Global Leaders

Speakers

SmartCon brings together the world’s leading voices in finance, Web3, and government to share firsthand insights on how blockchain and onchain technologies are transforming industries, institutions, and the global economy—sparking critical conversations that chart the course of an onchain future.

Thomas Zschach
Chief Innovation Officer, Swift
Chris Perry
President, Broadridge Financial Solutions
Nelli Zaltsman
Head of Platform Settlement Solutions, Kinexys by JPMorgan
Raj Dhamodharan
Executive Vice President, Blockchain and Digital Currencies, Mastercard
Mark Garabedian
Director of Digital Assets and Tokenization, Wellington
Jonathan Ehrenfeld Solé
Head of Strategy, Swift
Sergey Nazarov
Co-founder, Chainlink
Stani Kulechov
Founder, Aave Labs
Lidia Kurt
CEO, BX Digital
Aviad Stein
Global Head of Digital Asset Solutions, Broadridge Financial
Mustafa Al Niama
Former Head of Americas Digital Assets, Goldman Sachs
Max Heinzle
Founder & CEO, 21X
Samuel Bisig
CTO, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Assets / BX Digital
Ophelia Snyder
CoFounder, 21.co
Steven Goldfeder
CEO and Co-Founder, Offchain Labs
Justin Sun
Founder, TRON
Vanessa Fernandes Da Silva
Advisor / Partner, Aeonic Digital
Alex Gluchowski
CEO / Founder, Matter Labs
Charles Adkins
CEO, Hedera Foundation
Juan Carlos Reyes
President of CNAD, Government of El Salvador
Sota Wantanabe
CEO, Startale Labs
Elena Sinelnikova
Co-founder, Metis
Michael Bentley
Co-founder and CEO, Euler Finance
Dror Gurevich
CEO, Velocity Career Labs
Haseeb Qureshi
Managing Partner, Dragonfly
Jacquelyn Melinek
Founder, CEO, Token Relations
Alec Lovett
Head of Stablecoins, Coinbase
Ari Juels
Chief Scientist, Chainlink Labs
Michael del Castillo
Founder and CEO, Media Luna
Cynthia Wu
COO, Matrixport
Wormhole Oracle
Founder, LlamaRisk
DavideFi
General Manager, LFJ
Shea Ketsdever
Product Lead, Flashbots

More SmartCon speakers announced soon…

NOV 4-5, 2025  |  THE METROPOLITAN PAVILION

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Michael Bentley
Co-founder and CEO, Euler Finance
Michael Bentley is the CEO of Euler, a cutting-edge, modular lending platform he co-founded in 2020 during the height of DeFi summer. Before co-founding Euler, Michael worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the University of Oxford, focusing on dynamical systems (ODEs and PDEs) and evolutionary game theory.
Nelli Zaltsman
Head of Platform Settlement Solutions, Kinexys by JPMorgan
Nelli is the Head of Platform Settlement Solutions at Kinexys by J.P. Morgan, where she focuses on product development and industry collaboration that enables the use of the Kinexys Digital Payments product suite (formerly JPM Coin), a first-of-its-kind cash on chain solution, as an integrated settlement solution with a wide range of transactional infrastructures, including both new tokenized RWA infrastructures and traditional financial platforms.

