INTRODUCING BLOCKWORKS RESEARCH: INSIGHTS YOU CAN’T INVEST WITHOUT
Moderator
David Hoffman
Bankless
Co-Founder
Bankless
Co-Founder
David Hoffman is co-founder of Bankless and is a steward of crypto culture. David focuses on writing fundamental investment theses for Ether and Ethereum, while also making deep connections to impacting culture and the psyche of those who adopt a crypto lifestyle. David holds 99% of his wealth outside of Banks and inside of Ethereum, and is focused on leading the way for others to do the same.
Justin Drake
The Ethereum Foundation
Researcher
The Ethereum Foundation
Researcher
Kevin Owocki
Gitcoin.co
Founder
Gitcoin.co
Founder
Kevin Owocki is the founder of Gitcoin.co — Where builders & funders come together to build the open web. Gitcoin has delivered $50mm worth of value to OSS devs in the last several years. He has a BS in Computer Science, 15 years of engineering leadership experience in Open Source Software and Web Startups. Kevin is a community organizer in the Boulder Colorado Tech Scene.
Mariano Conti
Angel Investor
Angel Investor
Mariano Conti was Head of Smart Contracts at the Maker Foundation and is currently an angel investor in the Ethereum ecosystem.
Evin McMullen
Disco
CEO & Co-Founder
Disco
CEO & Co-Founder
Evin McMullen is CEO and Co-founder of Disco, your identity for the Metaverse. Disco enables your personal data backpack, making data and reputation portable across web2 and the web3 blockchain ecosystem.
Her previous work includes connected hardware and experience design disruptions for autonomous automotive, luxury, beauty, healthcare & connected home. Evin also led the world’s first initiatives with NFTs at a major music festival, verifiable NFT authorship, and livestream media NFT issuance.
Evin has served as Head of the Story Department at a global film production studio, and a Director with Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Portfolio. She is a founding member of DAO Jones and inkDAO, a member of CompTIA’s Blockchain Council and an advisor to Web3 projects including Herd Social, Engage Raise and DoomsdayX. She is a graduate of Yale University.
Moderator
Ryan Sean Adams
Bankless
Co-Founder
Bankless
Co-Founder
Ryan Sean Adams is a crypto investor & co-founder of Bankless. He’s an open finance maximalist who propagates the message of financial sovereignty. His mission is to help onboard the first billion people to crypto through memes, media, and education.
Moderator
David Hoffman
Bankless
Co-Founder
Bankless
Co-Founder
David Hoffman is co-founder of Bankless and is a steward of crypto culture. David focuses on writing fundamental investment theses for Ether and Ethereum, while also making deep connections to impacting culture and the psyche of those who adopt a crypto lifestyle. David holds 99% of his wealth outside of Banks and inside of Ethereum, and is focused on leading the way for others to do the same.
Chris Dixon
Andreessen Horowitz
General Partner
Andreessen Horowitz
General Partner
Chris Dixon is a general partner and has been at Andreessen Horowitz since 2012. He founded and leads a16z Crypto, which invests in web3 technologies through three dedicated funds with more than $3 billion under management.
Previously, Chris was the cofounder and CEO of two startups, SiteAdvisor and Hunch. SiteAdvisor was an internet security company that warned web users of security threats. The company was acquired by McAfee in 2006. Hunch was a recommendation technology company that was acquired by eBay in 2011.
Chris has been a prolific seed investor, cofounding Founder Collective, a seed venture fund, and making a number of personal angel investments in various technology companies.
Chris started programming as a kid, and was a professional programmer after college at the high-speed options trading firm, Arbitrade. He has a BA and MA in Philosophy from Columbia and an MBA from Harvard. He has written about his theories and experiences as an entrepreneur and investor on Medium, and before that at cdixon.org; his a16z Podcast appearances can be found here.
Surojit Chatterjee
Coinbase
Chief Product Officer
Coinbase
Chief Product Officer
Surojit is Chief Product Officer at Coinbase where he is responsible for Product Management, Product Design, User Research, and Program Management. Before Coinbase, Surojit was Vice President and Head of Product for Google Shopping. Before that he worked as Senior Vice President and Head of Product & Design at Flipkart, India from 2015-2017. Previously, Surojit was a founding member of Google's mobile search ads product and helped make mobile search ads a growth engine for Google, growing it into a multi-billion dollar business.
Surojit has an MBA from MIT Sloan School of Management, a B. Tech in Computer Science from IIT Kharagpur and an MS in Computer Science from SUNY at Buffalo. Surojit has 33 US patents to his name in distributed computing, payments, mobile advertising, and location based technologies. Surojit is an active angel investor in many technology companies in Silicon Valley and India.
Santiago Roel Santos
ex-ParaFi Capital
Web3 Investor
ex-ParaFi Capital
Web3 Investor
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.
Josh Goodbody
Qredo
COO
Qredo
COO
Josh began his career in traditional finance — working on the legal side of the commodities and derivatives markets. While at a commodities fintech company in 2017, he encountered blockchain for the first time and was blown away by its potential to fix the fragmentation and antiquated processes found in legacy finance.
His first role in crypto was at the cryptocurrency exchange Huobi where he joined as Global General Counsel, later moving on to lead their Institutional Business. His most recent role before joining Qredo was at Binance, where he led and scaled the EMEA organization, helping it to become one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges by trading volume.
Joe Hoffend
Foundry
VP of Product Development
Foundry
VP of Product Development
Joe Hoffend is Foundry’s VP of Product Development. He started his career co-founding an eSports media company, and prior to joining Foundry, was at Fastly, helping improve the user experience of their Edge applications and partner offerings. Joe first became interested in blockchain in 2012 as he saw Bitcoin as the intersection of sound money and technology. Since then, he’s spent a good deal of time learning about blockchain technology and what problems it can help solve in the world and believes every asset will eventually be digitized. Joe has led Foundry’s Staking business as well as productizing other areas of the business.
