Name: Digital Asset Summit 2025
Start: 2025-03-18T04:00:00.000Z
End: 2025-03-20T21:00:00.000Z
Location: Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Welcome to DAS NYC 2025

Michael Ippolito

Co-Founder

Believe in Something

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

Meltem Demirors

Founder & General Partner 

Headwinds to Tailwinds: The New Era for Institutional Crypto

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

David Mercer

The Allocator's Perspective on Digital Assets

Michelle Noyes joined AIMA in 2012 as Chief Operating Officer of AIMA's New York office, and became the Association's Head of Americas in 2017. She also co-chairs AIMA’s Digital Asset Working Group (AIMA DAWG). Previously, she was Head of International Sales and Investor Relations for BRZ Investimentos, one of the largest independent asset managers in Brazil. While in Sao Paulo, she also served as the Brazil representative for AIMA and established the AIMA Brazil network. Michelle holds a B.A. and M.A. from New York University and is a CAIA Charterholder.

Michelle Noyes

Managing Director, Head of Americas

Anthony Scaramucci is the founder and managing partner of SkyBridge, a global alternative investment firm, and founder and chairman of SALT, a global thought leadership forum and venture studio. Prior to founding SkyBridge in 2005, Scaramucci co-founded investment partnership Oscar Capital Management, which was sold to Neuberger Berman in 2001. Earlier, he worked in Private Wealth Management at Goldman Sachs &amp; Co. In 2022, Scaramucci was ranked #47 in Cointelegraph’s Top 100 Influencers in Crypto and Blockchain. In 2016, he was ranked #85 in Worth Magazine’s Power 100: The 100 Most Powerful People in Global Finance. In 2011, he received Ernst &amp; Young’s New York Financial Services “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award. Anthony is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) and a board member of the Federal Enforcement Homeland Security Foundation. He is the author of five books. Scaramucci served on President Donald J. Trump’s 16-person Presidential Transition Team Executive Committee, and in 2017 briefly served as Chief Strategy Officer of the Export-Import (EXIM) Bank and White House Communications Director. Scaramucci, a native of Long Island, New York, holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics from Tufts University and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School.

Anthony Scaramucci

Founder & Managing Partner 

Chris is the CIO of Digital Assets at Amitis Capital. In his early career, Chris worked at several major institutions including CIBC World Markets, Société Générale Barr Devlin, Antarctica Asset Management and ING Investment Management. In 2010, he joined SAIL Advisors (the family office of the founder of Duty-Free Shoppers) as Head of Research for Tactical Trading and Relative Value Strategies. He later joined Cliffwater LLC as Managing Director covering global macro and relative value strategies on the hedge fund research team. Most recently, Chris was the CIO of Digital Assets at Forest Road, where he oversaw a digital assets-focused venture capital fund of funds. Chris has a BA in Economics and Anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and an MComm in Finance from the University of New South Wales, where he was a Federation Scholar. Chris holds the CFA, CPA, and CAIA designations. Chris has broken 9 Guinness World Records and has run marathons on all 7 continents and in all 50 US states.

Chris Solarz

CIO of Digital Assets

Ray Hindi is the co-founder of L1D and currently acts as the CEO/CIO. Ray has an investment background in venture, hedge funds and interest rate trading. Ray holds a BEng from UCL and an MSc in Finance from Imperial College. He previously acted as the CIO of Bellegarde Capital AG an independent investment group with activities focused in fintech, blockchain and other alternative investments. Also previously at Swiss Capital (StepStone Group) responsible for the firm’s macro outlook, macro hedge funds and event driven coverage. From 2005 to 2011 Ray was part of Harcourt Investment Consulting AG, a USD 6 bn fund of hedge funds firm in Zurich, and responsible for USD 2 bn of investments (rates, macro and distressed). He started his career at Bloomberg LP in London and subsequently left the firm to trade interest rates for a London based proprietary group. Ray holds a BEng from University College London (UCL) and an MSc in Finance from Imperial College.

