The World's Leading Blockchain, Crypto & Web3 Forum hosted in Dubai, UAE

Mark Rydon is the Co-Founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Aethir, the leading decentralized enterprise-grade cloud computing network.

Mark’s strategic leadership and visionary efforts have been instrumental in Aethir’s exponential growth. Since its inception in 2021, Aethir has expanded from a small team of 5 to a robust organization of 157 employees, scaling from $0 to $3 billion FDV in 2 years.

With a focus on revolutionizing DePIN with its Scalable Decentralised Cloud Infrastructure (DCI) for Gaming & AI, the company has grown from zero to a multi-billion dollar network, boasting the largest fleet of 4000+ NVIDIA H100 Tensor Core GPUs in the Web3 industry. Backed by industry giants like NVIDIA, Super Micro, HPE, and Foxconn, Aethir’s infrastructure makes high-performance GPU resources accessible and affordable. Additionally, Aethir has secured over $130M in funding, 2M community members, and 90,000 Checker Node licenses, furthering Mark’s commitment to a more equitable and accessible DCI landscape. Aethir counts among its investors Framework Ventures, Sanctor Capital, Animoca Brands, Hashkey, and more.

Before co-founding Aethir, Mark gained extensive experience in infrastructure building and resource allocation, managing a 400-person team for a $34B oil and gas project at Wheatstone. In addition to Aethir, he serves as a partner at the VC fund Flux Capital and Gas Global, where he advises projects in blockchain technology, mining, and investments.

Naeem Aslam is a prominent figure in the finance and investment industry, known for his extensive experience and entrepreneurial spirit. He has launched startups and owns a private equity fund focused on commercial real estate. With a career spanning over 15 years, Naeem is a respected voice in finance. As an ex-Hedge Fund Trader at Bank of New York, he has hands-on experience in managing investments and trading strategies. A regular guest on Fox Business and Bloomberg, Naeem provides insights on financial trends, market developments, and investment strategies. His expertise includes blockchain, fintech, traditional assets, macroeconomics, central bank policies, and AI. Naeem is also a columnist at NASDAQ and previously contributed to Forbes for over 5 years. He is a guest lecturer at the London School of Economics and the University of Warwick’s Business School, sharing his knowledge with aspiring finance professionals.

Antonio Senatore is the Chief Technology Officer (CTO) of the VeChain Foundation since joining VeChain in October 2021 having been involved with VeChain since 2018, initially in an advisory capacity, and serves on the Steering Committee. he has led the expansion of the Europe-based technical team and overseen the delivery of key infrastructure projects, including the VeWorld wallet, VORJ API, VebetterDAo and new renaissance projects – Stargate, Galactica and Hyabusa. Before joining VeChain, Antonio was the Global Blockchain CTO at Deloitte and Head of its EMEA Blockchain Lab, leading a team of around 40 practitioners. He also held positions at Deutsche Bank, Newbay Software, MobileAware and Accenture. Antonio holds a BSc in Computer Engineering from Politecnico di Milano. His expertise spans blockchain, software engineering, cloud computing, big data, enterprise architecture, and applied cryptography.

Cecilia Hsueh is a blockchain entrepreneur and strategic leader with a background in management consulting and over a decade of experience in finance and technology. Cecilia has joined MEXC as Chief Strategy Officer. In this role, she will be responsible for optimizing the company’s long-term development strategy and overall operations, identifying new investment and growth opportunities across global markets, and integrating and coordinating resources across different functions. She will play a pivotal role in driving growth initiatives and strengthening brand awareness in key regions, supporting MEXC’s evolution into a comprehensive global ecosystem. Prior to joining MEXC, she co-founded Morph, a next-generation L2 network bringing blockchain into everyday life, and previously co-founded Phemex, scaling it from zero into a leading global crypto exchange.

Graduating Keio University, started his career 20 years ago in Marubeni Corporation, Japan’s largest investment and cross boarder trading company in the power sector. Professional experience in M&A and cross border trading, leading multiple international and government projects in Indonesia, Vietnam and in the Philippines, managing over $2 billion worth of assets. Joined EMURGO which is the co-founding entity of L1 Cardano. He is the CEO of EMURGO Japan, where EMURGO was first established and started its business in 2017.

At Chiliz and Socios.com, Max leads business and product strategy, where his responsibilities include conceptualizing new features, expanding the platform to enhance fan utilities, and forging new commercial collaborations. His role is pivotal in driving the strategic direction of Chiliz, ensuring it stays at the forefront of fan engagement and blockchain technology. Max’s strategic insights contribute to nurturing the ecosystem and leveraging blockchain technology to unite the worlds of sports and entertainment.

