Travis Kling is Founder & Chief Investment Officer at Ikigai Asset Management, a L/S, multistrat crypto asset management firm based in Marina del Rey, California. Prior to founding Ikigai, Travis spent ten years in traditional finance. Most recently, he was a L/S Equity Portfolio Manager ($200mm) at Point 72 ($90bn) through 2017. Prior to that, Travis was an Energy Analyst at Magnetar Capital ($4.6bn), 2011 to 2015, investing across the capital structure in L/S equities and non-control private equity and debt. From 2008 to 2010, he was an Investment Banker with Simmons & Company, focused on M&A. Travis has a BBA in Accounting and MS in Finance from Texas A&M University.

Mrinalini “Ria” Bhutoria has an extensive background in digital finance. Before her current role as director of research at Fidelity Digital Assets, she was 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.

Ben Forman is the Founder and Managing Partner of ParaFi Capital, an investment firm focused on blockchain and decentralized finance.   Prior to founding ParaFi in 2018, Ben spent 10 years investing across private equity and credit markets.  Most recently, Ben was a Director at KKR, responsible for leading investments across the capital structure, including distressed debt, special situations, and liquid credit, on behalf of KKR Credit’s $70 billion of assets under management.  Prior to joining KKR, Mr. Forman spent four years at TPG Sixth Street Partners, the credit investment platform of TPG Capital, with over $30 billion of assets under management.  At TPG, Mr. Forman served as a Vice President and one of the first employees of the private credit business, TPG Specialty Lending, which publicly listed on the NYSE in 2014.  Prior to TPG, Mr. Forman worked at Littlejohn & Co., a middle market private equity firm, and Rothschild & Co., an M&A and restructuring investment bank. Mr. Forman graduated with a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics and Economics, magna cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania.

Dmitry is a software and financial engineer. Prior to founding Copper, Dmitry was CTO and Partner at Dolfin Asset Management in Mayfair. He is a passionate advocate for the role distributed ledger technology will have in reshaping financial services.

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.

David Mercer is the Chief Executive Officer of LMAX Group –  a global, diversified financial technology business, that operates multiple institutional execution venues for trading FX and crypto currencies. David is a former City banking executive and currency specialist, with an extensive track record of building profitable, innovative, high growth businesses, ranging from start-ups to turn arounds of growth-stage companies.

David joined LMAX Group as chief executive in 2011 and led the successful management buyout of the company in 2013. Since then, he has built LMAX Group into the leading operator of institutional FX exchanges, now trading over $4 trillion in notional volume a year. LMAX Exchange has been recognised as one of the UK’s fastest growing technology companies and has established presence globally.

Prior to joining LMAX Group, David was CEO at Cantos, Non-Executive Director at Velocity Trade and COO of the Emerging Markets business at Credit Suisse. He has also held senior executive roles at IFX Markets and Saxo Bank (Synthesis Bank) in London, Geneva and Sydney. David started his financial services career in the Banking and Regulatory division of Ernst & Young in 1989.

Hunter’s background is in traditional financial markets and cryptocurrency. As Head of U.S., Hunter spearheaded the opening of Bitstamp’s New York City office and is focused on serving institutional clients while also helping to grow the company’s US retail business. Prior to Bitstamp, Hunter was the Head of Trading at Coinbase, where he led the buildout of the over- the-counter trading business, including business development and sales, driving overall platform growth of institutional investors. He also brings extensive leadership from traditional financial institutions, having spent a number of years in equity trading at Barclays, RBC Capital Markets, and Credit Suisse.

Daniel Payne is a member of Murphy & McGonigle’s FinTech & 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. 

Mr. Payne is the architect of Murphy & 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.