Ray Hindi

CEO & CIO

In Conversation with Richard Teng

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

MacKenzie Sigalos

Tech Reporter

Richard Teng is an experienced executive with over three decades of experience in financial services and regulation. He has been the CEO of Binance since his appointment in November 2023. By working closely with various stakeholders, including regulators, policymakers, industry players, and users, Richard is driving the growth of Binance in a compliant and sustainable manner. Before taking on this role, Richard held several senior leadership positions within the company after joining in August 2021. Prior to Binance, he was the CEO of the Financial Services Regulatory Authority at Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), where he established himself as one of the world’s foremost innovative regulators. Richard’s extensive experience also includes serving as the Chief Regulatory Officer of the Singapore Exchange (SGX) and as the Director of Corporate Finance at the Monetary Authority of Singapore. Richard holds a Master’s in Applied Finance from the University of Western Australia.

Richard Teng

In Conversation with Ro Khanna

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



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

Kristin Smith

President

Ro Khanna is serving his fifth term in Congress, representing California’s 17th District, which covers the heart of Silicon Valley. His focus is on expanding the digital economy to places left out of the innovation revolution to create new jobs and a manufacturing revolution with new American industry and good jobs in every community. Ro serves as the Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Cyber, Innovative Technologies and Information Systems (CITI), which oversees emerging technologies like AI, all laws pertaining to the military, and exercises oversight on the NDAA. Additionally, Ro serves as the Chair of the India Caucus, and as a member of the Select Committee on the Strategic Competition between the United States and China. Ro has worked across the aisle to get things done and was named the California House Democrat most likely to get a bill signed into law during the Trump Administration. He has led the charge on a political reform package to ban members of Congress from trading stocks and establish term limits and a judicial code of ethics for Supreme Court Justices. Ro authored the bipartisan Endless Frontiers Act, which became the CHIPS and Science Act, with Senate Majority Leader Schumer and Republicans Congressman Mike Gallagher and Senator Todd Young, to revitalize American R&amp;D and manufacturing and onshore semiconductor production. Ro has authored and passed laws to modernize the federal government, protect against cyber threats, create veteran apprenticeships, and make it easier for the National Guard and reserve forces to access disability and pension benefits. He played a key role in passing President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, serving as the key negotiator between progressives, the White House, and the Senate to secure passage of the biggest climate investment in U.S. history. As the former Chair of the House Oversight Subcommittee on the Environment, Ro held the first Congressional hearing with Big Oil executives during which, under sworn testimony, they admitted to knowing for decades the impacts of drilling and fracking on our environment and knowingly disseminating misinformation to mislead lawmakers and consumers- similar to the confessions gained during the Big Tobacco hearings of the 1990s. Ro has been a leading voice in Congress to limit a President’s power to declare war and send American troops into conflict without Congressional approval, passing the first successful War Powers Act in Congressional history to end the use of the U.S. military in Saudi’s war efforts against innocent Yemeni. Additionally, Ro traveled to the Middle East in 2024 to push for a ceasefire in Gaza and successfully secured a commitment from the Israeli government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza through restricted borders. He was recognized with a Profile in Courage award for his efforts and principled stances. Ro’s mission is to reinvigorate American manufacturing hallowed out over the last 30 years and onshore production, and create good, high paying jobs, utilizing technology. Ro has already led public-private partnerships between tech companies, local governments, community colleges, HBCUs, and universities across the country. You can find more on these efforts here.

Ro Khanna

In Conversation with Cathie Wood

With over 40 years of experience identifying and investing in innovation, Cathie founded ARK to focus solely on disruptive innovation while adding new dimensions to research. Through an open approach that cuts across sectors, market capitalizations, and geographies, Cathie believes that ARK can identify large-scale investment opportunities in the public markets resulting from technological innovations centered around DNA sequencing, robotics, artificial intelligence, energy storage, and blockchain technology.