Derek is the CTO of WalletConnect and author of several common blockchain standards. With over a decade of experience at Amazon, Venmo/PayPal, and multiple startups, he has scaled global fintech and Web3 platforms. At WalletConnect, Derek drives open-source innovation and sets the standards powering blockchain interoperability.

Sharif Allayarov, Master’s in International Law – Tsinghua University Beijing, served as Bitmain’s International Sales Director, leading global mining farm development. He later gained crypto finance expertise at Matrixport and now heads Bitdeer’s Middle East sales from Abu Dhabi office.

Sergey Shalyapin is an experienced leader with extensive technical and engineering experience. With over 20 years of experience in advanced information technology, machine learning, artificial intelligence and decentralized platforms, he brings his energy and initiative as CTO of SingularityNET.

Sergey is passionate about decentralized Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) and Neural-Symbolic AI, contributing to their successful development and efficient implementation in many industries around the globe.

Sergey’s early background in Cognitive Science and rich experience in long-term leadership of the Neuro Cognitive Architectures Research Laboratory brings unique expertise in the field of scaling language models and multimodal generative artificial intelligence, building disruptive centralized and decentralized computing infrastructures for a new generation of AI systems and ecosystems of human-machine cooperation.

Alec leads HTX’s investment arm (fka Huobi), driving strategic investments in Web3 startups worldwide. With expertise in venture capital, M&A, and blockchain innovation, he backs visionary founders. He previously held roles at Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

Alessia Baumgartner is VP of Ecosystems at DWF Labs, the new generation Web3 investor and market maker. With a strong background in crypto and blockchain, Alessia is dedicated to fostering partnerships and driving the development of decentralised technologies. Her work at DWF Labs focuses on creating impactful collaborations and nurturing growth within blockchain ecosystems. Apart from overseeing close to 800+ portfolio companies, Alessia also manages DWF Labs’ business development in the MENA region, where they have been based for more than two years.

Jason Li is the Co-Founder of Solayer and leads its technology team. Backed by Polychain Capital, Hack VC, and Binance Labs, Solayer’s InfiniSVM chain is the first hardware-accelerated Solana scaling solution capable of achieving over 1 million transactions per second (TPS). Previously, Jason co-founded MPCVault, a non-custodial Web3 wallet that processes over $5 billion in weekly on-chain transactions. He holds dual degrees in Computer Science and Business from UC Berkeley and the Haas School of Business.

Marcin leads strategy and go-to-market at RedStone, the fastest-growing blockchain Oracle globally with 170+ B2B clients and $8B+ Total Value of Assets Secured. RedStone is the official oracle for Securitize, BlackRock BUIDL, Apollo ACRED and VanEck VBILL. Laureate of Forbes 30 u 30 Poland.

James Wo is an experienced entrepreneur and investor in the digital assets space who founded DFG in 2015, where he oversees over $1 billion in assets under management. He is an early investor in companies like Ledger, Coinlist, Circle, and ChainSafe. James is also an early investor and supporter of Polkadot and Kusama Network. In addition, he contributes substantially to the ecosystem through capital allocation, donations, and actively supporting the Parachain Auctions.  Additionally, James serves as the board and committee member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce. He speaks internationally on blockchain technologies, digital assets, investing, and entrepreneurship.  His work with DFG has been featured on Bloomberg Radio, Yahoo! Finance, Forbes, CoinDesk, CoinTelegraph, Decrypt, CryptoCoin Show, and more. James earned his B.A. from Fudan University and an M.A. in statistics from Columbia University.

Nic Puckrin holds a Master’s in Financial Engineering and is a former investment banker. As co-founder and CEO of Coin Bureau, he has built one of the world’s largest crypto media platforms, delivering research and insights to millions globally.

Emily Bao is Head of Spot Trading at Bybit, Founder of Byreal, and a Key Advisor to Mantle. She drives at the intersection of CeFi and DeFi, scaling Bybit’s spot markets while building Byreal on Solana with institutional-grade liquidity and fair launch mechanics. At Mantle, her expertise in market structure, product design, and real-world asset adoption fuels the modular L2’s mission to power seamless liquidity flow and the next wave of institutional-grade DeFi.

Danilo Carlucci is a Dubai-based serial entrepreneur and early crypto investor, who started his career within the watch industry in Switzerland. After several years of founding startups, Danilo joined Google, leading YouTube’s UK creator community efforts. It didn’t take long for Danilo to go back to being an entrepreneur, and eventually founding Morningstar Ventures – an investment firm backing ambitious early-stage startups, which is also the backer of digitial art gallery 37xDubai and consultancy firm MSV Studio.

Inal is the Gaming Lead at TON Foundation. Inal has founded several gaming + blockchain successful startups in the past and is now leading the gaming vertical at TON Foundation to help games to onboard into Telegram and utilize the power of TON blockchain.