Konstantin Richter
Blockdaemon
CEO & Founder
Blockdaemon
CEO & Founder
Blockdaemon founder & CEO, Konstantin Richter has been active in the blockchain ecosystem since 2015. He created Blockdaemon in 2017. It has grown to become the world’s largest institutional-grade blockchain infrastructure provider for node management and staking.
Moderator
Jason Yanowitz
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Anne Favre-Willis
OpenSea
VP of Special Projects
OpenSea
VP of Special Projects
Anne is the VP of Special Projects at OpenSea. She oversees platform development for community and creator-centric initiatives while managing the teams focused on the intersection of OpenSea and its creators. Prior to OpenSea, Anne was COO of Oasis Labs, the core contributors to the Oasis Network — a privacy-first Layer 1 blockchain network — and led their Mainnet development and token launch (ROSE). Before this Anne held roles as Product Manager / Product Marketing Manager for the iPhone at Apple, Director of Special Projects / Product Marketing at eero, and worked for former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright helping companies with regulatory issues abroad. She has an MBA from Harvard Business School and went to Georgetown for undergrad.
Li Jin
Variant
Co-Founder & General Partner
Variant
Co-Founder & General Partner
Morgan Beller
NFX
General Partner
NFX
General Partner
Morgan is a General Partner at NFX, a seed-stage venture capital fund.
Most recently, Morgan was at Facebook where she originally joined as part of the Corporate Development team in May 2017. Her main project was trying to answer the question "how should Facebook be thinking about blockchain?" This evolved into the creation of the dedicated blockchain team which later became Diem and Novi. Morgan was Head of Strategy for Facebook's Novi.
Morgan graduated from Cornell University with a bachelor's in Statistics and Information Science.
Moderator
Carly Reilly
Bankless
Host - Overpriced JPEGs podcast
Bankless
Host - Overpriced JPEGs podcast
Carly Reilly is the chief of staff at block::block, an early-stage blockchain startup. She is the host of Overpriced JPEGs, a Bankless HQ podcast about NFTs and the metaverse. She spent two years as national finance director for Andrew Yang’s 2020 presidential campaign; has worked at a hedge fund, a VC fund, and a production company, but has found her true passion in Web3.
She is a Washington Post contributor, former co-host of the Yang Speaks podcast, and has been featured by Bloomberg News.
Hasu
Flashbots
Strategy
Flashbots
Strategy
Stephane Gosselin
Flashbots
Architect, Steward, & Founder
Flashbots
Architect, Steward, & Founder
Vlad Tenev
Robinhood
CEO & Co-Founder
Robinhood
CEO & Co-Founder
Vlad Tenev is the Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of Robinhood Markets. In 2013, Vlad co-founded Robinhood with Baiju Bhatt to democratize investing. Before Robinhood, Vlad started two finance companies in New York City and earned his B.S. in Mathematics at Stanford University and M.S. in Mathematics at UCLA. Vlad has been recognized on the Forbes 30 under 30, Inc 30 under 30, and Fortune 40 under 40 lists. He was born in Bulgaria and grew up in the Washington, D.C. area.
Baiju Bhatt
Robinhood
Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder
Robinhood
Chief Creative Officer & Co-Founder
Baiju Bhatt is the Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder of Robinhood Markets. In 2013, Baiju
co-founded Robinhood with Vlad Tenev to democratize investing. Before Robinhood, Baiju
started two finance companies in NewYork City and earned his B.S. in Physics and M.S. in
Mathematics at Stanford University. Baiju has been recognized on the Fortune 40 under 40
list. He is the son of Indian immigrants and grew up in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia.
Alex Svanevik
Nansen
CEO
Nansen
CEO
As the CEO of Nansen, Alex drives the growth and adoption of the blockchain data analytics firm to provide crypto traders, hedge funds, institutional investors and VCs with insights into the crypto markets. Alex has over 10 years of experience in data science, management consulting, and cryptocurrencies. His academic background is in artificial intelligence and machine learning.
James Wang
Amun
Head of Tokens
Amun
Head of Tokens
James Wang is Head of Tokens for Amun. He is focused on building the future of crypto investing. Previously he was an analyst for ARK Invest for six years. He began his career as a tech columnist before moving up to work as editor-in-chief at Nvidia. He resides in New York City and attended UNSW in Australia.
Haseeb Qureshi
Dragonfly Capital
Managing Partner
Dragonfly Capital
Managing Partner
Haseeb is a Managing Partner at Dragonfly Capital. He was previously a partner at Metastable Capital, and has a background in software engineering at Airbnb and Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase).
Evgeny Gaevoy
Wintermute
Founder & CEO
Wintermute
Founder & CEO
Evgeny has 15+ years of experience growing fintech businesses. He has consistently grown market share in Europe’s top fiat exchanges, developed and executed ambitious expansion projects and led agile cross-functional teams. Prior to founding Wintermute, Evgeny built and ran the Optiver’s European ETF business (HFT and OTC) – one of the largest in the EU. Evgeny holds MSc in Finance and EMBA from London Business School.
Moderator
Michael Ippolito
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Michael Ippolito is a co-founder at Blockworks in charge of content and finance. 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&A strategy.
John Calabrese
Nansen
Head of Product
Nansen
Head of Product
John Calabrese leads Product at Nansen, delivering easy to use on-chain data insights to various customer groups from retail to institutional. With over 10 years of experience in product management focused on financial technology, John bridges the tradfi and defi chasm. Having roots in traditional finance, earning his CFA and FRM designations, he is most passionate about the future of finance where products are more decentralized, transparent, and efficient through blockchain technology. When not working or trading crypto, John can be found spending time with his Shiba Inu, Nutmeg.
