has been the lead investor in four unicorns and two decacorns.

Christian Angermayer

Founder & Chairman

Zaheer Ebtikar

Founder

The Future of Digital Assets in the UK

Nigel Farage is the Reform UK MP for Clacton, and has been an MP continually since 4 July 2024.

Nigel Farage MP

Leader of Reform UK & Member of Parliament

Lunch

The Future of Crypto Trading Environments

As President of Bullish Exchange, Chris provides strategic leadership to broaden Bullish’s institutional customer base, expand its regulatory footprint, and drive the platform’s next phase of growth. Prior to this role, Chris served as Vice President, Head of Institutional, where he led strategic initiatives that fueled growth and innovation between the exchange and exchange-related products.Chris joined Bullish after nearly five years at Fidelity, where he was instrumental in their rapid growth, serving in various leadership roles including Head of Institutional, Head of Europe, and President of Fidelity Digital Asset Management. Prior to Fidelity, he was a Managing Director at Barclays Investment Bank, where he led commodities trading and digital assets.Chris holds a Bachelor of Science in Accounting and Finance from the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Chris Tyrer 

President

Chris Lawn is the Chief Executive Officer of Elwood Technologies, a leading fintech firm providing institutional-grade digital asset trading, portfolio, and risk management software. With over 30 years in global macro trading and portfolio management, he has held front-office roles at Graham Capital, Woodbine Capital, and Caxton Associates. Transitioning to digital assets, Chris advised firms like Edgewater Markets, One River Digital, and Coinbase, and subsequently joined Brevan Howard’s Principal Investments team as Crypto Strategic Advisor. Since joining Elwood in 2023, he has driven the company’s growth, positioning it as a key player in institutional digital asset infrastructure.

Chris Lawn

Chief Executive Officer

Mark Jennings

CEO - Europe

The Stablecoin Revolution & What Comes Next for Global Payments

Rob Hadick is a General Partner at Dragonfly, a ~$4bn crypto focused investment firm. Previously, he helped lead multi-stage investments into crypto companies and protocols at GoldenTree Asset Management ("GTAM"), a ~$50bn multi-strategy hedge fund. Prior to GTAM, Rob invested in and advised fintech, technology, and crypto companies while at Heritage Partners, Goldman Sachs, and PJT Partners. He holds a MBA from Columbia Business School, and a Bachelors in Economics and Political Science from Washington University in St. Louis.

Rob Hadick

General Partner

Diogo is the co-founder of Anchorage Digital, where he served as President prior to joining Haun Ventures and where he currently serves as Executive Chairman. Anchorage Digital is the first federally chartered crypto-native bank in the US. Prior to founding Anchorage Digital, Diogo served as Platform Security Lead at Square (now known as Block). At Square, Diogo worked on the infrastructure security platform (including identity, access management, and responses systems) that is now used to move over $200B in annualized gross payments volume. Diogo also served as Security Lead at Docker, where he and his team wrote code that helps secure one of the core underpinnings of modern computing infrastructure: containers. Diogo serves as the Chairman of the NEAR Foundation. He previously served as an advisor to Airtable and StackRox.

Diogo Monica

Simon Taylor is the Founder of Fintech Brainfood. Simon has been immersed in the technology of financial services for as long as he’s been working and is consistently voted one of the most influential people in Banking, Insurance and Fintech by banks, his peers and a number of industry bodies. Simon runs Fintech Brainfood, the weekly newsletter subscribed to by over 45k people at banks, fintech companies and VCs. A regular speaker, media presenter and podcaster, Simon has spent two decades in financial services in payments, banking, crypto and consulting. Simon is now focused on bringing payments onchain at Tempo, the payments-focused Blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm.