Alicia Kao is the Managing Director at KuCoin, bringing over a decade of experience in digital marketing and strategic development. Since joining KuCoin in 2019, she has played a key role in driving global strategic partnerships and exploring regulatory market opportunities worldwide. A dedicated blockchain advocate and NFT collector, Alicia focuses on connecting innovation with regulation, shaping the future of crypto through collaborations in areas such as stablecoins, Web3 infrastructure, and AI-driven applications.

Soufia is the Head of DeFi at Kelp DAO, a leading liquid restaking protocol. She manages Kelp’s Vaults and oversees deployment of assets across DeFi money markets, focusing on yield optimization, liquidity, and TVL growth.

Irina Heaver is the leading crypto lawyer, founder of NeosLegal, the UAE’s first crypto-native law firm, and author of “The Founder’s Guide to the UAE Crypto Laws”. She advises on all aspects of VASP licensing and regulatory compliance across UAE regimes, including VARA, SCA, ADGM and DIFC.  Since 2016, she has structured over 300 blockchain and Web3 projects, supporting exchanges, token issuers, DeFi platforms, and RWA tokenisation ventures.  Irina works closely with regulators, contributing to the development of virtual asset laws, and is a trusted adviser to founders, VCs and institutions expanding into the UAE’s rapidly evolving crypto ecosystem.

Daniil’s most vital qualities are searching for promising projects at an early stage, analytics, and building relationships with project teams. In crypto since 2016.

Personally took part in the review of 2,500 projects at an early stage of development.

Since January 2022, he has been leading the team of analysts of the Jets.Capital fund in the role of COO. During this time, the fund has grown from a small team of enthusiasts into a world-famous company with an excellent portfolio of projects and an ecosystem for helping and developing startups.

Herbert Sim is commonly known as BitcoinMan in the FinTech industry.

Mr Sim was the global operations director at HUOBI (2017-2018) and CMO of russian crypto exchange – Cryptology. He is currently CMO of AICEAN.IO – AI ‘Text to Video’ project, backed by renown film maker & actor – Stephen Chow.

Mr Sim has a MBA from University of Wolverhampton, UK; and BA in Mass communications from Oklahoma City University, USA.

Mr Sim, is legacy verified ‘blue tick’ public figure across all major social media platforms since 2015, with over 3-million followers.

Mr Sim, is behind philosophies such as Transhumanism.com (EST 1997), CounterEconomics.com (EST 2011), and more.

Tanisha Katara is an independent blockchain consultant and award-winning researcher who explores the science of governance, tokenomics, and decentralization.

Nicolas is a senior executive in financial market infrastructure, specialising in innovation, strategy, derivatives, and digital assets. Based in Milan, he is Chairman of Young Platform, the most active crypto exchange in Italy, supervisory board member of One Trading, and Ambassador of the Global Blockchain Business Council.
He was previously CEO of Komainu and held executive roles and board positions at Euronext Group, London Stock Exchange Group and Borsa Italiana.

Graduated as an Applied Physicist but worked in Finance for 12+ years (derivatives and structured products). Kicked off creation of structured investments products business in the leading regional bank that grew from O to USD Ibn+ in 2 years.
Shifted full time from TradFi to Crypto and after advising several projects went on to creating Resolv Labs – a team of ex-TradFi professionals building sustainable delta-neutral stablecoin architecture.

In crypto since 2017, author of the YouTube and Telegram crypto channels of the same name, co-founder of the Alpha-one.io app for trading memecoins.

Luke Dashjr is the Chairman and CTO of OCEAN, a Bitcoin mining pool he co-founded and launched in 2023. As the longest tenured Bitcoin Core developer, Luke has made a lot of contributions to the Bitcoin space, including much of the technology that makes mining work today. In 2011, he wrote and started one of the earliest mining pools, Eligius, named after the patron saint of gold miners. He also maintains the enhanced Bitcoin full node software called Bitcoin Knots, which includes many advanced features for Bitcoin mining.

Thomas Kralow is the Chairman of EVEDEX, the first hybrid decentralized exchange built as a non-custodial L3 rollup on Arbitrum Orbit. With over a decade of experience in investing, trading, and finance, he has built a $75M portfolio from scratch and educated more than 10,000 students worldwide. His background as both a trader and educator has given him a clear view of the limitations of existing market solutions, driving his mission to build a platform designed for professional traders.

Under his leadership, EVEDEX has launched its Beta Mainnet with features such as gas-free transactions, a gamification layer that enables zero-commission trading for top users, and a competitive affiliate program. By combining the security and transparency of DeFi with the usability of centralized exchanges, Thomas is positioning EVEDEX as a leading force in the evolution of decentralized finance.