Soona Amhaz
Volt Capital
Founder & GP
Volt Capital
Founder & GP
Soona Amhaz is founder and GP of Volt Capital, a venture firm that focuses on pre-seed and seed companies in the digital assets space. Soona is also an advisor to On Deck, Forbes 30 under 30 in VC, and an alum from the University of Michigan School of Engineering.
Charles Hamel
Ledger
VP of Product
Ledger
VP of Product
Charles is the VP of Product at Ledger, the world leader in digital assets security and self-custody applications, where he is defining the firm’s Web3 strategy and product offering. Prior to this, he was the Head of Crypto at Opera and pioneered the company’s entry into Web3.He holds a degree in Software Engineering from Laval University.
Josh Rosenthal, Ph.D.
6ixth event; Narwhal Ventures
Co-Founder, Partner; Managing Partner
6ixth event; Narwhal Ventures
Co-Founder, Partner; Managing Partner
Josh Rosenthal, Ph.D., a former Late Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation historian turned crypto-first investor. A Fulbright Recipient to the Sorbonne’s interdisciplinary think tank (École Pratique des Hautes Études), Josh founded multiple successful startups before starting a crypto-first founders’ fund, the 6ixth Event, and crypto-first family office, Narwhal Ventures. A guest lecturer at Harvard, Hopkins, and MIT, Josh explores how communities are using decentralized technology to reshape our world in what has become known as a Crypto Renaissance.
Mike Taormina
Index Cooperative
Index Cooperative
Lorien Gabel
Figment
CEO
Figment
CEO
Lorien is a wannabe polymath who was born in Malaysia while his dad was curing tropical diseases with the Peace Corps. Off to a cool start, he spent the next few years of his life in Hawaii, San Diego, India…before settling into the much more exciting, colorful and exceedingly polite land of Canada.
In 1994, at the age of 24, when Lorien’s younger brother Matt asked him to run his bourgeoning internet company, Lorien did what any self-respecting lawyer of 6 months would do--he quit. He moved the company from their parent’s basement and over the next four years managed the growth of Interlog, one of Canada’s first commercial ISP’s, to over 150 employees, 65,000 customers and profitability. The company was then acquired by a large multinational telecommunications provider.
Determined not to be one hit wonders. Lorien and Matt teamed up again and co-founded Bird on a Wire Networks - a managed web hosting and data-center provider which was one of the first of its kind in Canada. Within two years, the company was acquired by AT&T Canada. Their third start-up, pingg.com, based in New York City, was recently acquired by 1800-Flowers.
Lorien has also been known to run divisions of Fortune 500 companies (Micron), spearhead the exponential U.S. growth of a UK based tech company (MessageLabs) as Global VP Business Development, serve on the advisory board of a number of start-ups and whip up a mean breakfast of Spanish eggs.
Lorien has a LLB from Toronto’s Osgoode Hall Law School and is a member in good standing with the Ontario Bar.
Matt Leisinger
Figment
Head of Liquid Staking
Figment
Head of Liquid Staking
Matt is the Head of Liquid Staking Products at Figment, a blockchain infrastructure company focused on building web3. Prior to joining Figment, Matt spent 12 years in the proprietary trading space leading teams in building high-frequency, algorithmic trading systems. He was a Partner and Managing Director at Transmarket Group. Matt graduated from Purdue University with a degree in Computer Engineering and University of Chicago with a Master’s in Computer Science.
Mara Schmiedt
Coinbase Cloud
Head of Sales
Coinbase Cloud
Head of Sales
Mara is the Head of Sales at Coinbase Cloud (formerly Bison Trails), the leading developer platform for blockchain-based infrastructure services and APIs.
She has broad experience in bringing blockchain-based protocols, products and services to market. Prior to joining Coinbase, Mara managed Business Development at Bison Trails (acquired by Coinbase) and served as Strategy Manager at ConsenSys. She is passionate about open source technology and has led various initiatives including the development of the eth2 launchpad and distributed validator technology (DVT).
She is an active angel investor and serves as an advisor to various blockchain projects
Moderator
Alison Mangiero
Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA)
Acting Executive Director
Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA)
Acting Executive Director
Alison Mangiero is the Acting Executive Director of the Proof of Stake Alliance (POSA), an industry alliance advocating for innovation-friendly regulation of the growing proof-of-stake industry. Alison previously founded Tocqueville Group (TQ), which worked with various ecosystem partners around the world to incubate new ventures and build products, open source software, and other public goods for the Tezos ecosystem. Prior to founding TQ she spent a decade in public policy, and has broad experience fundraising and growing membership associations.
A recovering political scientist now focused on the ways blockchain technology will drive social, political, and economic innovation, Alison also currently teaches courses on Leadership, Entrepreneurship, and Public Policy at College of the Holy Cross and is on the Board of Advisors for the University of Richmond's Jepson School of Leadership Studies.
Robert Leshner
Compound Labs
CEO & Founder
Compound Labs
CEO & Founder
Robert is the CEO and founder of Compound Labs. Compound Labs created the Compound Protocol, a leading algorithmic, autonomous interest rate protocol; and Compound Treasury, a crypto-powered cash management solution designed for corporate treasuries and institutions.
Robert began his career in finance with Discover Financial Services and HPM Partners. He subsequently founded two software companies and worked as a product lead at Postmates. Robert graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a degree in Economics, and is a Chartered Financial Analyst. He is also an investor at Robot Ventures, which focuses on seed investments in fintech and crypto companies.
Stani Kulechov
Aave
Founder & CEO
Aave
Founder & CEO
Kain Warwick
Synthetix
Founder
Synthetix
Founder
Kain Warwick is an Australian cryptocurrency entrepreneur most-known as the founder of Synthetix protocol. Synthetix is a financial primitive that enables the creation of synthetic assets, offering unique derivatives and exposure to real-world assets on the blockchain. In 2020, Kain popularised the concept of yield farming that sparked the 2020 DeFi boom, earning the moniker: ‘the father of modern agriculture.