Nelli has been on the leadership team for Kinexys Digital Payment and its predecessor organizations since 2019. Prior to her product leadership role, Nelli was an attorney and the global legal lead for Payments blockchain initiatives at J.P. Morgan. As the first product attorney at JPMorgan to cover in-production use of blockchain, Nelli led the creation of the legal frameworks for core Kinexys products and platforms.
Haseeb Qureshi
Managing Partner, Dragonfly
Haseeb is Managing Partner at Dragonfly, a multibillion dollar leading crypto VC firm, and is a longtime technology-focused crypto investor. Haseeb was previously a General Partner at Metastable Capital (now acquired by Dragonfly). Prior, Haseeb founded a stablecoin startup, was a blockchain engineer at Earn.com (acquired by Coinbase), an anti-fraud engineer at Airbnb, and was previously a top 10 globally ranked professional poker player. He has taught a class on web3 Entrepreneurship at UC Berkeley and is widely followed for his technical expertise in crypto.
Charles Adkins
CEO, Hedera Foundation
Charles Adkins is the CEO of the Hedera Foundation, where he leads initiatives to empower entrepreneurs building on the Hedera network. With over two decades of experience spanning blockchain, finance, government, and consumer brands, Charles has held leadership roles at Aptos Labs, Polygon Labs, and US Dept of Treasury. His background includes positions at Nike, Red Bull, and Morgan Stanley. A seasoned speaker, Charles has presented at over 50 events worldwide and co-authored the book "The Future of Community." He is recognized for his commitment to sustainable innovation and bridging the gap between emerging technologies and real-world applications.
Thomas Zschach
Chief Innovation Officer, Swift
Tom Zschach is Chief Innovation Officer at SWIFT, where he leads efforts to future-proof the global financial system through innovation in digital assets, artificial intelligence, and next-generation payment infrastructure. A former investment banker and technology executive, Tom now focuses on making SWIFT the trusted orchestration layer for tokenized finance. His work bridges traditional financial institutions with the emerging digital economy, ensuring scale, safety, and global interoperability.
DavideFi
General Manager, LFJ
General Manager at LFJ - the cornerstone DEX and liquidity hub of Avalanche, and inventors of Liquidity Book DLMM in 2022.
DavideFi has supported for years any project looking to partner with LFJ, bringing clarity to the intricacies of tokens liquidity management on decentralized exchanges.

Co-Founder of ETHMilan, the biggest web3 conference in Italy.
Alex Gluchowski
CEO / Founder, Matter Labs
Alex is a software architect with over 15 years 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.
Lidia Kurt
CEO, BX Digital
Lidia Kurt holds a PhD in Finance from the University of St. Gallen, is the author of the book Digital Assets and Tokenization and has extensive expertise at the interface of financial systems and innovative technologies. Since founding the company vision& in 2017, Lidia has worked as a consultant for digital assets and has successfully accompanied numerous blockchain and digital asset projects. Previously, she was managing partner of a quantitative finance advisory firm and gained valuable experience at J.P. Morgan and Swiss Re in Zurich, London and Hong Kong. Since 2021, she has been working for the Börse Stuttgart Group as an external consultant on blockchain-specific topics and took over the role of CEO for BX Digital in 2024.
Mark Garabedian
Director of Digital Assets and Tokenization, Wellington
As the director of the Digital Assets & Tokenization initiative, Mark is focused on connecting the firm to the market infrastructure needed to manage and trade digital assets and tokens, for both public and private investment vehicles. This involves evaluating and performing due diligence on digital asset service providers as well as developing internal workflows and the necessary data architecture to manage the assets. In addition, Mark is helping to foster a continued understanding within the firm of the new technology and its potential for disruption, helping to build a network of external digital asset relationships, and looking to explore the broader concept of tokenization as it can apply to our product offering.
Chris Perry
President, Broadridge Financial Solutions
Chris Perry serves as President of Broadridge Financial Solutions (NYSE: BR). A global technology leader and part of the S&P 500® Index, Broadridge offers trusted expertise and transformative technology to help clients and the financial services industry operate, innovate, and grow. The company powers investing, governance, and communications – managing over 7 billion communications per year and underpinning the daily trading of more than $10 trillion in securities globally – driving operational resiliency, elevating business performance, and transforming investor experiences.

He is focused on driving Broadridge's overall growth strategy, including overseeing Broadridge International as well as helping lead M&A, DEI and ESG strategies. Chris also oversees all client and marketing activities globally and is responsible for delivering the company’s annual sales targets spanning all business units and product lines. He has been a driving force behind the transformation of the organization from a portfolio of companies to an enterprise cloud-based services provider. Broadridge has enjoyed eight years of consecutive record setting sales under Chris' leadership.

Prior to joining Broadridge, Chris has held numerous management and commercial roles at Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI), and its predecessor, Thomson Financial. There he served as Global Managing Director of Risk for the Financial and Risk Division, where he was responsible for overseeing Governance, Risk and Compliance, as well as Pricing and Reference services. Previously, he served as President of Global Sales and Account Management of the Financial and Risk Division responsible for US$6 billion in revenue and responsible for 4,000 professionals worldwide. Earlier in his career, Chris worked in several FinTech companies and institutional trading and retail brokerage for Kemper Financial Services', Blunt Ellis & Lowie unit as well as correspondent firms of both Prudential and Pershing.