Dmitry is a seasoned investor and entrepreneur, recognized by Forbes as one of the 40 most promising leaders in the blockchain industry and ranked among the top three experts in FinTech by Chambers. He is the founder of BitOK — a market leader in solutions for crypto compliance.

Andrey is a marketing leader and blockchain strategist with 20 years of experience in IT and 7 in Web3. Since 2022, he has led marketing and business development at http://STON.fi , playing a key role in its growth as TON’s leading DeFi-protocol with record TVL and rapid user adoption.

Jack is an entrepreneur who is passionate about sharing financial knowledge with people to help them become better in their financial management.

He is a crypto trader and also creates YouTube videos about investments, traditional markets, commodities, and cryptocurrency for his large subscriber base.

Nikolay Zagvozdkin is a media manager and head of three thematic projects at RBC. In 2018, within the RBC holding, he launched the RBC Crypto project, which twice received the award for “The Most Authoritative Russian-Language Media about Cryptocurrencies” based on the results of voting at Blockchain Life.

Ciaran Lyons is an Australian crypto journalist covering markets and conducting exclusive interviews with the biggest names in the industry. He has moderated panels at major crypto conferences around the world, including in Singapore, the Philippines, Hong Kong, and Australia. Ciaran has a background in mainstream media, having been a presenter on national radio station Triple J, roving television reporter for Channel Ten’s The Project, one of five Australians on SBS’s Filthy Rich and Homeless, and host of Channel 7’s award-winning series Life Done Differently. Ciaran is also a stand-up comedian and has supported Theo Von, Demetri Martin, and Ron Funches on tour.

Rafael Manvelyan is the Founder of the cryptocurrency community “Slezi Satoshi” – one of the biggest Russian-speaking crypto community

Rachit is the Head of Global Expansion at the Wormhole Foundation – he focuses on expanding Wormhole’s presence to new regions, currently focused on APAC and LATAM. He started his career at Bain, in their Private Equity Group – transitioning to a crypto VC fund as his first role in the industry. Before working at the Foundation, Rachit led the growth team at Scrib3 – where he mainly worked with DeFi and infrastructure projects. At Blockchain Life, Rachit will focus on elaborating the future of interoperability and institutions coming onchain – highlighting Wormhole’s partnerships with Securitize, Blackrock, Apollo, Van Eck and many more top institutional partners!

Sunil Sharma is a self-made millionaire and global tech leader, recognized among the top 50 emerging figures in the technology industry. A graduate of the National Institute of Technology, Bhopal in 2016, he has worked with organizations such as Google, Denave, Rescon Partners, and the Indian Government. He is both an entrepreneur and an experienced early-stage investor.

He leads Coingape Media, a Web3 media brand headquartered in Dubai and valued at $30 million, and oversees Squadx Innovations, a blockchain development firm in India. His investment portfolio is valued at over 10 crores, with his net worth estimated at $20 million.

Sharma’s journey highlights resilience. Early in his career, a major contract collapsed, threatening his business. Instead of giving up, he and his team adapted and worked harder, learning that setbacks can be opportunities for growth. Another defining moment came when a system flaw jeopardized user experience; by innovating and rebuilding, his team emerged stronger.

Motivated by the desire to make meaningful impact, Sharma has supported ventures such as a clean energy startup, believing in their vision and helping them succeed. His message to entrepreneurs is simple: challenges are inevitable, but they should fuel ambition and persistence in pursuing big dreams.

Paul Thomas is the Founder of Somnia, a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain designed for businesses across the entertainment and digital economies. His career began at Goldman Sachs, where he worked as a software engineer in the risk department, developing systems to monitor trading activities. In 2012, Paul joined Improbable, a startup focused on large-scale multiplayer experiences. Over 11 years, he played a pivotal role in scaling the company into a global technology business, leading efforts across engineering, product, and commercial strategy. In 2025, Paul founded Somnia to address the infrastructure limitations of blockchain-based gaming. The project is supported by a $270 million ecosystem fund involving Improbable, M², and the Virtual Society Foundation, with backing from investors like Andreessen Horowitz and SoftBank. This fund aims to accelerate the development of Somnia’s ecosystem, supporting developers and projects building on the platform.

Beka Zakaidze, with a business background, co-founded 3 ventures in ads & crypto. Now Head of Ecosystem at FSL, he drives global partnerships, launches DeFi games & leads a stablecoin project with a world-class team.