Simon Taylor

Founder & Advisor

Building Robust Onchain Financial Markets: Debt, Equity, and Beyond

David Rodriguez

Research Services Manager

Sandy Kaul is senior vice president, Franklin Templeton, providing advisory consulting for the firm and thought leadership as part of the Franklin Templeton Institute. She delivers actionable intelligence and insights on the future of the investment and wealth management industry for the firm and its clients. Ms. Kaul has cultivated deeply informed insights and has an extensive background in driving market leading research, thought leadership and predictive models centered on the evolution of the investment and wealth management industry. She identifies and champions opportunities to address industry advancements and drive transformation, with a focus on innovative distribution trends and digital disruption. She delivers strategic insights to inform the firm's decision-making on partnerships and investments, including within Franklin Templeton's growing digital asset business. Ms. Kaul has over 25 years of well-rounded industry experience and is a frequent speaker at industry events and a widely published author. She combines her unique blend of sell-side, buy-side and consulting insights to drive her research and thought leadership around what constitutes best practices and where innovation is occurring. Ms. Kaul joined Franklin Templeton in 2022 from Citi, where she served as Managing Director and Global Head of Business Advisory Services, and launched and built out the Citi's Business Advisory Services practice, a market leading provider of industry thought leadership spanning Citi's Markets and Global Wealth organizations. Ms. Kaul rejoined Citi in 2009, after originally starting her career there in 1985 as a Futures Research Analyst covering the soft commodities markets with Citi's predecessor firm, Shearson Lehman Brothers. She joined Commodities Corporation/Goldman Sachs Asset Management in 1995 as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) and Portfolio Manager. After managing money for nearly six years, Ms. Kaul shifted her attention to consulting where she led the strategy practice within the Financial Services division of the renowned dot.com firm, Scient, and then went on to become a Partner at the capital markets niche management consulting firm m.a.partners/Detica. Ms. Kaul holds a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Colgate University.

Sandy Kaul

EVP & Head of Innovation

Simone Maini

Jeremy Ng is the Founder and CEO of OpenEden Group, a leading real-world asset (RWA) tokenization platform. He brings over 20 years of experience in institutional finance, fintech, and digital assets, and leads the company's strategic direction and growth as it builds compliant, tokenized RWA products that bridge traditional finance and Web3. Prior to founding OpenEden, Jeremy served as the APAC CEO of Gemini Exchange, establishing it as Singapore's leading fiat on-ramp exchange. He also held senior leadership roles at tier-1 investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, Leonteq, and Morgan Stanley.

Jeremy Ng

Founder & CEO

Brett has a broad transactional and advisory practice, advising on the law and regulation applicable to a broad range of energy, commodity, environmental, and digital asset products and markets.  He has well over 20 years’ experience advising energy and commodity traders, banks, exchanges and clearing houses, and trade associations on power and gas trading, carbon trading, listed derivatives, Exchange-Traded Notes (ETNs), and other complex products, as well as regulatory and compliance matters. During this time, Brett has advised on a wide range of“market-leading” transactions and matters. In recent years, Brett’s practice has increasingly encompassed blockchain and digital-assets related matters. Brett is a member of On-Chain: Reed Smith’s Crypto &amp;amp; Digital Assets Group and his practice in this area includes tokenisation structures, regulatory structuring and market access issues, digital asset derivatives, and developing and structuring ETNs and investment products based on digital assets.

Brett Hillis

Partner

From Passive to Productive: Enabling Institutional Staking

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

Senior Reporter

Hadley is the Chief Commercial Officer at Marinade Labs, the web3 software development team behind Solana liquid and native staking protocol Marinade. He previously founded and led Fidelity’s digital assets division, after serving as SVP of Fidelity Labs where he led several divisions to research and pilot several emerging technologies, including wearable computing, VR/AR, mobile applications (including the company’s first-ever app and app brokerage), AI, and others. He also led global digital asset custody for the Bank of New York Mellon, where he launched the industry’s first bank-grade platform for digital asset custody on bitcoin and Ethereum. He also served as COO at blockchain infrastructure company Bloq, and previously led Amazon Web Services’ AWS Innovation Lab.

Hadley Stern

Chief Commercial Officer

Mara Schmiedt, CEO and Co-Founder of Alluvial, oversees business, operations, and strategy. She previously worked at Coinbase as Head of Sales for Coinbase Cloud, managed Business Development at Bison Trails, and served as Strategy Manager at ConsenSys, focusing on Codefi. Mara is a board member at Obol Labs, a leading DVT provider, and a strategic angel investor in over 15 projects. Passionate about open-source technology, she has published research on liquid staking and led a working group with the Ethereum Foundation that developed the Ethereum Launchpad and the first DVT proof of concepts.