In January 2019, Chris was elected to the Board of Directors of the Financial Services Institute (FSI) and is former Chairman and ongoing member of British American Business, a membership organization that enables transatlantic commerce. Chris serves on the Board of Directors on several non-profits including Make-A-Wish Foundation of New Jersey, NPower an organization that provides underprivileged youths and military veterans with the opportunity to build tech skills and achieve their potential, the United Way of NYC and the Community Food Bank of New Jersey. In addition, he is a sponsor of the Women on Wall Street Association, a New York-based business leadership organization that helps accelerate careers of women in financial services and unites business professionals in support of equality, executive leadership and breaking the glass ceiling.

Chris holds a B.S. in Finance and Economics from Northern Illinois University and an MBA in Marketing from Lewis University, where he serves on the Board of Trustees.
Cynthia Wu
COO, Matrixport
As COO, Cynthia leads investor relations and oversees global business strategies at Matrixport. Previously Investment Director at Bitmain Technologies, Cynthia focused on investments in blockchain technology and decentralized applications.

Prior to venturing into crypto, Cynthia was Vice President at Hong Kong Exchange (HKEX), responsible for derivatives product development and institutional sales. She started her career in HK as a commodities trader.
Ophelia Snyder
CoFounder, 21.co
Elena Sinelnikova
Co-founder, Metis
Elena Sinelnikova is the co-founder of Metis, a next-generation Ethereum Layer 2 dual-chain system focused on the human-aligned AI. She also co-founded CryptoChicks, a global nonprofit that empowers women through blockchain and AI education. A long-time advocate for regenerative Web3 ecosystems, Elena is leading the movement toward ethical, community-driven AI infrastructure.
Sota Wantanabe
CEO, Startale Labs
Sota Watanabe is the founder of Astar Network, CEO of Startale Labs, and Director of Sony's blockchain initiative, Soneium. He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia for his work in enterprise tech. A leading voice in Japan’s Web3 ecosystem, he also serves on the board of the Japan Blockchain Association.
Michael del Castillo
Founder and CEO, Media Luna
Michael wrote his first article on bitcoin in October 2011, and never looked back. A graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism, he was the first hire at CoinDesk after it was acquired by Digital Currency Group in 2016, going on to create the Forbes Blockchain 50 which he edited for five years, until being admitted to the Knight-Bagehot Fellowship for career business reporters. After completing the fellowship he joined the Fortune newsroom, where he covered banking until April 2025, when he left to found Media Luna Creations, a research and consulting firm specializing in supporting open-source software projects and sustainable business models.
Juan Carlos Reyes
President of CNAD, Government of El Salvador
Juan Carlos Reyes President, El Salvador's National Commission on Digital Assets (CNAD)

Breaking with global tradition, Juan Carlos Reyes, President of El Salvador's National Commission on Digital Assets (CNAD), champions a tech-first approach to regulating digital assets. A product of El Salvador's heritage and Canadian upbringing, Reyes combines international insight with deep technical expertise, courtesy of his academic background in Engineering, Physics, Computer Science, Mathematics, and a Harvard University Master's degree in Management and Finance. As a Certified Crypto Assets Financial Crime Specialist with 20+ years of entrepreneurial acumen, Reyes has successfully positioned El Salvador as a global digital asset hub, with its regulatory framework ranked 2nd worldwide by Coincub, just behind Switzerland, pioneering a new standard in digital asset governance.
Dror Gurevich
CEO, Velocity Career Labs
Dror Gurevich is the founder and CEO of Velocity Network Foundation. Mr. Gurevich has been instrumental in engaging key Members of the Foundation, including SAP, AON, Randstad, Korn Ferry, Cisive, ACE, 1EdTech, Serifier, Territorium, and many other international HR Tech and Ed Tech organizations. Mr. Gurevich has 25+ years of experience in Labor Market Tech, as founder and leader of multiple successful companies in this space. Prior to launching Velocity, Mr. Gurevich co-founded and led AKT, one of the largest HR tech system integrators in the EMEA region, with offices across Europe and the Middle East.
Raj Dhamodharan
Executive Vice President, Blockchain and Digital Currencies, Mastercard
Raj Dhamodharan is the executive vice president for blockchain and digital assets at Mastercard. As the company continues to bring relevant payments solutions and programs to the blockchain and digital assets ecosystem, Raj is responsible for managing Mastercard’s strategy, products, and partnerships in the space.  