He initially joined the company in 2021 as the CFO and was appointed as the group’s CEO during late 2022 – one of crypto’s most colourful periods. Stephan has been instrumental in driving the exchange’s position as one of the crypto derivatives market leaders. Before BitMEX, he was a Senior Partner at PwC for close to a decade, where he advised many of the world’s largest financial institutions. Prior to PwC, he held senior positions with Deutsche Börse. His career began in corporate finance and equities trading at Dresdner Bank AG (now Commerzbank AG). Stephan is married with twin boys and enjoys competing in dance in his leisure time.

Joaquin is the COO at Taiko, Ethereum’s first based rollup. He transitioned into web3 after years in corporate finance, starting at Polygon before joining Taiko as Head of Partnerships. A strong believer in decentralization, he combines financial, consulting, and web3 experience to shape Taiko’s business strategy and help Ethereum scale without compromising its values.

Krinza Momin leads Developer Relations at ZKsync, building the Elastic Network, an ever-expanding verifiable network of blockchains. She brings over 4 years of experience bootstrapping developer communities and working across the ethereum ecosystem, from scaling global node infrastructure to contributing to alt-VM projects.

Joseph is a licensed attorney in the U.S. and founder of The Crypto Layers (est. 2017), a crypto-only law firm where he represented top players in the industry. Joseph has been an executive at Bitcoin.com since 2020 and leads the media, legal and compliance teams. Joseph is also a regular contributor to various financial and crypto online publications such as Coindesk, Fortune, Yahoo Finance, and Cointelegraph.

Legion Co-Founder Fabrizio is leading the charge to reinvent ICOs by leveraging two key tools: regulation and a novel investor reputation layer. With a background in computer science, Fabrizio transitioned into a dynamic career spanning consulting, startups, tech, and product development. His experience as a former DeFi founder, combined with a deep-rooted passion for equitable access, makes him a key figure in the resurgence of community-involved fundraising.

Davinci Jeremie, also known as Davincij15 across all Social Media platforms, is a skilled software developer, YouTuber, Public Speaker, Crypto Educator, and Entrepreneur. Davinci became famous in the crypto world when his YouTube video begging his audience to spend just $1 to buy bitcoin went viral.

Christopher is a German entrepreneur and Cryptocurrency expert. He is the Co-Founder of MMConsult and MMCrypto, one of the most famous Cryptocurrency-related YouTube channels. Christopher was among the first people to ever using on-chain analysis to predict the Bitcoin price. Now he is known as the go-to expert for on-chain metrics and on-chain analysis.

Vugar is an award-winning senior manager and communications expert with 15 years of progressive hands-on experience spanning Fortune 500 giants to dynamic startups, currently serving as Chief Operating Officer at Bitget.  A stalwart in the Web3 and blockchain arena, Vugar previously assumed the role of Chief Marketing Officer at Beincrypto, leaving an indelible mark on the industry. His journey extends to co-founder and board levels, where he adeptly crafted brands and ushered in compelling products, contributing to the success of a “unicorn” MarTech startup. Vugar held senior positions at renowned brands such as Carlsberg, Facebook, Danone, Coca-Cola, Twitter, SONY, and more, showcasing his versatility and strategic insight. Having also lent his expertise as a senior consultant at Bain & Company, Vugar focused on Web3, blockchain technologies, and private equity, further solidifying his standing as a seasoned professional in the field.  An Edward S. Mason Fellow, Vugar holds a master’s degree from Harvard University and a post-graduate degree in Economics from Saïd Business School, University of Oxford. Vugar passionately hosts a popular crypto podcast, the “Usi Talk,” delving into technology, Web3, AI, and Blockchain.

Andres Meneses is a Colombian-British entrepreneur and founder of Orbyt X, a strategy and content firm across Web2, Web3, AI, and tech. With 18+ years in fintech since 2008, he leads Crypto OGs and builds platforms that drive innovation and global adoption.

Kirill Malev is a Venture Adviser at The Open Platform (TOP), a UAE-based company developing Wallet in Telegram and the whole portfolio of customer-facing and infrastructure Web3 projects on TON blockchain. Kirill’s work inside TOP is focused on building and investing in different companies building on TON ecosystem.

Kirill holds two master’s degrees in applied mathematics (NSTU) and bioinformatics (Bologna University).

Carl Runefelt, also known as ‘The Moon’ is the founder of The Moon Group. He is a serial entrepreneur who has invested in 400 blockchain-based startups, & has been featured in Forbes 30 under 30. The crypto evangelist has also been featured in top business publications such as, FOX Business, Forbes US, CNBC, Business Insider, Coin Telegraph and Tech Telegraph UK. Carl is also the co-founder of multiple crypto companies and is a well-known speaker, a respected philanthropist and a blockchain expert who has a massive social media influence. With more than 4 million followers across YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and TikTok Carl is already well on his way to be a frontrunner in the mass adoption of blockchain technologies and crypto currencies.