Mara Schmiedt

CEO & Co-Founder

Serafin Lion Engel is the Founder and CEO of Yield.xyz (formerly StakeKit), the ultimate Web 3 yield infrastructure Backed by Multicoin Capital, Yield.xyz provides customers access to over 1,000 self-custodial yields across staking, stablecoins, and DeFi. The platform facilitates over $100 million in monthly volume and powers more than 50 of the leading companies in Web3 and Fintech, including wallets like Ledger and neobanks like DeBlock.



 Before Yield.xyz, Serafin founded Omni in 2021, one of the first mobile multichain wallets. Omni was acquired by Paxful via Echo Base in 2024. Serafin entered the crypto space in 2014 through Draper University and began building on Ethereum in 2016, pioneering data sovereignty technologies and early data marketplaces.

Serafin Lion Engel

Hong Sun joined Core as institutional contributor after serving as the VP of BD at Paxos, where he focused on infrastructure and stablecoin partnerships. He has led efforts to introduce Core’s dual staking solutions, which unlock sustainable Bitcoin yields at scale for institutional investors. Hong actively educates stakeholders on Core’s innovative staking mechanisms, helping drive institutional adoption of Bitcoin DeFi.

Hong Sun

Institutional Contributor

Networking Area Happy Hour
Sponsored by Eigenlayer 

Eigenlayer

Debate: Is Crypto Collapsing the Public/Private Market Distinction?

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

Managing Partner

Santiago Roel Santos (CryptoPunk #9159) is an investor focusing at the intersection of DeFi and the Web3 metaverse (NFTs/gaming). Most recently was a Partner at ParaFi Capital, one of the largest crypto funds specializing in DeFi. Prior to that, he was at Sageview Capital investing in Internet and software and, before that, at JP Morgan investment banking. Santiago began investing in crypto in 2012.

Santiago Roel Santos

Ran Neuner is the founder of Crypto Banter, one of the world’s largest and most influential crypto media platforms. With over 1.5 million YouTube subscribers, 10M+ monthly views, and one of the most engaged communities in the industry, Crypto Banter is a go-to source for real-time crypto content. Ran personally hosts the largest live crypto show on the internet. He also co-founded Crypto Town Hall, a leading daily X (formerly Twitter) Spaces series, alongside Mario Nawfal and Scott Melker, making it one of the most consistent and widely followed audio platforms in the crypto space. In addition to his media leadership, Ran is the CEO of Onchain Capital, a blockchain investment fund and advisory firm that manages over $250 million in venture and listed crypto assets. Ran gained international recognition as the creator, producer, and host of CNBC’s “Crypto Trader”, the world’s first televised cryptocurrency show, where he interviewed the biggest names in Web3 during their earliest days, building a vast network of early blockchain pioneers in the process. Before entering the crypto industry, Ran was already an award-winning entrepreneur. He co-founded and scaled The Creative Counsel, Africa’s largest marketing agency, which was acquired by Publicis Groupe in 2015 for over $150 million, marking one of the continent’s largest private transactions at the time. Ran’s mission is to build the most profitable and educated crypto community in the world, a vision he pursues through a mix of educational content, community-building, investment, and mentorship.

Ran Neuner

The Digital Asset Treasuries State of the Union

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

Founder & Managing Partner

Jeff Park is the CIO of ProCap. He also serves as an advisor to Bitwise Investments.

Jeff Park

Seth Ginns is a Managing Partner and Head of Liquid Investments at CoinFund, and a key member of the Venture Investment Committee. He has 20 years of Wall Street experience and has been deeply involved in the crypto community since his angel investment in Coinbase in 2012. He is also an angel in Starkware, Chainalysis, participated in the Ethereum ICO in 2014, and loves traveling globally to developer events as a way to keep a finger on the pulse of the market. His angel portfolio also includes Instacart, BillionToOne and DoorDash, and many earlier stage, high growth startups.



