Where Institutions Meet The Chain: Inside The Speaker Lineup For HSC Conference Seoul 2026
The upcoming HSC Conference in Seoul is set to bring together an exceptional roster of speakers, each bringing distinct expertise to one of Asia’s most consequential conversations at the intersection of institutional finance and digital assets.
Among the standout figures are Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer at Maelstrom, one of the most closely followed voices in crypto markets; Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Chairman of Animoca Brands, a defining force in Web3 gaming and digital ownership; and Ed Felten, Co-Founder of Offchain Labs, the team behind Arbitrum and a leading name in Ethereum scaling. Also speaking is Charles Jansen, Managing Director of DeFi and Digital Assets at S&P Global, bringing the institutional credibility of one of the world’s foremost financial intelligence firms, alongside John Cahill, COO Asia at Galaxy Digital, and Steven McClurg, Founder and CEO of Canary Capital.
They will be joined by Matthew Dawson, Co-Founder of Ethereum Institutional; Eunice Giarta, Co-Founder of Monad Foundation; Jeffrey Tchui, Executive Director and Head of APAC at Hashgraph; Tomer Weiss, Head of Global Partnerships at Hypernative; and Fernando Lillo, Marketing Director at Z Venture, alongside representatives from Zero Gravity Labs, ZKsync, RedStone, Ledger Enterprise, IBM Digital Asset, Bybit, Tether, Base, Ether.fi, BNB Chain, and more.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the conference’s top speakers.
Arthur Hayes, Chief Investment Officer, Maelstrom
Co-founder of BitMEX, the exchange that pioneered the perpetual swap, Arthur Hayes now runs Maelstrom, a family office building a long-term portfolio across venture, liquid, private equity, and public markets. Maelstrom entered 2026 with “almost maximum risk” exposure, leaning into Bitcoin, DeFi tokens, and privacy coins, betting on a liquidity wave driven by U.S. deficit spending and Federal Reserve policy. In September 2026, Arthur Hayes reaffirmed the fund’s structural Bitcoin long and set aggressive year-end price targets across ETH, Ethena, and Ether.fi. On the institutional side, Maelstrom is raising $250 million through Maelstrom Equity Fund I, targeting mid-sized crypto infrastructure firms with $40 to $75 million per deal, aiming for a final close by September 2026.
Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Chairman, Animoca Brands
Few people have done more to define what Web3 ownership actually means than Yat Siu. As co-founder of Animoca Brands, he has built a conglomerate spanning gaming, NFTs, DeFi, and AI across a portfolio of over 600 investments. In 2026, Yat Siu has been a prominent voice calling the year the “Year of Utility,” arguing that autonomous AI agents will use blockchain as their financial and identity infrastructure, a thesis he backed with the launch of Animoca Minds, a $10 million initiative to fund developers building AI agent applications. On the corporate front, Animoca filed for a Nasdaq listing via a reverse merger with Singapore-based Currenc Group, targeting a close in Q3 2026, which Siu has described as the creation of the world’s first publicly listed, diversified digital assets conglomerate.
Ed Felten, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist, Offchain Labs
Before crypto, Ed Felten served as Chief Technologist of the Federal Trade Commission and Deputy Chief Technology Officer of the United States under President Obama. He brought that policy background into blockchain when he co-founded Offchain Labs, the original developer of Arbitrum, which entered 2026 as the largest Ethereum Layer 2 by total value secured, holding around $15.5 billion in DeFi assets and commanding roughly 38% of the L2 DeFi market share. In August 2026, Ed Felten appeared alongside Offchain Labs CEO Steven Goldfeder at the SEC’s Crypto Task Force, making the case for Arbitrum’s role in the emerging regulatory framework for digital markets.
Charles Jansen, Managing Director, DeFi and Digital Assets, S&P Global
When the world’s most influential credit ratings agency decided to take DeFi seriously, it turned to Charles Jansen. Appointed Head of DeFi Transformation when S&P Global Ratings established its DeFi Group, Charles Jansen has been integrating technical expertise and crypto ecosystem knowledge to guide new products and services. Recent milestones include rating the Franklin OnChain U.S. Government Money Fund in June 2026 and being named Best Digital Asset Ratings and Analytics Provider at the BeInCrypto Institutional 100 Awards 2026. Most recently, S&P Global announced the acquisition of OpenZeppelin in September 2026, absorbing the smart contract security standard whose libraries underpin over $37 trillion in cumulative transfers and power 8 of the top 10 stablecoins.