Cathie D. Wood

Founder, CEO & CIO

Who The Hell Are We? - Crypto's Identity Crisis 

Kevin is the co-founder and CEO of Keyrock. Before founding Keyrock in 2017, Kevin worked at Roland Berger, where he spent a few years as a consultant and started investigating the expanding cryptocurrency market in 2014. With a background in Business Engineering and International Management, Kevin is an entrepreneur at heart passionate about using innovative technologies to build efficient markets and increase financial inclusiveness.

Kevin de Patoul

Co-founder & CEO

State of the Union: Solana Validator Ecosystem

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

Marc-Thomas Arjoon

Research Analyst

Live Lightspeed: Increase Bandwidth, Reduce Latency

Jack Kubinec

Reporter & Podcast Host

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



Follow him on Twitter @KyleSamani.

Kyle Samani

Co-Founder & Managing Partner

Anatoly Yakovenko is the co-founder of Solana and CEO of Solana Labs. He has almost two decades of experience building high-performance operating systems, including leading OS development at Qualcomm and holding engineering roles at Dropbox and Mesosphere. Anatoly Yakovenko has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Anatoly Yakovenko

Co-Founder & CEO

Live: 1000X Podcast	

Avi Felman

Trader; Co-Host of 1000X

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

Jonah Van Bourg

Building The Crypto Capital of the World with Bo Hines

Bo Hines

Executive Director of the President's Council of Advisers on Digital Assets of the White House

Stablecoins: Financial Room Temperature Superconductors

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

With 7 years of experience across investment banking, hedge funds, and private equity, Guy has built a strong foundation in the financial sector. Prior to founding Ethena, he spent 6 years at Cerberus Management, a firm with $60 billion in assets under management, where he focused on investing in financial services businesses across the capital structure.

Guy Young

Founder & CEO

John Egan is currently the Head of Crypto at Stripe where he oversees Stripe’s portfolio of crypto enablement and product solutions. Previously he was the founder of multiple startups and a product leader at Facebook

John Egan

Head of Crypto

Tackling the Challenges of Onchain Crime

Jonathan Levin is Cofounder and Chief Executive Officer of Chainalysis, the blockchain data platform, where he is responsible for leading all facets of the business and its work to help government agencies, cryptocurrency businesses, and financial institutions leverage blockchain data to solve their most important problems. Over the course of his 10 years at Chainalysis, Jonathan has led numerous functions and business units as the company has grown to have a presence in over 50 countries globally. He is regularly called upon to testify to the U.S. Congress and other government hearings on the emerging risks and opportunities in cryptocurrencies. Prior to Chainalysis, he was the CEO of Coinometrics, which provided the first dashboard of blockchain intelligence. He was also a postgraduate economist at the University of Oxford, where he researched cryptocurrencies. Jonathan also holds a BSC in Economics from Bristol University. He lives in New York.

Jonathan Levin

Signal vs Noise at the Nexus of Crypto x AI

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

Rich Widmann

Global Head of Strategy for Web3

Greg is a leader in the KPMG Digital Asset practice as a technical subject matter expert on all things blockchain and GenAI. He has ten years technical experience in the blockchain and DeFi realm and assists KPMG’s audit, tax, and advisory practices. Areas of expertise include blockchain node hosting, bitcoin mining, transaction tracing, staking, stablecoins, tokenization and more. Curious by nature and a career technologist working within the Innovation function at KPMG, Greg spends much of his time experimenting with the overlap of GenAI and blockchain as well as advising on the strategy and implications of blockchain concepts on legacy finance infrastructure.

Greg Genega

Manager, Digital Assets

Shyam Nagarajan is the Chief Partnership Officer at Hashgraph, the development and go-to-market arm of the Hedera network, where he leads strategic alliances and ecosystem growth to accelerate enterprise adoption of digital assets and Web3 infrastructure for Hedera. With more than two decades of experience spanning emerging technology, enterprise strategy, and operational leadership, Shyam has held senior roles driving global transformation initiatives across financial services, supply chains, and the public sector. He previously served as COO of Hedera and spent over 20 years at IBM, where he helped scale industry-leading blockchain and Responsible AI solutions. Shyam is also active in open-source and industry governance, serving in board and advisory roles across the digital trust ecosystem. He brings a practical, enterprise-first perspective on how digital assets, tokenization, and decentralized networks are reshaping the future of finance.