Prior to CoinFund, Seth invested in public growth equities over 18 years at Jennison Associates. He holds a BA in Mathematics and South Asia Studies from the University of Pennsylvania, where he serves on the International Advisory Board of the Center for the Advanced Study of India at the School of Arts and Sciences and served as an Overseer at the School of Nursing and Co-Chair of the Innovation Committee.

Seth Ginns

Managing Partner & Head of Liquid Investments

Boomtime: Internet Capital Markets Are Here

Marc Thomas-Arjoon

Research Analyst

Stephen Hess is the founder of Metaplex, the leading protocol for digital assets on Solana. As a Director of the Metaplex Foundation, he drives strategy, product and ecosystem growth, supporting thousands of applications and millions of users who rely on the protocol. Metaplex now powers 99% of tokens and NFTs on Solana, and through its Genesis protocol is opening the Internet Capital Markets, giving projects and entrepreneurs the ability to launch onchain and access global capital from day one. Previously, Stephen served as Head of Product at Solana Labs, where he helped scale the application layer of the network and introduced the first liquid staking programs, bridges, stablecoins, games, token standards and ecosystem integrations.

Stephen Hess

Perps & Predictions: How Crypto Will Transform TradFi Derivatives

Boccaccio

Analyst

Alexia Theodorou is head of derivatives at Kraken, responsible for the development and product strategy of Kraken's full suite of fixed-term and perpetual contracts. Before joining Kraken, Alexia was the Chief Strategy Officer at Trading Point Group and has more than 15 years worth of experience in traditional finance, including at UBS and JPMorgan. Alexia is a qualified Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and holds degrees from Imperial College London and the University of Cambridge.

Alexia Theodorou

Head of Derivatives

The Evolution of Digital Asset Hedge Funds (Chatham House Rules)

William joined Marshall Wace in May 2022 to oversee Fintech and Digital Assets investments for MW Digital Finance Fund.



Prior to joining Marshall Wace, William worked at Candy Capital, a family office where he was responsible for various investments across the technology sector. Prior to Candy Capital, William worked for HSBC and Greyspark Partners, were he was heading Fintech Investment Advisory. William is also an active seed investor across digital assets and fintech.

William Benattar

Technology Investor

Nikita is a Managing Partner and Head of Fasanara Digital, the crypto division of Fasanara Capital, a $5 billion hedge fund based in London. He oversees the investment strategies and strategic direction of Fasanara Digital. He originally started The Quant Group from his dorm room, building quant strategies for digital assets. In 2018, the team joined Fasanara Capital and became Fasanara Digital, which has since grown into one of the leading and best-performing digital asset funds in the space.



Additionally, Nikita is the founder of The Digital Asset Conference, an annual event aimed at advancing industry adoption, and hosts the Speaking to Legends podcast. He’s a regular speaker at major crypto conferences and has been recognised by Forbes 30 Under 30 and Financial News’ Rising Stars in Finance. Nikita is also a Young Leader Circle (YLC) at the Milken Institute, and holds a BSc in Mathematics from the University of St Andrews.

Nikita Fadeev

Partner & Head of Fasanara Digital 

Matteo Dante Perruccio is Executive Advisor at 3iQ (<a href="https://3iq.io/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">https://3iq.io/</a>) the global digital asset investment manager founded in 2012. Matteo has spent over 35 years in various strategic and leadership roles across the asset management industry, which includes CEO of Pioneer Investments. He was also a non-executive director and Global Head of Key Clients &amp; Strategic Partners at Jupiter Asset Management, a $80 billion FTSE asset manager based in the UK.



Matteo also founded alternative investment advisory boutique Hermes BPK, a joint venture with the British Telecom Pension Scheme. He has extensive experience in the family office space, having served as Chairman of Secofind Multi-family Office. Most recently he was President International at SEC registered Wave Digital Assets.

Matteo Dante Perruccio

Head of Research at Outerlands Capital

Felix Stratmann

Head of Research

Welcome back to DAS: London - Day 2

The Path to Trillions: Ethereum's Institutional Dominance

Joseph Lubin is a co-founder of Ethereum, the founder and CEO of <a href="https://consensys.net/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Consensys</a> and Chairman of SharpLink. Since 2014, Consensys has played a foundational role in Ethereum’s growth, from pioneering products like MetaMask and Infura to shaping protocol development and staking infrastructure.