Mary-Catherine Lader
Uniswap Labs
Chief Operating Officer
Uniswap Labs
Chief Operating Officer
Mary-Catherine (MC) Lader is the Chief Operating Officer of Uniswap Labs, a developer of foundational web3-based products and applications. In this role, she oversees the company’s growth efforts, strategic initiatives, and operations. Previously, she held various leadership roles at BlackRock, including as the Global Head of the firm’s digital sustainability business, Chief Operating Officer of the firm’s Digital Wealth Business, and leader of the firm’s strategic fintech investments and blockchain activities. MC began her career in Goldman Sachs’ Special Situations Group and worked on the staff of the World Economic Forum’s Davos gatherings. She received her J.D. and M.B.A. degrees at Harvard Law School and Harvard Business School, respectively, and her B.A. at Brown University.
Moderator
David Hoffman
Bankless
Co-Founder
Bankless
Co-Founder
David Hoffman is co-founder of Bankless and is a steward of crypto culture. David focuses on writing fundamental investment theses for Ether and Ethereum, while also making deep connections to impacting culture and the psyche of those who adopt a crypto lifestyle. David holds 99% of his wealth outside of Banks and inside of Ethereum, and is focused on leading the way for others to do the same.
Taylor Monahan
MyCrypto
Founder & CEO
MyCrypto
Founder & CEO
Taylor Monahan is the founder and CEO of MyCrypto, a security-first Ethereum interface that recently joined the MetaMask family. She has been focused on building awesome products that put the power in people's hands since 2015 and strives to provide a safe and secure experience for both new and veteran inhabitants in the space.
Mihailo Bjelic
Polygon
Co-Founder
Polygon
Co-Founder
Mihailo Bjelic received his MSc in CS from the University of Belgrade. Prior to entering Web3/blockchain industry, he co-founded an AI/ML-powered platform for automotive industry and several other smaller startups and side projects. In 2017, he decided to join the Web3 movement full-time, primarily as a researcher interested in Ethereum scaling and multi-chain paradigms. In parallel with his work, he became one of the prominent Ethereum proponents and community members. In 2019, he started working on Polygon and conceptualized its architecture, vision and brand. In 2020, he joined hands with the Matic Network team and they have been working together on Polygon since then.
Ben Jones
Optimism
Co-Founder
Optimism
Co-Founder
Ben is a co-founder of Optimism, a leading Ethereum L2 ecosystem. He served as Chief Scientist before becoming a director at the Optimism Foundation. In his free time, he makes Ethereum-based parody songs under his stage name, Weird ETH Yankovic.
Illia Polosukhin
NEAR
Co-Founder
NEAR
Co-Founder
Illia Polosukhin is Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol, a decentralized developer platform powered by a sharded smart contract blockchain. NEAR’s vision of a scalable, robust, and highly usable blockchain began in 2018 when they couldn't find a protocol that met the needs of builders. NEAR Protocol launched its mainnet in 2020 and is focused on scaling to global mainstream adoption. Illia has more than 10 years of industry experience, including 3 years at Google where he was a major TensorFlow contributor and managed the team building question-answering capabilities for the core Google search, as well as an author of several notable research papers. Illia has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, Bloomberg, TIME, Wired, New York Magazine, Forbes, and TechCrunch.
Harry Kalodner
Offchain Labs
Co-Founder & CTO
Offchain Labs
Co-Founder & CTO
Harry Kalodner is Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer at Offchain Labs where he leads the engineering team. Before the company he attended Princeton as a PhD candidate where his research explored economics, anonymity, and incentive compatibility of cryptocurrencies. When not up at 3:00am writing code, Harry occasionally sleeps.
Luigi Donorio Demeo
Ava Labs
Head of DeFi
Ava Labs
Head of DeFi
My passion is to work at the intersection of innovation, finance and analytics. I look to work with people who are focused and passionate about challenging the status quo.
When I am not working, I am usually playing with my two children, making dinner for my family, reading, or working on carpentry.
Moderator
Michael Ippolito
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Michael Ippolito is a co-founder at Blockworks in charge of content and finance. 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&A strategy.
Nic Carter
Castle Island Ventures
Partner
Castle Island Ventures
Partner
Sam Kazemian
Frax Finance
Founder
Frax Finance
Founder
Catherine Gu
Visa
Director, Head of CBDC & Crypto Infrastructure Build
Visa
Director, Head of CBDC & Crypto Infrastructure Build
Catherine Gu heads Visa’s Global CBDC program and asset protocols, building digital payment solutions with central banks, financial partners and global infrastructure technology companies. Prior to Visa, Catherine has worked at J.P. Morgan and Man Group in quantitative finance. She spent 2 years on stablecoin research while studying at Stanford University with Prof. Dan Boneh. She also worked at 2 crypto startups: Anchorage and Gauntlet. Catherine graduated with M.S. in Management Science & Engineering from Stanford University, and First Class B.A. and M.Phil in Economics from Trinity College, University of Cambridge.
Moderator
Kate Rooney
CNBC
Technology Reporter
CNBC
Technology Reporter
Kate Rooney is a technology reporter based out of CNBC’s San Francisco bureau, with a focus on financial technology, payments and venture capital. She also writes and reports for CNBC’s digital platforms.
Rooney joined CNBC in 2015 as a news associate before working as a producer for CNBC’s “Squawk Box” (M-F, 6AM-9AM ET) and was most recently a markets reporter for CNBC.com.
She graduated from Boston College with a bachelor’s degree in communication and earned her master’s degree from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University where she received an Eric Lund Global Reporting and Research Grant to film and produce a documentary in the Philippines. She also worked as a multimedia reporter in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 2015 with a focus on housing and politics.
