Friday, 24th January, 2025
09:00 - 10.00 | Networking Breakfast
10:00 - 10:45 | The Future of Payments: What will be the Role of Traditional Payment Networks & Stablecoins?
How do the speed, capacity, and security of fiat payment networks compare to those of crypto networks, and what does this mean for the future of payments?
Will traditional finance and stablecoins become partners or remain competitors in shaping the next generation of payment networks?
What are the key regulatory hurdles facing blockchain payments, and how can they be addressed to enable further adoption and integration?
Speakers:
Gary Dushnitsky, Associate Professor of Strategy & Entrepreneurship, London Business School (moderator)
Nikola Plecas, Crypto Senior Director GTM & Product, Visa
Kaushik Sthankiya, Global Head, Banking & Payments, Kraken
Patrick Elyas, VP of International Operations, Circle
Anil Hansjee, General Partner, Fabric Ventures
10:45 - 11:30 | Decentralised Finance: Lending, Trading & Staking on the Blockchain
What are the biggest hurdles decentralized finance platforms face in gaining trust from mainstream businesses and individual users, and how can they be overcome?
What practical steps can DeFi innovators take to make lending, trading, and staking more accessible to traditional financial institutions and regulatory bodies?
What role does collaboration between blockchain projects, governments, and enterprises play in accelerating real-world adoption of DeFi solutions?
Speakers:
Ziad El Baba, Chief Product Officer, Ramp Network (moderator)
Giovanni Cunti, CEO, Gate, Malta
Deniz Kog, Head of Product, Wintermute
Badri Natarajan, Independent Legal Crypto Services Professional
Sarthak Jain, Institutional Business Development Manager, dYdX
11:30 - 12:15 | Bitcoin’s Coming of Age: Institutional Adoption, Strategic Reserves & Financial Products
What are the key drivers behind institutional and corporate adoption of Bitcoin on balance sheets, and what are the remaining barriers/hesitancies to this trend continuing?
We are seeing talk of Bitcoin Strategic Reserves in the USA and elsewhere. What do you expect to see in terms of the execution of the reserve, and how should other countries such as the UK react?
We are seeing a lot of financial products being built out around Bitcoin, such as hashrate derivatives, lending options. Can you dig a little deeper into this, and what it means for the future of the ecosystem?
Speakers:
Bo Zhang, Strategic Advisor, Covenant Labs (Moderator)
James Butterfield, Head of Research, Coinshares
Mandy Chiu, Head of Financial Product Development, 21 Shares
Sadiq Jaffer, Senior Manager, Cloud Transformation, KPMG
Brett Reeves, UK Managing Director, BitGo
Theo Chapman, Institutional Bitcoin Staking & DeFi Expert
12:15 - 13:15 | Lunch Break
17:45 - 18:30 | Exploring the Development of Decentralised AI & Data Storage
Why is it important to decentralise AI and data storage, and what are the trade-offs compared to OpenAI or a big tech firm building an AI model?
What are the use cases that are being worked on that will actually influence the lives of everyday people? What real world problems are you excited about solving?
What are the technical and organisational hurdles that need to be overcome before we see decentralised AI competing with centralised models on quality and use cases?
Speakers:
Elias Papaioannou, Academic Director, Wheeler Institute for Business & Development
Lior Messika, Founder & Managing Partner, Eden Block
Donald Gossen, CEO, Nevermined
Harry Grieve, Co-Founder & CTO, Gensyn
Jiahao Sun, CEO, Flock.io
Altan Tutar, CEO, Nuff Labs
14.00 - 14.45 | Investors Panel: Isolating the Real-World Value from the Hype
As way of introduction, can you outline the type of investing you do – equity or tokens? Early or later stage? All blockchain or only certain types? And why did you choose the approach you have?
Narratives in the blockchain space seem to evolve almost daily. As an investor, to what extent are you trying to react to the latest trend vs. having long-term conviction in certain projects, and trying to ignore the hype?
Thinking about all of the possible blockchain applications, what are the use cases that you expect to have the most real-world impact in the next few years? What are the types of projects that will break through into profitable, high-value applications for everyday people?
Speakers:
Pei Wu, Partner, IOBC Capital (moderator)
Leon Marshall, CEO, Europe, Galaxy Digital
Christophe de la Celle, Chief Commercial Officer, Selini Capital
Sergey Khachaturyan, Investor, Eden Block
14.45 - 15.30 | Hearing How Blockchain is Revolutionising Engagement & Business Models in Gaming
How is blockchain technology reshaping player engagement, from ownership of in-game assets to innovative reward systems?
What new business models are emerging for game developers through blockchain integration, such as play-to-earn and tokenized economies?
So far, we haven’t seen blockchain integrated into AAA games from traditional game studios. Do you think we’ll one day have NFTs and digital currencies in games like Fortnite or Minecraft?
Speakers:
Stephen (Cap) Newnham, UK Lead, Solana Superteam (moderator)
Robby Yung, CEO, Animoca Brands
Hilmar Pétursson, CEO, CCP
Maitham Mohamed, Founder, M10
Gerald Pollak, Head of Ecosystem, thirdweb
16.15 - 17.00 | From Tangible to Tokenised: The UK’s Real-World Asset Revolution
What is the purpose and current landscape of real-world asset (RWA) tokenization, including key use cases, challenges, and successful examples, particularly in the UK?
How does the regulatory framework for RWA tokenization in the UK compare to global standards, and what role do institutional players have in driving growth?
How is the RWA market expected to evolve over the next five years, and which industries might see the greatest impact?
Speakers:
Gideon Daitz, Partner, Three Point Capital; Strategy & BD, Mantra (moderator)
George Kassis, Web3 Identity Lead, Kinexys, J.P. Morgan
Sophia Shluger, Ex-Chief Commercial Officer, PV01
Anya Markitanova, Institutional Partnerships, Archax
Oya Celiktemur, EMEA Sales Director, Ondo Finance
15.30 - 16.15 | Coffee & Networking
17.00 - 17.45 | Sports in Web3 - What’s Next?
Speakers:
Jack Land, Head of Marketing & Growth, Metawealth (moderator)
Max Wolfe, Senior Manager, Web3 & Digital Licensing, McLaren Racing
Mohamed Ezeldin, Head of Tokenomics, Animoca Brands
Mladen Kostov, Co-Founder, GRVTY
13.15 - 14.00 | Outlining the Roadmap for Regulations & the Impact on Blockchain Investments & Real-World Applications
What is the roadmap that we are currently on in the UK and EU to gain regulatory clarity, and what are the biggest uncertainties or roadblocks ahead of us?
Given the shifting political stance in the USA, what pressure does this place on other nations, both in terms of speed and destination for their regulations?
What should the blockchain community be doing to work constructively with regulators to ensure we get to the optimal conclusion as quickly as possible?
Speakers:
Katie Harries, Director, International Policy, Coinbase
Alex Dunn, Director, Money Movement Innovation & Strategic Initiatives, Visa
Qian Jiang, Director, Digital Assets Strategy, SWIFT
Benjamin Santos-Stephens, CEO & Founder, Clear Token
Rory Copeland, Senior Associate, Allen & Overy
18.30 - 20.00 | Drinks Reception & Networking