Born and raised in Toronto, Lubin graduated from Princeton University with a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He worked in the Princeton Robotics Lab, at tomandandy music developing an autonomous music composition tool, and at private research firm Vision Applications Inc. building autonomous mobile robots.



As a software and AI consultant, Lubin worked with eMagine on the Identrus project and was involved in the founding and operation of a hedge fund with a partner. He held positions as Director of the New York office of Blacksmith Software Consulting, and VP of Technology in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs. Through these posts, Joe focused on the intersection of cryptography, engineering, and finance.



In 2014 he met Vitalik Buterin, a Canadian programmer, writer and Founder of Ethereum and joined the Ethereum Project as a co-founder. After the Project was launched, Joe established Consensys. Since 2014 Joe and the Consensys team have been working on the foundational software for web3, the next wave of the internet for a decentralized future.

Joseph Lubin

Co-Founder of Ethereum, Founder/CEO of Consensys & Chairman of SharpLink.

In July 2025, Joseph Chalom joined SharpLink as Co-Chief Executive Officer, bringing with him over 20 years of institutional leadership at the intersection of traditional finance and digital assets. As former Managing Director and Head of Strategic Ecosystem Partnerships at BlackRock, Joseph was instrumental in driving the firm’s global strategy across digital assets, fintech innovation, and blockchain infrastructure.

Joseph Chalom

Co-CEO

Building the World’s Trust Network: The ZK Revolution for Enterprises

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

Co-Founder & Creator

Zksync

Asset Management's Embrace of the Staking Economy

Marinade

Yield: The Missing Link for Bitcoin

Richard Green

Director of Rootstock Institutional

Rootstock

The Trajectory of Financial Services in the EU 

Elif Bilgi Zapparoli is head of International Client Strategy. In this role, Elif leverages her long-standing relationships around the world to ensure connectivity and consistency in delivering the firm to our clients and develops strategic business initiatives.



 The role is a franchise function, covering both banking and markets clients and bringing the firm together, such as in Sovereign Solutions Group and International Analytics, with the objective of adding strategic value to clients and utilizing the full might of our platform. Elif is a member of Bank of America’s Management Committee, International Management Committee and the Global Corporate &amp; Investment Banking (GCIB) Executive Committee. 



She is based in Paris. Prior to this position, Elif served as co-head of Global Capital Markets at BofA Securities, the institutional broker dealer business of Bank of America. In this role, she was responsible for leading four primary businesses – Equity Capital Markets, Investment Grade Capital Markets and Debt Advisory, Leveraged Finance and Rates and Currencies Solutions. Her earlier roles included serving as co-head of Asia Pacific GCIB from 2015 to 2018, head of Investment Banking coverage in Central-Eastern Europe, Middle East, and Africa, and country executive for Turkey. Elif served from 2009 to 2019 as a member of the Supervisory Board of OMV Aktiengesellschaft. She was a trustee at Robert College from 2006 to 2022 and is on the Global Advisory Council of Harvard University.



She has been recognized by Barron's as one of the 100 Most Influential Women in U.S. Finance in 2022; by American Banker as one of the Most Powerful Women in Finance for the fourth consecutive year in 2023; and by the World Economic Forum as one of the 100 Global Leaders for Tomorrow in 2004.



Elif holds a Master of Business Administration from the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and a Bachelor of Arts degree in economics and international relations from Brown University and the London School of Economics and Political Science.