Sam MacPherson
MakerDAO
Lead Developer
MakerDAO
Lead Developer
Sam joined crypto during the 2017 bull run as a hobby. While looking for interesting projects he came across MakerDAO and was instantly hooked. After being part of the community for 2 years, he joined on as the first DAO smart contracts dev and later joined the Protocol Engineering team full time. Today Sam coordinates with the other DAO mandated actors across technical, business and strategy to grow the Maker ecosystem.
Joao Reginatto
Circle
VP, Product Management
Circle
VP, Product Management
Nikita Ovchinnik
1inch
CBDO
1inch
CBDO
Moderator
Jacquelyn Melinek
TechCrunch
Senior Crypto Reporter
TechCrunch
Senior Crypto Reporter
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&P Global Platts and Bloomberg News.
Vanessa Grellet
Aglaé Ventures
Managing Partner
Aglaé Ventures
Managing Partner
Vanessa Grellet is a Global Executive with over 20 years of expertise in the Financial Services and Tech industry. At CoinFund she is the Head of Portfolio growth where she oversees and supports the portfolio companies . Prior to joining CoinFund she was an Executive Director at ConsenSys where she focused on driving adoption for Ethereum, Strategic initiatives, Alliances and Channels. She was involved in setting up the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance (EEA), sits on the Board of the Accounting Blockchain Coalition (ABC) and is the President of the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC). Prior to joining ConsenSys she was a Strategy Executive at NYSE and a key member of PwC’s global wealth management team. Vanessa is a Founding Board member of AABC focused on Blockchain and Art, she sits on the Advisory Council of ConsenSys and the Resolution Project. She is a Milken Institute Associate and contributed to the World Economic Forum Digital Future Council. Mrs. Grellet graduated Cum Laude from Law School (Paris II Assas) and Business School (HEC).
Jim Bianco
Bianco Research, L.L.C.
President & Macro Strategist
Bianco Research, L.L.C.
President & Macro Strategist
Jim Bianco is President and Macro Strategist at Bianco Research, L.L.C. Since 1990 Jim’s commentaries have offered a unique perspective on the global economy and financial markets. Unencumbered by the biases of traditional Wall Street research, Jim has built a decades long reputation for objective, incisive commentary that challenges consensus thinking. In nearly 20 years at Bianco Research, Jim’s wide ranging commentaries have addressed monetary policy, the intersection of markets and politics, the role of government in the economy, fund flows and positioning in financial markets.
Jim appears regularly on CNBC, Bloomberg and Fox Business, and is often featured in the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, Grants Interest Rate Observer, and MarketWatch. Prior to joining Arbor and Bianco Research, Jim was a Market Strategist in equity and fixed income research at UBS Securities and Equity Technical Analyst at First Boston and Shearson Lehman Brothers. He is a Chartered Market Technician (CMT) and a member of the Market Technicians Association (MTA). Jim has a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance from Marquette University (1984) and an MBA from Fordham University (1989).
Mona El Isa
Avantgarde Finance
CEO & Founder
Avantgarde Finance
CEO & Founder
Co-founder of the Enzyme Protocol (formerly Melon protocol under Melonport AG), and CEO/founder of Avantgarde Finance. President of MAMA (Multichain Asset Managers Association). Nominated Technology Pioneer by World Economic Forum and Digital Shaper in Bilanz magazine in 2018.
Mona is a former star-trader at Goldman Sachs, promoted to Vice President by the age of 26 and made the “Top 30 under 30” list in Trader Magazine in 2008 and Forbes Magazine in 2011 after profitably trading the 2008 and 2011 crashes. She moved to Geneva-based macro fund Jabre Capital in 2011, before deciding in 2014 that the future of finance lay in blockchain technology. She studied Economics & Statistics at the University College London.
Moderator
Michael Ippolito
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Blockworks
Co-Founder
Michael Ippolito is a co-founder at Blockworks in charge of content and finance. 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&A strategy.
Jake Dwyer
GSR
Head of DeFi
GSR
Head of DeFi
Jake is the Head of DeFi at crypto market maker GSR. As the Head of DeFi, Jake leads product development for GSR's DeFi liquidity, trading platform, and blockchain infrastructure. He also leads GSR's venture capital efforts and expansion into new markets. GSR is an active, multi-stage investor in more than 100 leading companies and protocols in the crypto/Web3 industry. Prior to GSR, he spent over four years as a Senior Vice President and GM of Venn at Two Sigma.
Glenn Barber
Copper.co
Head of Sales - Americas
Copper.co
Head of Sales - Americas
Glenn Barber is the Head of Sales & Business Development, Americas at Copper.co.–a pioneering digital assets custody and settlement provider. Prior to joining 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 year’s 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
Sid Powell
Maple
CEO & Co-Founder
Maple
CEO & Co-Founder
Johann Bornman
MetaMask Institutional
Product Lead
MetaMask Institutional
Product Lead
Johann is the Product Lead for MetaMask Institutional. Since launching the product in February 2021, Johann has managed the product strategy and roadmap, design and operations, and also crypto custodian integrations. Prior to joining ConsenSys, Johann spent time as a Fintech founder, Director of Product for a Pan-European Robo-advisor, and Global Macro Portfolio Manager, where he helped to start and build the business.
Rachel Mayer
Circle
VP of Product
Circle
VP of Product
Rachel Mayer is VP of Product at Circle, responsible for overseeing product design and user research for the Circle Account, go-to-market and growth strategies teams. Since joining Circle in 2017, her leadership in launching a core suite of APIs and the Circle Account has been integral in furthering the company’s mission to raise global economic prosperity through the frictionless exchange of financial value.
Mayer joined Circle through its acquisition of Trigger Finance, a company she had co-founded. Prior to Trigger Finance, Mayer had extensive experience in digital currency and financial services, including as a trader at JP Morgan where she ran the FX e-commerce platform for emerging market currencies and rates. She is a recent honoree on the “40 Under 40” list from Fortune.