Shyam Nagarajan

Chief Partnership Officer

Christine Moy

The Foundation for Banking's Next Evolution

Yves La Rose, Founder and CEO of EOS Network Foundation, has a diverse and dynamic background. He displayed an early interest in information technology, building his first computer and writing his first program at the age of seven. Yves began mining Bitcoin in 2010, which sparked his exploration of decentralized networks. Before diving into entrepreneurship, Yves worked for the Canadian Government and the Assembly of First Nations. He also spent several years in Japan, where he immersed himself in Eastern culture and developed a strong network of business and technology leaders. These experiences enable him to navigate the complexities of leadership with political savvy and cultural awareness.

Yves La Rose

Ensuring Trust In Digital Asset Markets

Ladan Stewart is a partner in the White Collar and Investigations practice at White &amp; Case and the firm’s Global Head of Fintech. She focuses her practice on SEC and other regulatory enforcement, advisory, and litigation matters, particularly in the crypto and fintech spaces.  Before joining White &amp; Case, Ladan served for over 8 years in the SEC’s Division of Enforcement, most recently as Assistant Director and Regional Trial Counsel leading the SEC’s crypto litigation team.

Ladan Stewart

Partner

Tom Armstrong is the Head of Compliance Advisory at TRM Labs. Tom is the former VP and Head of Financial Crime Compliance, Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs.

Tom Armstrong

Head of Compliance Advisory

Aidan Larkin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Asset Reality, the seized asset company. Operating at the intersection of GovTech and DefenseTech, Asset Reality has launched the world’s first end-to-end platform for seizing, managing, and deploying assets. The company’s unique experience extends to investigating, recovering, and managing billions of dollars worth of seized assets in some of the world's most high-profile asset recovery cases. An Associate Fellow at the defense &amp; security think tank, RUSI, Aidan is also a lecturer and subject matter expert on seized assets for the UN Office on Drugs &amp; Crime and multiple international organizations. A regular contributing author and commentator on the challenges of seizing assets, Aidan has also testified before the UK Parliament on the illicit use of crypto in terrorist financing &amp; money laundering and the positive impact of digital assets in improving the underperforming Asset Recovery sector. Before founding Asset Reality, Aidan’s career in asset recovery began as a criminal investigator in the UK. Later, he managed seized asset portfolios for the UK Government, including overseeing some of the world's first sales of seized crypto via public auction.

Aidan Larkin

 Co-Founder & CEO

Tara M. La Morte is currently Chief of the Illicit Finance &amp; Money Laundering Unit in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York (SDNY), as well as an Asset Forfeiture Coordinator.  She previously served as a line assistant in that unit.  In those roles, Tara has supervised and conducted numerous investigations and prosecutions relating to international money laundering, fraud, sanctions, and corruption, including matters under the Bank Secrecy Act, International Economic Emergency Powers Act, and Title 18 offenses.  She has experience handling cross-border matters and coordinating with U.S. and foreign regulators on transnational financial matters.  In addition, she has substantial experience in both criminal and civil forfeiture matters.  Prior to serving in the SDNY’s Criminal Division, Tara served as an Assistant United States Attorney in the SDNY’s Civil Division and as a Trial Attorney in the Federal Programs Branch of the Department of Justice.  In both positions she worked on a number of complex affirmative and defense cases, including class actions, bankruptcy, program litigation, and fraud matters.