Raj and his dynamic, global team work closely with crypto-native players, traditional financial institutions, and governments alike to advance Mastercard’s blockchain strategy, innovate consumer choice in payments, and instill a foundation of trust in crypto and digital assets. Raj is focused on bringing the best of what Mastercard’s technology has to offer to the digital assets ecosystem, proving new use cases for blockchain and crypto technology, and enabling safety and security for the ever-changing landscape.  

Raj joined Mastercard in 2010 and has held several roles at the company, including managing Mastercard’s relationships with global digital partners, developing and commercializing new payments innovations and standards – including digital wallets and Click to Pay – and leading Mastercard’s digital payment products and Labs group in Asia Pacific.   

Raj has deep expertise in payments and previously held executive positions at Visa, in addition to co-founding Think Business Networks, a telecom software company in Silicon Valley that built products for multinational organizations across the world. He also holds several patents in the field of loyalty marketing, advertising, and payments.  

Raj graduated from Coimbatore Institute of Technology, India with a BS in Computer Technology. He holds MBA degrees from Columbia Business School, and Haas Business School, University of California, Berkeley.
Stani Kulechov
Founder, Aave Labs
Stani Kulechov is a pioneer in decentralized finance and blockchain technology. He’s a strong believer in decentralized solutions and an advocate for a more open, fair internet. He is Founder and CEO of Avara, the software development company behind Aave Labs, which developed DeFi protocol Aave and Aave-native stablecoin GHO, Lens Chain, the high performance tech stack for SocialFi, and mobile crypto wallet Family, acquired in 2023. Avara's vision is a people-powered internet that benefits all.
Aviad Stein
Global Head of Digital Asset Solutions, Broadridge Financial
Driving the future at Broadridge as the Global Head of Digital Asset Solutions, I bring over 20 years of experience in leadership and innovation. My current focus is on converging cutting-edge technology with exceptional customer experience (CX) to reshape the digital asset landscape. I spearhead our global business in digital assets, tokenization, and real-world assets, serving a diverse ecosystem of intermediaries, investors, and regulators in developing data, communications and governance solutions to accelerate the growth and adoption and in defining a path for converging TradFi and DeFi into OneFi.
✂️ Ryan Wyatt
Chief Growth Officer, Optimism
Ryan Wyatt is the Chief Growth Officer, where he oversees a global team bringing Optimism’s world-class technology to market.

Prior to joining Optimism, Ryan was President of Polygon Labs, where he led a team of over 300 people across 20 countries. Under Ryan’s leadership, Polygon achieved notable recognitions including TIME's 100 Most Influential Companies, Fortune 40 Crypto, Decrypt's Project of the Year, and CoinDesk's Most Influential 2022.

Before that, Ryan was the Head of Gaming at YouTube, where he was responsible for launching and scaling the YouTube Gaming vertical to become the largest gaming platform in the world by Daily Active Users (300M), generating billions in revenue.

Ryan is a venture partner at BITKRAFT and an active angel investor in sectors across AI, blockchain, and gaming. He’s a New York Times bestselling author, and has earned accolades like Forbes 30 Under 30, The Hollywood Reporter 35 Under 35, and Fortune 40 Under 40.
Steven Goldfeder
CEO and Co-Founder, Offchain Labs
Steven Goldfeder is the CEO and co-founder of Offchain Labs, the company building Arbitrum. Steven received his doctorate from Princeton University and is a published author of multiple research papers on computer science, cryptography, blockchain technologies, smart contracts, and more. Steven co-founded Offchain Labs in 2018.
Vanessa Fernandes Da Silva
Advisor / Partner, Aeonic Digital
Vanessa Fernandes is a dynamic Business and Technology Leader renowned for her innovative approach to digital transformation. With a robust international background, she has been recognized for leveraging emerging technologies to drive operational efficiency and develop sustainable solutions.