CEO & Co-Founder of HELLO Labs (Web3 media powerhouse). Created Killer Whales (1st blockchain reality show on Apple TV/Amazon Prime), reaching 600M+ viewers. As crypto pioneer redefining decentralized media, built tokenized entertainment ecosystem merging Hollywood & blockchain.

Petr is an experienced web3 marketer and growth hacker with 5 years proven track record of launching successful user acquisition campaigns for various crypto and fintech projects. At Morningstar Ventures, he is in charge of marketing support for portfolio companies and in-house initiatives. Morningstar Ventures is a Dubai-based proprietary investment firm specializing in digital assets and blockchain technology.

Featured as a keynote/ panelist/ educator at CNBC, WEF Davos 2020/2022, Cointelegraph, Coindesk, Coin Bureau Live, Token2049, Le Figaro, Paris Blockchain Summit Week, Blockdown, AIM Summit, Altcoin daily, Cryptoslate, London Real TV and more… Alex played a critical role to scale SwissBorg: built the Influencer / inbound marketing strategy from scratch which currently holds the Top European & Japanese KOLs from YouTube to private groups generating over $25M in revenues to date through affiliation. Alex also kicked off SwissBorg Ventures which invested in Eigen Layer, Cross the Ages, http://De.Fi , Sweatcoin, LunarCrush, Composable Finance and more…

Anurag Arjun is the Сo- Аounder of Avail, a unified foundation for rollups to scale horizontally, share liquidity, move assets trustlessly, communicate permissionlessly along with a multi-token economic security. He entered the blockchain industry in 2017, founding Matic Network, which evolved into Polygon Labs. By 2020, he launched Avail within the Polygon ecosystem, utilizing his background in research, economics, and engineering. In March 2023, he spun out Avail as an independent project. Anurag is a seasoned entrepreneur who has founded several successful startups across diverse industries, ranging from cash flow lending to regulatory tech. His expertise and vision continue to drive Avail’s success and position the company at the forefront of the blockchain revolution.

Leonid is a trader with 6 years of experience in the crypto market, the creator of one of the largest communities of traders in the CIS.

In 2021, with his team, he took 1st place in Russia and 9th place in the world among 196 teams in one of the largest and most prestigious WSOT tournaments for traders from the Bybit exchange.

He maintains an author’s Instagram blog dedicated to development and cryptocurrencies, one of the few people who remained in the market during the 2018 crypto winter and always spoke out in support of it.

Saloi Benbaha is the Head of XDC Network Enterprise Alliance and Ventures. In these roles, she plays a pivotal part in fostering strategic alliances and driving collaborative initiatives around the trade finance ecosystem. Saloi holds a French Business School degree in International Business and Marketing, a BA Honours in European Economy and Management from Abertay University, and a Master’s Degree in Business Studies from Sunderland University. Her professional journey spans diverse industries, including telecom, health, banking, Oil & Gas, blockchain, and Ai where she has developed expertise in facilitating high-level engagements and negotiations. In 2025, she was honored with the Best Performing CEO in the MENA Region 2024 award from Unlock Blockchain, recognizing her leadership and impact in the blockchain space. As an Ambassador for the Global Women in AI Initiative from CFTE, Saloi will be committed to empowering women and promoting diversity in the AI and blockchain sectors. She is dedicated to bridging the gap between blockchain and AI, focusing on tokenization, payments, cross-border transactions, and trade finance, with AI deployment to streamline and scale operations.

As the Regional Ambassador for the Association “for Women in Cryptocurrency, Elena actively promotes women’s inclusion and advancement in the crypto space. Elena is a Lead Business Development Manager with in-depth experience in the crypto industry, focusing on the Eastern Europe, MENA regions and CIS. She excels in building relationships with high-value individuals, institutions, partners, and affiliates, driving growth through tailored strategies. With more than a decade of expertise in customer experience across diverse industries, she brings a personalized approach to her work in crypto

Denis Vasin is the Co-founder and Lead Developer of Storm Trade, the largest derivatives DEX on the TON blockchain, fully integrated with Telegram. With over a decade in IT and blockchain, Denis has been in crypto since 2019, previously serving as CTO in corporate tech projects. Holding an MBA, he has led the development of 15+ DeFi projects, specializing in Web3, blockchain, and software architecture. A frequent speaker at blockchain events, Denis is passionate about advancing DeFi and building cutting-edge solutions that reshape decentralized trading.

Vit Jedlicka studied Political Science and Economy. On April 13 2015, he founded the Free Republic of Liberland and was elected its President. Liberland has 760,000 people who applied for citizenship. He has spoken at numerous conferences and has been interviewed in major media channels.