Matthew Dawson, Co-Founder, Ethereum Institutional
Seven years at the Ethereum Foundation, including as its first Enterprise Lead, gave Matthew Dawson a rare vantage point: direct, sustained access to the banks, asset managers, and regulators now making consequential decisions about on-chain infrastructure. In July 2026, he channelled that experience into co-founding Ethereum Institutional, an independent nonprofit providing enterprises with a neutral point of contact as they evaluate Ethereum for tokenization, stablecoins, and other financial applications, backed at launch by BitMine, SharpLink Gaming, and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. Just weeks before HSC Seoul, Matthew Dawson made his first visit to South Korea, meeting with major domestic banks, securities firms, and exchanges, making his appearance at HSC a direct continuation of Ethereum Institutional’s push into the Korean market.
Inside the Full Lineup: The Builders, Investors, and Institutions Behind HSC Seoul’s Agenda
Among the other speakers joining the stage is Fernando Lillo, Marketing Director at Z Venture, bringing the perspective of one of the conference’s founding partners to the panel on financial infrastructure in the digital economy, alongside Mykolas Majauskas, Global Head of Policy at Bybit, and Takatoshi Shibayama, Head of APAC at Ledger Enterprise, a key figure in institutional self-custody infrastructure. Leonard Hoh, President of Bitstamp by Robinhood, rounds out that session with his presence signaling just how far traditional retail brokerage has moved into institutional crypto rails.
The infrastructure track draws a strong roster of builders. Eunice Giarta, Co-Founder of Monad Foundation, joins Marco Cora, Director of Foundation at ZKsync, and Nick See Tong, APAC Lead at Base, for a panel examining the foundational rails of Web3 with Matt Visser, CEO of Sonic Labs, also taking the stage in the same session.
The institutional adoption panel brings together some of the sharpest minds at the intersection of finance and blockchain. John Cahill, COO Asia at Galaxy Digital, and Henson Orser, Founder and CEO of Soter Insure, will be joined by Mike Silagadze, Founder and CEO of Ether.fi, for a conversation on how institutions are actually moving from interest to deployment.
The tokenization track gains further depth with Marcin Kaźmierczak, Co-Founder of RedStone, and Tomer Weiss, Head of Global Partnerships at Hypernative, joined by Dennis Lee, Head of Global Blockchain Business at Shinhan Bank, one of South Korea’s largest financial institutions, whose participation underscores that tokenization of real-world assets is no longer a theoretical exercise for the region’s banks.
The stablecoin panel reflects the genuinely global nature of the conversation, featuring Brian Mehler, CEO of Stable; Anthony Koo, Head of Payments at StraitsX; Jiyeon Park, APAC Lead at Steakhouse Financial; and Andres Kim, Regional Expansion Lead for LATAM at Tether, alongside Leila Mcharek, CEO and Founder of Izora Capital, bringing an asset management lens to the post-stablecoin payments landscape.
The agentic AI panel rounds out the day with Vasily Nikonov, Co-Founder and CEO of Velvet; Leo Li, Co-Founder and CTO of AEON; Francesco Andreoli, Director of DevRel at MetaMask; and Youngjun Kim, CPO of Rewardy Wallet, exploring the infrastructure, payment, and economic implications of autonomous AI agents operating on-chain.
Closing out the full-day agenda is a panel on mainstream Web3 adoption featuring Jeffrey Tchui, Executive Director and Head of APAC at Hashgraph; Daniel Lee, CEO of Cactus Custody; Mark Zalan, CEO of GoMining; and Gwen Martin, DevRel Lead at BNB Chain.
That’s not all! Expect even more founders, investors, developers, and industry pioneers to join for an unforgettable day of insights and networking.
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About The Author
Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
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Alisa, a dedicated journalist at the MPost, specializes in crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a keen eye for emerging trends and technologies, she delivers comprehensive coverage to inform and engage readers in the ever-evolving landscape of digital finance.