She has held several leadership roles, including Global Head of Digital at State Street, Chief Digital Experience for BNY Mellon, CEO of Itaú Digital Assets, CTO for Corporate Architecture and Head of Emerging Technologies and Open Source.
Justin Sun
Founder, TRON
H.E. Justin Sun is the Ambassador and former Permanent Representative of Grenada to the WTO, Prime Minister of Liberland, Founder of TRON, a world-leading blockchain and DAO, and Advisor to HTX, one of the world’s largest crypto exchanges. A protege of Alibaba's Jack Ma, Sun has been featured on the cover of Forbes Magazine April 2025, where he was recognized as one of the most dynamic and outspoken figures in crypto—earning the moniker 'Crypto’s Billionaire Barker' for his bold approach to innovation, advocacy, and industry leadership. He was also named Forbes' 30 under 30 in the Consumer Technology category several times, among other global recognitions. Sun is an avid art collector, gamer, investor, philanthropist, and space enthusiast.
Samuel Bisig
CTO, Boerse Stuttgart Digital Assets / BX Digital
Samuel Bisig studied Material Science at ETH Zurich and Philosophy/Psychology at Université de Lausanne. In addition, he completed his Executive MBA curriculum with Honors. He further worked and studied in Oxford (UK), Boston (US), Shanghai (China), Antigua (Guatemala) and Tessenderlo (Belgium).

Originally, he had worked in Nanotech at/with global leaders (eg TSMC, MIT, Harvard), commercialized a novel polymer system (w IBM Research) and held several R&D/management positions.
After a transition to Fintech, he explored next-gen tokenization, trading, and clearing&settlement solutions based on DLT/blockchain technology at GFT Technologies.
Currently, he is pushing the frontier as CTO at BX Digital/Börse Stuttgart Digital Assets, responsible for strategical technology and infrastructure development.
Jonathan Ehrenfeld Solé
Head of Strategy, Swift
Jonathan Ehrenfeld is responsible for Swift’s strategy across payments, securities, FX, trade and digital assets. Based in New York, he represents Swift at multiple working groups and associations, including the International Securities Services Association (ISSA). Jonathan is the author of several articles published in the Journal of Securities Operations & Custody, among other publications. Jonathan is an advocate for responsible innovation in blockchain, Web3, and tokenised assets and has helped many fintech companies go from start-ups to established leaders in financial services. Before joining Swift in 2011, he was an assistant professor at the University of Brussels. Jonathan earned both his BA and MA Hons in Communication and Information Science and Technology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles.
Ari Juels
Chief Scientist, Chainlink Labs
Ari Juels is the Weill Family Foundation and Joan and Sanford I. Weill Professor in the Jacobs Technion-Cornell Institute at Cornell Tech and the Technion and a Computer Science faculty member at Cornell University. He is a co-founder and co-director of the Initiative for CryptoCurrencies and Contracts (IC3). He is also Chief Scientist at Chainlink Labs.

He is the author of crypto thriller novel The Oracle (Talos Press, 2024).
Jacquelyn Melinek
Founder, CEO, Token Relations
Jacquelyn Melinek is the Co-Founder and CEO of Token Relations, and an award-nominated host of the Talking Tokens and Crypto in America podcasts. She's previously was a Senior Crypto Reporter at TechCrunch, where she hosted and built a 'Top 50 Tech' podcast series.