Tara M. La Morte

Chief of the Illicit Finance & Money Laundering Unit 

The Expanding Role of Crypto Custodians

Matt Homer is the General Partner of The Department of XYZ. He also serves as a board member at Gemini Trust Company and Standard Custody &amp; Trust. Prior to launching The Department of XYZ, Matt led blockchain investments at Nyca Partners. A two-time former regulator, Matt most notably served as the primary regulator for many leading digital asset firms in the United States. As  Executive Deputy Superintendent at the New York State Department of Financial Services, he oversaw the licensing and supervision of digital asset firms and was responsible for the Department’s broader innovation agenda as well. Matt previously worked for Plaid, one of the world’s most successful fintech unicorns, and started his career as a strategy consultant at Deloitte. He has also held roles at at the FDIC and US Agency for International Development and has advised institutions such as the UN Capital Development Fund, the World Bank, and the Cambridge Center for Alternative Finance. Matt holds a masters from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Matt Homer

Mike is the Co-Founder and CEO of BitGo and Internet Pioneer. At BitGo, Mike Belshe drives product and business strategy for delivering security, compliance, and custodial solutions for blockchain-based currencies. Prior to BitGo, Mike was one of the first engineers dedicated to building Chrome at Google. He is creator of the SPDY protocol and lead author of HTTP/2.0—the internet protocol responsible for loading web pages today. In 2003, Mike co-founded Lookout Software—an email search company acquired by Microsoft—and has held management positions at several startups, including Netscape, Good Technology, and Critical Path. He is also an inventor with over 10 technology patents.

Mike Belshe

Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer

Marshall is Gemini's Chief Operating Officer, overseeing a broad array of global commercial and operational activities. In his current role he leads and manages a variety of teams, including Strategy &amp; Corporate Development, International, Institutional, Trading, Business Development (Gemini and Nifty Gateway), Marketing, Communications, Customer Support, and Client Services. Marshall previously held leadership roles on Gemini’s Corporate Development and Finance teams.



Before joining Gemini in 2018, Marshall was the Chief of Staff at digital media brand Barstool Sports where he focused on corporate strategy and operations. Earlier in his career, he worked as a management consultant on PricewaterhouseCoopers’ mergers and acquisitions team, after starting his career as an analyst at Prudential Financial

Marshall Beard

Chief Operating Officer

Nathan is the CEO and Co-founder of Anchorage Digital, a global crypto platform founded in 2017 and purpose-built for institutions.As the first and only federally regulated crypto bank in the United States, Anchorage Digital Bank also offers its institutional clients regulated on-chain services including staking, settlement, and governance under its OCC charter. Nathan has testified before the U.S. Congress, worked closely with policymakers around the globe to bring crypto into the regulatory perimeter, and is a writer on institutional crypto adoption, decentralized finance, crypto market structure, cyber security, and financial innovation. Before founding Anchorage Digital, Nathan built and led the security team at Docker and was an early employee at Square (Block), where he led the team that built the infrastructure security platform that is today used to process over $228 billion in payments annually.

Nathan McCauley

CEO & Co-Founder

Crypto: The Trade of the Millennium 

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

Matt Hougan

Chief Investment Officer

Christopher Perkins

Amy is the head of digital asset strategy, a member of the Morgan Stanley Investment Management Operating Committee, the Morgan Stanley Investment Management Equity Technology Council, the Morgan Stanley Innovation Council and the Morgan Stanley Arts and Culture Committee. She manages digital asset initiatives at MSIM and has held roles in equity and FX trading, portfolio management support, product development and strategy. Prior to joining Morgan Stanley in 2001, Amy managed business development at Arc Worldwide. She has over 25 years of financial services experience.

Amy Oldenburg

Head of Digital Asset Strategy

Ryan is a Partner and Head of Trading at Borderless, a pioneering Web3 investment management firm. Previously, he was Head of Trading at BlockTower Capital, an institutional investment firm applying professional trading, venture investing, credit underwriting, and portfolio management to digital and traditional assets. He also previously worked as a Senior Portfolio Manager at Celsius, where he led the global CeFi Trading and Market Insights teams. Prior to digital assets, Ryan was a Portfolio Manager at KLS Diversified, a multi-billion-dollar global macro and fixed income relative value hedge fund in NYC. Ryan has traditional capital markets experience within global banking and markets institutions, including RBS Greenwich Capital and Merrill Lynch &amp; Co. Ryan is a CFA Charterholder, holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Northeastern University, and is an advocate for empowering people with disabilities to participate in athletics.