Elif Bilgi Zapparoli

Head of International Client Strategy

The Fruits of RWAs: 24/7 Markets & Real Utility

Peter Left

Head of Digital & Markets Innovation

Serene Murphy is head of corporate development, Europe &amp; Asia at Tradeweb. Serene manages a team focused on identifying trends and opportunities to grow the Tradeweb business, and is responsible for sourcing and executing these opportunities across the firm’s divisions. She also works in partnership with business product heads to drive innovation and design of new products and offerings. After joining Tradeweb in 2011, Serene spearheaded the launch of its wholesale business (Dealerweb) in Europe, and drove the design and implementation of the firm’s link to China’s Northbound Bond Connect initiative. She also led Tradeweb’s acquisition of Australian trading platform Yieldbroker, as well as other strategic investments, including several partnerships in the digital space. In recognition of her contributions to Tradeweb and the industry, Serene won the ‘Excellence in Innovation’ category in the European Women in Finance Awards 2022, and was included in the 2023 FN100 Women in European Finance list. In early 2024, she joined as an independent non-executive director the board of Axiology, a Vilnius-based alternative capital market infrastructure. Prior to Tradeweb, Serene worked in the Principal Strategic Investments group at Goldman Sachs in New York and London. She holds a BA in Economics from Boston College.

Serene Murphy

Head of Corporate Development - Europe & Asia 

Yuval co-founded Digital Asset in 2014 to harness the promise of blockchain technology to create an open financial network where value flows as freely as information on the internet.



 As a Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset, Yuval has been instrumental in reshaping global finance by merging traditional systems with the power of decentralized technology. Yuval played a pivotal role in the formation of the Canton Network, the only public layer-one blockchain with privacy. He is also a Board Member and Treasurer of the Global Synchronizer Foundation, which he helped to create with the support of the Linux Foundation, to bring fair and transparent decentralized governance and organizational neutrality to the adoption and evolution of the Canton Network.



 Yuval is a member of the Digital Asset Markets subcommittee of the U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) Global Market Advisory Committee and serves on the Board of Directors of the Global Blockchain Business Council, a leading industry association for the blockchain technology ecosystem. He has also testified before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Subcommittee on Digital Assets, Financial Technology and Inclusion. Before founding Digital Asset, Yuval gained extensive experience in finance and technology, holding key positions at Citadel and DRW Trading, where he managed an algorithmic trading desk and helped launch DRW Venture Capital.

Yuval Rooz

CEO & Founder

Canton

Inside the Goldman Sachs Crypto Playbook

Mathew has more than 25 years of industry and leadership experience, having previously held several leadership positions at Goldman Sachs globally and across different functions. As Global Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, Mathew is responsible for leading the firm’s cross-divisional digital assets strategy, which includes a wide range of client-led tokenization activities, crypto-linked product offerings and blockchain investments.

Mathew McDermott

Head of Digital Assets

Bridging Institutions and Innovation in the Digital Asset Era

Ben Strack is a senior reporter covering the intersection of crypto and traditional finance. He is the author of Blockworks' Forward Guidance newsletter. Prior to joining Blockworks, he covered the asset management industry for Fund Intelligence and was an editor for several local Long Island newspapers. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a degree in journalism.

Ben Strack

Prior to joining the Board of the Algorand Foundation, Staci ran the Global Market Development practice at the Milken Institute, where she led its work on capital market development, crypto/blockchain solutions, and innovative finance to promote the sustainable development goals. Prior to Milken, Staci ran JPMorgan’s EMEA public sector practice out of London. Before JPMorgan, she led the Nasdaq’s two markets for microcap companies, and in the public and non-profit sectors had senior roles at the U.S. Treasury Department, the Center for Global Development, and the Harvard Institute for International Development. Staci has done business in more than 50 countries and has advised and spoken widely on the potential for cryptocurrencies and blockchain to solve real-world problems, and for financial innovation to improve inclusion and reduce global poverty. In addition to the Algorand Foundation, she sits on the Boards of the Global Blockchain Business Council, the Rwandan Capital Market Authority, and the Energy for Growth Hub. She also serves on the advisory committees of the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF), the European Parliament’s Science and Technology Committee (STOA), the U.S. Financial Technology Association, and Evolution Environmental Asset Management.

Staci Warden

Algorand

Debate: Are Corporate Chains a Win for Crypto?

Andrew Peel is CEO and Founder of TVL Capital and a board member of SIX Digital Exchange. With 20 years in global finance, including as Head of Digital Assets at Morgan Stanley, he has been active in digital assets since 2013. TVL Capital is a Swiss investment and technology firm positioned at the intersection of TradFi and DeFi, focused on asset management, technology, and onchain product issuance.