Jacquelyn's articles are published in over 100 global news outlets and she's been a featured guest on CNBC Worldwide Exchange, CBS News Prime Time and Yahoo Finance Live for her crypto coverage and analysis.
Shea Ketsdever
Product Lead, Flashbots
Lead Ethereum products at Flashbots
Wormhole Oracle
Founder, LlamaRisk
Wormhole is the founder of LlamaRisk, a DeFi risk service provider that works with industry heavyweights such as Aave, Curve, and Ethena. LlamaRisk specializes in comprehensive asset risk evaluation of stablecoins and other pegged assets. It employs quantitative approaches to ensure the resiliency of its partner protocols while optimizing for performance and user experience.
Mustafa Al Niama
Former Head of Americas Digital Assets, Goldman Sachs
Mustafa Al Niama is a visionary leader and strategist in the digital assets space with over 15 years of experience at the forefront of financial innovation. Most recently serving as the Americas Head of Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, Mustafa led transformative blockchain initiatives and steered multi-billion-dollar tokenization efforts in collaboration with some of the largest institutional players in the U.S. financial ecosystem. His work on tokenized money market funds, municipal bonds, and crypto-linked product development has redefined operational efficiency, collateral utility, and institutional adoption of blockchain.

An advocate for thoughtful regulation, Mustafa has been a key voice in policy development through his work with trade groups like SIFMA, FIA, and the CFTC’s Global Markets Advisory Committee. He has authored proprietary collateral mobility white papers and engaged deeply in regulatory dialogue around stablecoins and digital market infrastructure.

Beyond his executive leadership at Goldman Sachs, Mustafa brings technical expertise in computer science, a Fulbright Scholar pedigree, and advisory experience with the Digital Dollar Project and DTCC’s digital initiatives. His passion lies in building the connective tissue between traditional finance and the decentralized future—delivering impactful insights on how institutions can thrive amid digital transformation. He holds FINRA series 7, 63, 9, and 10 licenses and attended Columbia Business School to study Venture Capital and Private Equity.

Mustafa is an avid LGBTQ+ advocate, having served on ERG steering committees at both American Express and Goldman Sachs. He’s married and live with his partner in New York with their beloved 7 years old dog.

Mustafa is a sought-after speaker known for bridging policy, technology, and strategy to make digital assets accessible and actionable for leaders navigating this rapidly evolving landscape.
Alec Lovett
Head of Stablecoins, Coinbase
Alec Lovett is the Head of Stablecoins at Coinbase, where he leads efforts to accelerate stablecoin adoption across both consumer and institutional markets. His focus is on unlocking the full potential of stablecoins as programmable, accessible, and yield-bearing assets that can transform global payments and modern financial infrastructure. A frequent speaker on the future of digital money, Alec's expertise includes how stablecoins can fundamentally reshape payments, money movement, and financial services more broadly. Before joining Coinbase, he helped build and scale digital financial platforms at Stripe, Podium, and Paxios.
Sergey Nazarov
Co-founder, Chainlink
Sergey Nazarov has worked in the blockchain industry since 2010, giving him one of the longest-running tenures of any technologist in the industry, which began only a year earlier in 2009 with Bitcoin’s creation. Sergey initially built some of the first smart contracts before blockchains like Ethereum were even a concept and went on to invent Decentralized Oracle Networks in the Chainlink whitepaper, which is the core technology powering Chainlink and underpinning the majority of data transfer onto all chains. After Chainlink became the leading source of all data transfer into various blockchains, it was successfully expanded to become the most secure form of cross-chain connectivity across blockchains for both data and value transfer. Chainlink has so far enabled over $20 trillion in transaction value.

Sergey Nazarov actively engages in U.S. policy discussions around blockchain and digital assets, recently participating in the White House Digital Asset Summit with President Trump and key industry leaders. Sergey also actively engages in fireside chats with government officials, including a sit-down conversation with U.S. Representative Bryan Steil in D.C. and a fireside chat with Majority Whip Tom Emmer at the Digital Chamber’s D.C. Blockchain Summit to explore how blockchain is reshaping the foundations of the U.S. financial system.
Max Heinzle
Founder & CEO, 21X
Max is a seasoned entrepreneur and visionary in the field of corporate finance. As founder and CEO of 21X, he is playing a pivotal role in shaping the digital financial landscape. He previously co-founded MEZZANY, a pioneering force in crowd investing in Germany with a transaction volume of more thanEUR 100m and over 90,000 registered users. He served as a board member at Altify and is a founding member of the Institute for Value-based Enterprise (IVE) in Switzerland. Max began his career in capital markets, working in investment banking with a focus on structured products. He holds a MSc in global banking and finance from London’s European School of Economics.​