Ryan Silva

Head of Trading

As the Head of Digital Assets Strategy for T. Rowe Price, Blue is responsible for developing and leading the implementation and execution of T. Rowe Price’s digital asset strategy across the universe of cryptographic tokens, coins, protocols and blockchain technologies. Blue has more than 20 years of buy and sell-side markets experience. Prior to joining T. Rowe Price in 2022, she was a Managing Partner at Dunamis Trading, a market-neutral crypto fund, where she spent four years focused exclusively on crypto investing. Before moving into crypto in 2018, her background was in emerging markets credit, rates, and FX with Lehman Brothers, Elliott Management, and TD Securities. Blue holds an undergraduate degree from Mount Holyoke College, an MBA from Duke University, and she performed her graduate studies in International Economics and Middle Eastern Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS and the London School of Economics. She is a mother of three and her favorite dinosaur is the triceratops.

Blue Macellari

Head of Digital Assets

The Return of Bitcoin-Based Lending

With a history in financial services spanning over three decades, John Glover brings his prior experience as Managing Director of Barclays Bank, and board member and partner at Validus, the global risk advisory firm.

John Glover

The Maturation of Crypto Market Structure

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

Thomas Chladek

Managing Director

Mike Higgins is an early Partner and acting, International CEO and Global Head of Corporate Development at Hidden Road. An experienced Director with two decades of active engagement within financial markets, Mike possesses expertise in market structure across the full spectrum of Global Financial Markets, including Digital Assets, FICC and Synthetic Swaps. A strong emphasis on electronic trading technologies, methodologies and workflows. His specific skills in E-Commerce, APIs, GUI, price generation algorithms, risk management and hedging strategies to a diverse group of market participants prove invaluable as Hidden Road network continues to expand. Prior to joining Hidden Road, Mike successfully built, managed and commercialised a number of businesses within financial markets which included solutions in technology, trading and brokerage. Having started his career in New York on Wall Street, Mike moved with his family to London in 2009. Mike earned a bachelors degree in economics and statistics from Fordham University in New York.

Michael Higgins

Tim Renew is the Deputy CEO at payments and digital assets service provider BCB Group.



Prior to joining BCB in 2024, Tim worked at payments fintech Banked, initially as Chief Revenue Officer and later CEO APAC, and before that he was Chief Revenue Officer at ecommerce firm Cloud.IQ, working in both London and San Jose, California.



Tim is a specialist in growing global fintech firms, building out GTM strategies and growing sales, marketing, product and customer success teams across the US, UK, EMEA and Australia.



During his career Tim has been instrumental in raising growth finance for fast-growing companies, attracting $85m in investment for fintechs and SaaS businesses from a range of global investment names including Bank of America, Citibank, National Australia Bank and PayPal.

Tim Renew

Nikil Viswanathan is the cofounder and CEO of Alchemy, the world's leading blockchain developer platform. He was honored as Forbes 30 Under 30, received his BS &amp; MS in Computer Science at Stanford, and formerly did product management at Google, Microsoft, and Facebook. A serial entrepreneur, he co-created the #1 social app in the world, Down To Lunch, which was featured in international media such as a New York Times business cover story. He's been featured in numerous global media outlets including the New York Times, Forbes, NBC, Business Insider, and TechCrunch.

Nikil Viswanathan

The Convergence of Bitcoin & DeFi

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

Sam Golden, Director of Brand &amp; Communications, Rootstock Labs A trained journalist and communications professional who has spent his career to date leading, growing and advising businesses at the cutting edge of technology. Sam is passionate about projects with the potential to drive financial and social change and has been involved in the Digital Assets space since 2015.