She earned a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a master’s degree in computer science from Cornell University. Outside of work, Miami-based Mayer enjoys spending time with her two young children and adopted dog.
Luca Prosperi
MakerDAO
Lending Oversight
MakerDAO
Lending Oversight
Luca leads MakerDAO’s Lending Oversight, focusing on making of MakerDAO the true lender of last resort of the DeFi ecosystem. This means building the bridge between real-world and DeFi, as well as developing any protocol-to-protocol use case. Luca publishes his own research on dirtroads.substack.com and is an advisor for Cherry Venture’s crypto investments. Prior to joining the DeFi revolution, he has been for 15 years a banker and investor in financial services companies. Luca holds an MBA (with hons) from London Business School, and a MSc and BA in mathematics and economics from Bocconi University.
Joseph Edwards
Solrise Group
Head of Financial Strategy
Solrise Group
Head of Financial Strategy
Joseph Edwards is the Head of Financial Strategy for Solrise Group, a development company building on the Solana blockchain, with products including the Solrise Finance asset management protocol, the Solflare wallet, and the Solrise Pulse ecosystem of permissioned products. Previously, he was Head of Research for London-based brokerage Enigma Securities. Joseph is also an acclaimed professional esports coach and analyst, working with a number of notable organisations including TSM and Team Liquid.
Moderator
Nuri Chang
BitGo
Director of Product
BitGo
Director of Product
Nuri is Director of Product at BitGo, responsible for onboarding new blockchains, building new capabilities for DeFi and NFTs, and continuing to grow WBTC. Most recently, he led BitGo's MetaMask Institutional Integration. Prior to joining BitGo, Nuri spent time as a product manager in Silicon Valley startups, such as Affirm.
Asaf Meir
Solidus Labs
Founder & CEO
Solidus Labs
Founder & CEO
Recently listed as one of the top-25 crypto executives to watch in 2022, Asaf Meir is Founder and CEO of Solidus Labs. Before founding Solidus in 2018, Meir spent a decade leading complex technological and financial products for various firms, including Microsoft and Goldman Sachs’ equities trading desk.
Moderator
Nisa Amoils
A100x Ventures
Managing Partner
A100x Ventures
Managing Partner
Nisa Amoils is Managing Partner at A100x Ventures and Advisor to Dragonfly Capital where she,invests in early stage Blockchain/Crypto/Web 3 companies. She has been in VC for 11 years and investing in blockchain since 2016, with multiple unicorns and exits. She previously worked for Scout Ventures and used to practice securities and corporate law at Anderson Kill. She serves on Boards such as Wharton Entrepreneurship, Global Digital Assets and Crypto Association, Nightfood (NGTF). She has been named Business Insider’s Women VC’s to watch, 2021 systematic leader in asset management, top 100 Women in Fintech, and top 50 global Blockchain thinkers. She is an occasional host and commentator at Defiance Media and Forbes. She holds a business degree from the University of Michigan and a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania.
Katherine Wu
Archetype
Venture Partner
Archetype
Venture Partner
Katherine Wu is a Venture Partner at Archetype, a venture capital firm focused on leading early investments in high potential crypto startups. Most recently, Katherine was the Senior Lead on the Coinbase Ventures team, where she led investments on behalf of Coinbase and scaled the investment team. During her tenure at Coinbase, Katherine oversaw a record-breaking year in deal-making, putting Coinbase Ventures among the most active corporate venture funds in operation. Katherine joined the Coinbase Ventures team from Notation Capital, an early-stage venture capital firm focused on software investments. Prior to Notation, Katherine was the first business hire at Messari, a leading provider of crypto market intelligence products.
Over the years, Katherine has also advised and worked with a number of top tier crypto protocols and companies on issues spanning from investment strategies to go-to-market and other operational processes.
Georgi Ivanov
Nexo
VP of Strategy, Risk & Operations
Nexo
VP of Strategy, Risk & Operations
Georgi Ivanov, CFA, is the VP of Strategy, Risk and Operations of the leading digital assets
institution Nexo. In this role, Georgi leads growth initiatives focused on blockchain solutions and
capabilities that capitalize on the synergistic touch points with traditional Consumer Finance and
Capital Markets products and services.
Georgi boasts 20+ years of experience in Corporate Finance, Investment Management and
Capital Markets, and has held leadership roles at various financial institutions and hedge funds,
including Wells Fargo and Bank of America. He received his MBA from Duke University and
holds two B.S.E. degrees in Electrical Engineering and Bioengineering from the University of
Pennsylvania.
Scott Byron
AscendEX
Head of Venture
AscendEX
Head of Venture
Scott Byron is the Head of Venture at AscendEX focused primarily on early-stage token projects. AscendEX Ventures invests in different layer-1 and layer-2 ecosystems, as well as across different narratives emerging in the space.
David Abner
Gemini
Global Head of Business Development
Gemini
Global Head of Business Development
David Abner is the Global Head of Business Development at Gemini. In this role, David oversees the expansion of Gemini’s institutional business and leads the relationships with major institutional partners and high-net-worth individuals on a global scale. Prior to joining Gemini, David spent the last 20 years focusing on driving the growth of the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) industry. He was instrumental in bringing ETFs from a fringe arbitrage trading tool to an investment product utilized by institutional asset managers, reaching more than 7 trillion in AuM. His most recent book, The ETF Handbook (Wiley Finance) describes the inner workings of ETFs and how to achieve efficient portfolio implementation and execution.
Moderator
Kevin Miao
BlockTower
Partner, Head of Credit
BlockTower
Partner, Head of Credit
Kevin leads initiatives and investments at the intersection of real-world asset lending and DeFi. Prior to joining BlockTower, Kevin was at Harvard Business School (before dropping out to pursue crypto full time), directing operations at Capchase, and leading a structured credit trading desk at Citigroup. Most importantly, he avidly believes that distributed ledger technology can make finance fairer and more just for all.