1 Early stage Polkadot Chinese ecosystem builder, Polkadot Chinese white paper translator, event interpretator 2 Former official Head of China BD in Tezos, 3 Former official Head of China and South East Asia in Polygon 4 Managing Partner of Lucidblue ventures, has been actively invested in more than 40 projects, 5 Used to be Ecosystem Advisor for A few fast growing high potential layer 1 and layer 2 blockchain infrastructures 6 Currently Cofounder of Bitlayer, the ultimate bitcoin defi infrastructure solution based on BitVM paradigm.

He leads the Marketing for Whatsminer from M10 after he transferred from MicroBT RD team to Marketing in 2018. With over 20 yrs experience of ASIC development. He has full knowledge to address the pain-points from customers in technical side and help lots of customers to find the win-win solution with MicroBT to be success in last 5 yrs. Currently, MicroBT become the famous brand by the quality product to acknowledge by all customers under his support.

Anton has a traditional finance background, having spent his early career at Deloitte. Before moving directly into the digital assets space, he worked directly with major Capital Allocators on deployment across asset classes. At Glassnode, Anton supports traditional Finance institutions and crypto-native teams, in applying on-chain data as part of their investment decision making.

Matthias is an award-winning entrepreneur and visionary founder. He is a founding member of the Dubai Blockchain Center and a Crypto Influencer.

He is also the CEO and founder of Bonuz Market, a social engagement web3 ecosystem and super-app that allows fans token-gated exclusive access to their favorite creator’s channel, proof of attendance and other community engaging features are included.

Mende has held a few board and advisor roles including Marketing Advisor at HYGH AG, Icetech, and Unit Ventures. He was the Chief Strategist at Block Gemini, helping Multi-Billion Dollar Supply Chain Enterprises to implement Blockchain Technology, Smart Contracts, and other distributed ledger technologies.

Karan Gandhi is an Investment Director at Cypher Capital – a $100m blockchain-focused venture capital fund based out of Dubai, UAE. Prior to working in Blockchain, Karan worked as a senior venture architect building tech startups for the largest licensing authority in the UAE. He has vast experience scaling startups and has previously advised numerous tech startups in areas related to fundraising, business models, and market strategy. Karan is a crypto evangelist and has been investing in blockchain projects since 2017. Academically, he is a CFA charter holder and has over 9 years of experience spread across Private Equity, Venture Capital, and Banking.

Anton Tsarenok joined the blockchain industry in 2017 and became Business Development Director at ViaBTC in 2019. He has been instrumental in expanding ViaBTC’s international presence, establishing strategic partnerships across Russia, the CIS, and the Middle East. His efforts have helped establish ViaBTC as one of the world’s leading mining pools for BTC, LTC, BCH, and KAS. . Anton continues to drive growth by fostering open, reliable, and long-term relationships within the global mining community.

Alexander Belov is a recognized blockchain speaker, Founder of Coinstelegram Media & Fund, contributor at Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.

Alex is also a coproducer of ¨Decentralized no matter what¨ crypto documentary films series where Vitalik Buterin, CZ, Justin Sun, Artur Hayes and even the president of El Salvador participated together with other famous personalities.

Alex was featured in Top 10 leading blockchain entrepreneurs rating by International Business Times in 2020 and top 30 influential people in blockchain by Hackernoon during the same year.

In 2022 he was honoured to take place in 40under40 rating by Forbes Portugal.

He also serves as PR director of Beeminer Group, which is building the largest mining farm in the world using a new immersion cooling technology.

Abdulla Al Dhaheri is the CEO of The Blockchain Center in Abu Dhabi, a pivotal figure in the blockchain and Web3 sectors. With a history of having 2 patents in the blockchain ecosystem, author of Into the future of technologies, working on groundbreaking projects inventing 2 concepts such as digital identification and offline payment systems, Abdulla has been a key advisor for companies with total market capitalization of millions of dollars. Abdulla is also prominent speaker at global forums, and dedicated to advancing the UAE’s position as a leader in blockchain, Web3, and AI technologies.

Vlad is a Business Development manager at BNB Chain, driving DeFi growth. He leads stablecoin initiatives and partnerships, boosting liquidity, seeding key pools, and growing TVL ecosystem-wide.

Business development executive with 5 years of experience driving growth in the crypto industry and managing international projects with budgets over $10 million.

Julian Ullrich is a leading European DeFi entrepreneur and early advocate for Solana’s potential in decentralized finance. As the founder of stabble, now the 5th largest DEX on Solana with double-digit billions in trading volume, he has driven innovation in stablecoin swaps and DeFi infrastructure. With a technical background from Technische Universität Darmstadt and extensive blockchain expertise, Julian bridges deep theory with real-world financial applications.