Sam Golden

Director of Brand & Communications

What Institutions Are Actually Buying This Cycle

Eric Peters leads both Coinbase Asset Management and One River Asset Management. Coinbase Asset Management is a premier institutional digital asset manager and SEC-registered investment adviser operating as an independent business and wholly owned subsidiary of Coinbase. The firm was founded in January 2021, as One River Digital Asset Management, and was acquired by Coinbase in March 2023. One River Asset Management is an innovative alternative-investment manager operating volatility, trend, and inflation strategies. The team leverages its macro/fundamental perspective and quantitative capabilities to build/deliver unique diversifiers for client portfolios. Prior to founding One River in 2013, Eric served as Chairman of Grant Capital Partners, a discretionary global macro hedge fund. 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 - wknd notes - which is read by investment professionals who directly deploy over $1trln in alternative assets. Eric holds a B.A. in Business Economics from Brown University.

Eric Peters

Outperforming in Liquid Token Markets

Mr. Kanade joined VanEck in 2022 and serves as Portfolio Manager for the Digital Assets Alpha Fund. Prior to joining VanEck, Mr. Kanade worked at Millennium Management as a Credit Portfolio Manager working closely with a team of six investment professionals. Prior to Millennium, he was the founding member of the Head of Research for the Liquid Credit investing business at Angelo, Gordon &amp;amp; Co.  Prior experience of Mr. Kanade includes his role as Managing Director / Research Analyst with a focus on Technology and Energy at Hutchin Hill Capital. Pranav started his career at UBS in credit research during the European credit crisis. He has a B.S. in Finance and Accounting with a specialization in Entertainment, Media and Technology from the New York University Stern School of Business.

Pranav Kanade

Portfolio Manager

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

Ryan is the co-founder of Syncracy Capital — a thesis-driven hedge fund making high conviction, concentrated investments in the secular winners of the cryptoeconomy. Prior to founding Syncracy Ryan was a Senior Research Analyst at Messari.

Ryan Watkins

David Kalk is the Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Reflexive Capital, an alternative asset management firm focused on crypto. David oversees the "macro directional" liquid strategy where he leverages deep professional trading experience and macro expertise for macro regime identification, asset filtering, fundamental diligence, active management and proprietary risk management. Before starting Reflexive, David served as the Head of Macro and Digital Assets at Commonwealth Asset Management. Prior to that, David traded macro for eight years at Peter Thiel's family office, Thiel Macro, progressing to also serve as the CIO for the latter four years. He began his career as an Interest Rate Swap trader at Goldman Sachs and holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from MIT.



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David Kalk

Founder & CIO

Raghav Chopra is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Tephra Digital, a digital assets investment firm backed by Jefferies. Previously, he was the Portfolio Manager of a $600 million technology hedge fund portfolio for AllianceBernstein LP, and prior to that, he worked at The Blackstone Group. Mr. Chopra began his career in private equity at The Carlyle Group and in investment banking at Goldman Sachs &amp; Co. in 2006. He received his MBA with High Distinction from Harvard Business School, where he was named a George F. Baker Scholar, and his B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Economics with Distinction from Yale University. He serves on the Board of Directors of the Harvard Club of New York City Foundation and Argo Blockchain plc.

Raghav Chopra

Welcome Back to DAS NYC - Day 2

Invert, Always Invert	

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

Founder

Bringing the Whole World Onchain

Sergey Nazarov is the co-founder of Chainlink, the standard for high-quality onchain data and secure cross-chain interoperability, powering leading tokenized assets and unifying global markets onchain.



The Chainlink standard has securely enabled over $17 trillion in transaction value, powering onchain finance across banking, tokenization, DeFi, global trade, and other major sectors. Sergey has worked in the blockchain industry since 2014, when he founded one of the earliest tokenization platforms, along with tools for composing and supporting live smart contracts. His work in capital markets dates back to 2016, when he demoed one of the first-ever "smart bonds," which used oracle infrastructure to connect existing Swift messaging standards to blockchain networks. Sergey continues to collaborate with major market infrastructure providers and institutional banks such as Swift, DTCC, Fidelity International, ANZ, and many others, giving him a unique perspective on what’s required to accelerate the global adoption of blockchain technology and tokenized assets.