Eric Peters
One River Asset Management
Founder, CEO & CIO
One River Asset Management
Founder, CEO & CIO
Eric Peters is the Founder, CEO, and CIO of One River Asset Management and its subsidiary, One River Digital Asset Management. One River is an innovative investment manager dedicated to delivering high-conviction discretionary and quantitative strategies that help its clients build superior portfolios. One River sees the world in a period of major economic and political transition, with the investment landscape shifting in ways that will make the coming ten years look profoundly different from the past decade. Its strategies are built to profit from this dynamic environment while providing strong diversification benefits to traditional investment portfolios.
Prior to founding One River in 2013, Eric served as Chairman of Grant Capital Partners, a $1.25 billion discretionary global macro hedge fund. In that role, Eric focused on thematic investment opportunities and was responsible for all non-investment activities including the direct oversight of the Chief Risk Officer. Over the course of his career, Eric has held various positions that include portfolio manager for Peloton Partners, proprietary trader for both Lehman Brothers and Credit Suisse, and Founder and Chief Executive Officer of a TH Lee Putnam funded technology firm.
Eric travels extensively, exchanging ideas, debating policy, and identifying investment opportunities with many of the world’s top investment managers, economists, strategists, political consultants, academics, scientists, and business leaders. The content of those discussions often finds its way into his weekly investment letter - Weekend Notes - which is read by investment professionals who directly deploy over $1trln in alternative assets.
Brett Tejpaul
Coinbase
Head of Coinbase Institutional
Coinbase
Head of Coinbase Institutional
As an experienced business builder and innovator in Financial Services, Brett has accelerated revenue growth with institutional clients and mobilized FinTech companies. At Coinbase, Brett is making connections between finance 1.0 and the crypto economy. Coinbase is focused on the continued institutionalization of crypto. This includes continuing to expand the institutional client base, building out the Sales team, introducing new features and services that institutional investors expect, and continuing to educate the institutional community about crypto as an asset class and its role within a diversified portfolio. Previously, as the Global Head of Sales at Barclays, Brett hired and developed large teams while incubating and launching multiple lines of business. Brett pioneered the Digital role across sales & trading adopting new technologies and transforming existing platforms, including the creation of a digital bank prototype.Brett is currently on the Advisory Board of Eightfold.ai. helping them scale their AI based hiring and retention platform for Financial Services.In earlier experience, Brett held leadership roles in sales, trading, and structuring at JP Morgan, innovating credit derivatives and structuring platforms.
Miles Fuller
TaxBit
Head of Government Solutions
TaxBit
Head of Government Solutions
Miles’ extensive knowledge of digital asset taxation and tax procedure helps TaxBit continuously refine its products to maintain its role as a leading software company in the area of digital asset taxation, accounting, and information reporting.
Miles previously spent over 15 years working as an attorney for the IRS. As an attorney for the IRS, Miles provided the IRS with advice on examination and collection matters, and represented the IRS in court. Miles conducted trials involving a variety of tax issues ranging from financial products and retirement accounts to complex abusive tax schemes. He has extensive experience with tax litigation and tax procedure.
Miles spent his last three years as counsel to the IRS as a leading expert on digital asset tax issues, including the tax treatment of digital assets, examination techniques, information gathering, data interpretation, and tax calculations.
Perianne Boring
Chamber of Digital Commerce
Founder & President
Chamber of Digital Commerce
Founder & President
Perianne Boring is the Founder & President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world's largest trade association representing the blockchain industry. The Chamber’s mission is to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies. Working with policymakers, regulatory agencies, and industry, the Chamber advocates for a pro-growth policy environment that fosters job creation, innovation, and investment. Perianne was named America’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes. In 2016, she was named 10 Most Influential People in Blockchain by CoinDesk.
Darius Sit
QCP Capital
Co-Founder & CIO
QCP Capital
Co-Founder & CIO
Darius is co-founder and CIO at QCP Capital, a full-suite crypto saset trading firm headquartered in Singapore. Formerly a Macro Trader at Dymon Asia Capital, he spent years trading cross-asset derivatives with a focus on Asian FX/NDFs and model-based strategies before moving on to manage the Asia FX & Bonds book at BNP Paribas in New York.
In addition to institutional trading, Darius has a keen interest in financial modeling. He has created and implemented asset allocation models for sovereign wealth funds and also developed predictive models for Asian currencies, many of which operate under managed float regimes. He brings this and his capital markets experience to crypto-asset trading. He has a particular passion for crypto-economics and has given advice to a number of crypto projects, including Algorand and Terra, on trading structures and strategies.
Cynthia Wu
Matrixport
Founding Partner & Head of Business Development & Sales
Matrixport
Founding Partner & Head of Business Development & Sales
Cynthia leads business development and sales across international markets at Matrixport. She was previously Investment Director at Bitmain Technologies, focused on investments in blockchain for the financial services sector.
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 as a commodities trader.
Moderator
Eric Golden
Web3 Breakdowns Podcast
Host
Web3 Breakdowns Podcast
Host
Eric currently spends his time and energy on all things Web3 as a builder and investor. His current area of focus is digital assets and NFTs ability to unlock new economic structures in the real world as well as digital metaverses. He spent the past year diving deep into NFTs and was an early investor in TopShot, ZED, Bored Ape Yacht Club and Punks Comic. While the returns have been astronomical, it has also led to a bottoms up approach to make angel investments in Web3 companies based on a deep domain perspective. Prior to pursuing Web3, Eric was the Managing Director and Portfolio Manager of Personal Bond Management (PBM) at Fidelity Investments. In this role, Eric created a new business to manage individual bond portfolios at scale. He founded the business in 2015 and launched to the public in 2017. By March 2021, PBM grew to $18B in assets, across 23,000 clients and executing 1,500 trades per day with a team of only five people. Prior to assuming this position in January 2015, Mr. Golden held various other roles within the fixed income division, including research analyst, associate research analyst, and research associate. In these positions, he was responsible for covering not-for-profit hospitals, senior living, utilities, transportation, and tobacco credits for bond and money market funds. He has been in the financial industry since joining Fidelity full time in 2004. Mr. Golden earned his Bachelor of Science degree in corporate finance and accounting, with a minor in information technology, from Bentley University. He is also a CFA® charterholder.