Andrew Peel

Real-World Impact: Driving Utility and Adoption Through Tokenization

Morgan Krupetsky is Senior Director of Business Development for Institutions &amp; Capital Markets at Ava Labs. In her role, Morgan partners with financial services institutions as they operationalize their digital asset strategies, as well as with early stage teams building blockchain-enabled products and services for institutions.



Before joining Ava Labs, Morgan spent 12 years at Citi; she spent the majority of that time on the Institutional FX &amp; Macro sales desk covering Hedge Funds, Asset Managers, and Pension Funds, before transitioning to become Chief of Staff to Citi’s Chief Compliance Officer.

Morgan Krupetsky

VP of Onchain Finance

Gregg Bell

Debate: Stablecoins vs. Tokenized Deposits vs. CBDC

Theo is an investment manager at Baillie Gifford and Chair of the Tokenisation Working Group. Theo is the architect of the firm's tokenisation strategy, and responsible for designing and creating tokenised funds as one of the firm's Digital Asset experts. Theo co-manages the Baillie Gifford Strategic Bond Strategy, and is chair of the Corporate Credit Macro Group. Prior to joining Baillie Gifford in 2021, Theo was a financial journalist from 2019, with roles at various news outlets including Bloomberg and Business Insider. Theo graduated BA (Hons) in Music from Durham University in 2020 and is a CFA Charterholder.

Theo Golden

Investment Manager

Jose Fernandez da Ponte is SVP and GM of blockchain, crypto, and digital currencies (BCDC) at PayPal. Fernandez da Ponte joined PayPal in June 2019 and assumed his current&nbsp;role in January 2021.&nbsp;Prior to this position, he led PayPal’s Global Business Development team, started the company’s early efforts in crypto and participated in PayPal’s geographic expansion to China and Latin America. He has been involved in cryptocurrencies since 2015, including as EVP of the New Digital Businesses unit of BBVA driving financial applications of decentralized protocols. He is a member of the Global Future Council on Cryptocurrencies at the World Economic Forum and part of the Advisory Board at Blockchain Capital.



In addition to his work on digital currencies, he has 15 years of experience in payments and banking in North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America. Before PayPal and BBVA, he was a consultant with McKinsey &amp; Company and a member of the Board of Directors of low-cost airline clickair.



Jose has a MSc from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BSc from Universidad Pontificia Comillas in Madrid.

José Fernández De Ponte

Ryan is based in London and heads up Digital Assets globally and Strategic Investments across Europe and Asia at Barclays. The DA team is responsible for digital asset strategy, governance and the establishment of new asset, money and tokenisation initiatives across the bank. The SI team is responsible for originating, executing and portfolio managing all strategic principal equity investments made by Barclays in external companies.  Ryan joined Barclays in 2011 as an M&amp;amp;A advisor in the investment bank and moved to the Strategy and Corporate Development team in 2013, where he acted as a principal in originating and executing M&amp;amp;A transactions.Prior to Barclays, Ryan was at Nevsky Capital, a $7bn long/short equity asset manager, where he covered a range of sectors including oil &amp;amp; gas, chemicals and agriculture and before that worked at Deutsche Bank as a corporate finance advisor in the Industrials practice across Europe. Ryan holds a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from the University of Oxford and also holds an MA (Oxon) from the University of Oxford.

Ryan Hayward

Head of Digital Assets & Strategic Investments

Crypto Beyond Speculation: Enterprise, Payments, and Apps

Jess is the CEO of WalletConnect, the connectivity layer for the financial internet. Previously she led Crypto at Checkout.com, a global fintech company. Jess was also a member of the Bank of England CBDC Engagement Forum and a member of UK Finance New Digital Money Steering Group, Innovate Finance Fintech Strategy Group and Department for International Trade Fintech Group.

Jess Houlgrave

SVP - Blockchain, Digital Assets, and FinTech Enablement

Digital Asset Summit 2025 - London

Agenda

Main Stage

Institutional

Investor