Sergey Nazarov

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

Stani Kulechov

Partner, Head of Investor Relations &amp; Global Comms at Framework Ventures, one of the largest and earliest VC firms in crypto. We recently raised $400 million for our third fund, and are actively deploying capital across the DeFi, AI, and infra verticals. Prior to Framework, I served as Comms Lead for Chainlink Labs during the Chainlink network's hyper-growth phase to $80B in total value secured across 1,000+ apps.

Adam Badrawi

Framework Ventures

In Conversation with Brad Garlinghouse

Brad is the CEO of Ripple and a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to Ripple, Brad served as the CEO of file collaboration service Hightail. From 2009 to 2012 he was President of Consumer Applications at AOL and prior to that he held various executive positions at Yahoo! from 2003 to 2008, including Senior Vice President. Earlier in his career, Brad helped to pioneer the VoIP industry as CEO of Dialpad Communications. He has previously held several board positions at companies including <a href="http://ancestry.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ancestry.com</a> and Tonic Health (acquired by R1 RCM).

Brad Garlinghouse

Hunter Horsley is CEO and co-founder of Bitwise Asset Management, a global crypto asset manager with more than $15 billion in client assets. With offices in San Francisco, New York, and London, Bitwise manages over 30 investment solutions spanning ETFs, separate accounts, alpha strategies, staking solutions, and private funds. In his role, Hunter leads the firm’s executive team and oversees client relationships, product development, and industry stewardship.



Prior to Bitwise, Hunter was a product manager at Facebook and Instagram. A 2019 Forbes “30 Under 30” honoree, Hunter was a 2024 nominee for ETF.com’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named to CoinDesk’s “Most Influential” in crypto list. He graduated from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Economics.

Hunter Horsley

Live Empire: Founder Mode & What It Takes to Build in Crypto

Jack O'Holleran is a veteran entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of SKALE Labs, the core team behind the SKALE Network, a blockchain scalability platform that enables developers to build and deploy Ethereum applications quickly and cost-effectively. With over two decades of experience in enterprise software and blockchain technologies, Jack is a recognized expert in blockchain and decentralization. Prior to co-founding SKALE Labs in 2018, Jack founded several successful startups, including IncentAlign, a digital currency platform, and Aktana, the global leading machine learning/AI platform for the life science industry. He also held numerous senior roles at Good Technology, which was later acquired by Motorola, where he continued to serve as an executive. Throughout his career, Jack has been a driving force behind the development of innovative solutions that improve scalability, security, and user experience. Jack has been actively involved in the cryptocurrency industry since early 2013, and he is committed to creating a more open, transparent, and decentralized world by leveraging the transformative power of blockchain technology. Under his leadership, SKALE Labs has emerged as a leader in the blockchain industry, providing an innovative solution that enables developers to build and deploy decentralized applications quickly and cost-effectively. Jack earned his BS from the University of Nebraska, where he was a two-time letterman for the Nebraska Football team and twice named to the Academic All-Conference first team. He is a proud father of three young children and resides in San Francisco.

Jack O'Holleran

CEO & Co-Founder 

Giving Power to the People with Digital ID

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

David Hoffman

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

Diego Fernández is the Founder and CEO of Sovra, a ZK-powered blockchain specializing in self-sovereign identity, property, and registry solutions. He is also the co-creator of QuarkID, the first government-backed decentralized identity protocol in Latin America, built on Ethereum. Previously, he served as the Secretary of Innovation of Buenos Aires, leading the city’s digital transformation initiatives. His work focuses on leveraging blockchain and zero-knowledge technology to drive real-world adoption of digital identity and public infrastructure solutions.

Digital Asset Summit 2025 - New York