Jeroen is a Principal with Kearney, leading the firm’s Digital Assets activities across Middle East and Africa. He has extensive experience advising clients on shaping and launching Digital Assets offerings including stablecoins, tokenized RWAs, crypto brokerage/trading, custody, and others.

Co-Founder Cryptus Media, White Way Capital

Davis has over 25 years of experience working with vendors in the US and China. He has extensive exposure to global business environments and a proven track record in launching and managing new operations worldwide. His expertise spans people and sales management, strategic bid planning, product management, marketing, and building business alliances. Davis currently serves as Vice President at Canaan Inc., overseeing the Global Sales Department and the company’s Bitcoin Mining Business. He holds an MBA in International Management from the University of London and a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Engineering from the City University of Hong Kong.

Shehram is the General Counsel at Trust Wallet, the world’s leading self-custody Web3 wallet and Web3 gateway, serving over 200 million users globally.

He brings over a decade of legal expertise across blockchain, technology, structured finance and capital markets. Shehram has previously worked at Consensys, top international law firms, and major financial institutions, including U.S. Bank and BNY Mellon.

Tomas Rossovski, known as Kong BTC, is a serial entrepreneur, angel investor, and trader. Fascinated by Bitcoin since 2014, he has invested in 250+ blockchain startups, built the MyAlgo trading framework, and advises projects on strategy, token design, and on-chain analytics.

Lakshya Kanyakubja is Head of Business Development – CertiK MENA. With a background in business strategy and technology, he has led strategy and growth across AI, cybersecurity, and blockchain sectors, driving enterprise partnerships and regional expansion for leading tech firms.

Nenter (Nathan) Chow is the Global CEO of BitMart, responsible for driving the exchange’s global expansion efforts. Previously, he was a Partner at Animoca Ventures, spearheading both venture and liquid Web3 investments across Infrastructure, DeFi, and Consumer, including Monad, and TON. He played a pivotal role in forging global strategic partnerships across institutional investors, government entities, major Web3 ecosystems, and various Web3 communities. With 17 years in investment banking at firms like JP Morgan and MUFG, Nenter is a professional expert in finance, M&A, investments, trading, and strategy. A graduate of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, Nenter was also a founding member of the university’s chapter of the Phi Chi Theta professional business fraternity.

Kate is the Head of Agency at FORMULA by Cointelegraph, the strategic advisory and marketing arm of the world’s leading crypto media group.

A C-level expert in Business Strategy, Digital Transformation, Web3, and Operational Efficiency, she brings over 16 years of executive experience across IT, Telecom, Oil & Gas, Media, and Consulting.

Kate helps Web3 startups and global enterprises with market entry, Web2-to-Web3 transition, and digital scaling, driving innovation and measurable transformation across complex ecosystems.

Chris is an Account Executive at Chainalysis, where he advises banks, central banks, exchanges, and Web3 companies across the Middle East on crypto compliance and adoption. He studied at Hult International Business School in London.

Konstantinos Tsolakidis, MSc in IT & Telecommunications, is a seasoned software engineer. With 15+ years across IoT and blockchain, he’s led startups as CTO and now empowers innovation at Polkadot Blockchain Academy, shaping Web3 education and adoption.

Alevtina graduated from Moscow State Linguistic University in 2009. She has worked at leading companies in their respective industries, including Uralkali, Visa, and Club Med. Since 2022, she has been developing strategic partnerships with top industry brands at one of the largest international crypto media outlets — BeInCrypto.

Alex Gorbachev is the CEO and Founder of IDEALIST Real Estate, Co-Partner at Xerime DMCC, Partner at MaalyPay, and Strategic Partner at Prypco, a real estate tokenization platform.

With over 10 years of experience in real estate, Alex is an investor, developer, and MBA professor specializing in real estate and financial innovation.

He has spoken at 30+ international conferences, authored 20+ articles and the book “Yin-Yang of Wealth” on spiritual and material growth, and hosts the podcast “People = Resource.”

Vadim Krutov is the Group COO at Bitfury, a global technology company pioneering blockchain, digital assets, AI semiconductors, breakthrough cooling, high-performance computing, and other deep tech initiatives. With over 20 years of experience in technology and strategy, Vadim has led Bitfury’s global operations, business development, and strategy execution since joining in 2017. He has facilitated several IPOs, including on NASDAQ, driving organizational growth, efficiency, and international expansion.

Vadim has managed hypergrowth and large-scale transformations, coordinated global operations, and facilitated multi-hundred-million-dollar transactions, including spin-offs, fundraises, M&As, and restructurings.

Before Bitfury, he held leadership positions at PwC and EY, advising telecom and technology clients on strategy and operations.