Eric Qiu
CMS Holdings
Trader
CMS Holdings
Trader
Eric is a trader at CMS, a principal investment firm that operates in the cryptocurrency space. CMS deals in both liquid and illiquid investment strategies.
Perianne Boring
Chamber of Digital Commerce
Founder & President
Chamber of Digital Commerce
Founder & President
Perianne Boring is the Founder & President of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, the world's largest trade association representing the blockchain industry. The Chamber’s mission is to promote the acceptance and use of digital assets and blockchain-based technologies. Working with policymakers, regulatory agencies, and industry, the Chamber advocates for a pro-growth policy environment that fosters job creation, innovation, and investment. Perianne was named America’s Top 50 Women in Tech by Forbes. In 2016, she was named 10 Most Influential People in Blockchain by CoinDesk.
Brian Quintenz
CFTC
Former Commissioner
CFTC
Former Commissioner
Brian D. Quintenz was nominated by both Presidents Obama and Trump to serve as a Commissioner of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in August of 2017, and served four years in his role at the agency until stepping down in August of 2021.
Prior to his appointment to the CFTC, Mr. Quintenz worked in the financial markets, first at an investment firm focused on the banking sector during the financial crisis and later founding his own firm registered as Commodity Pool Operator.
Mr. Quintenz began his career on Capitol Hill, serving as a senior policy advisor for Congresswoman Deborah Pryce (OH-15), at that time the highest ranking woman in the history of the House of Representative.
Mr. Quintenz graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a major in Public
Policy Studies and received an MBA from Georgetown University McDonough School of
Business, where he was inducted into the Phi Beta Gamma honors society.
Moderator
Jordan Nof
Tusk Venture Partners L.P.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Tusk Venture Partners L.P.
Co-Founder & Managing Partner
Jordan Nof is a Co-founder and Managing Partner at Tusk Venture Partners L.P. and is a member of the firm’s Investment Committee. He has led many of the firm’s investments including Lemonade, Bird, Coinbase, Alma, Sunday, and Wheel. He currently serves on the board of directors of Alma, Sunday, and Wheel.
Prior to Tusk Venture Partners, Jordan spent six years as a Director at Blackstone, where he focused on the development of the firm’s corporate venture capital portfolio. During that time, Jordan focused on investing in early-stage technology companies that could accelerate operations across Blackstone and the firm’s underlying portfolio companies.
Before joining Blackstone, Jordan spent four years in the institutional investment management division at AllianceBernstein. During that time, he worked with many of the firm’s largest global institutional sub-advisory relationships.
Jordan received an M.B.A. from Rollins Graduate School of Business and is a graduate of Florida State University where he received a B.S. in Finance. He is based out of the firm’s New York office.
Ron Hammond
Blockchain Association
Director of Government Relations
Blockchain Association
Director of Government Relations
Ron represents the association on Capitol Hill as the Director of Government Relations. Ron’s background in crafting a bipartisan crypto regulatory framework via legislation dates back to 2016 when he served as the Financial Services Policy Lead for Rep. Warren Davidson (OH-8). During Ron’s five years on Capitol Hill, he authored several pieces of legislation including the Token Taxonomy Act, Federal Reserve Regulatory Oversight Act, and the Derivatives Fairness Act. Before coming to Capitol Hill, he was the campaign manager for three successful Texas State Senate races. Ron received his B.A. from Georgetown University.
Colleen Sullivan
BH Digital
Head of Directional Strategies
BH Digital
Head of Directional Strategies
Colleen Sullivan is Co-Founder and CEO of CMT Digital Holdings LLC and has been a partner with the broader CMT Group since 2013. Ms. Sullivan oversees CMT Digital’s trading, investments, and regulatory initiatives in the crypto assets / blockchain technology space. Ms. Sullivan is also a Co-Founder and Managing Member of Sullivan Wolf Kailus LLC, a boutique law firm based in Chicago that specializes in hedge fund, private equity, venture capital, digital assets, and other alternative investment products. Ms. Sullivan 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 Board of Directors of Silvergate Bank and on the Advisory Board of the Chamber of Digital Commerce.
Angela Dalton
Signum Growth Capital
CEO & Founder
Signum Growth Capital
CEO & Founder
Angela Dalton founded Signum Growth Capital, an M&A Advisory and capital raising firm, which also invests, with a focus on the intersection of video gaming, art, esports, music, blockchain, crypto and the emergence of digital economies in “the Metaverse.” She served as a Managing Director for three investment banking firms - UBS, Evercore and Guggenheim Partners - and has 20 years of experience in Technology, Media and Telecom capital markets. At Evercore, she was an initial investor and Co-Founder of the Equities business in 2010, building out its Research, Sales and Trading teams prior to Evercore’s acquisition of ISI. Signum Growth Capital serves as Lead Advisor to ARK Invest in the US and to the Web3 Foundation in Zug, Switzerland. Angie serves on the Advisory Boards of Mythical Games, a next generation video gaming company in LA, Wall Street Blockchain Alliance in NYC, and Perpetual Altruism in London, UK. She serves as a Venture Partner for Griffin Gaming Partners and a Nexus Partner for Gaingels. Education: BS and a BA from The University of Kansas, MBA from The University of Chicago.
Ken Timsit
Cronos
Managing Director
Cronos
Managing Director