Korea Blockchain Week is about to open in Seoul with a heavier institutional focus than in previous editions, as banks, policymakers, Web3 tech executives, and market operators collect to debate stablecoins, tokenization, real-world property, custody, settlement, infrastructure, and the overlap between AI programs and on-chain finance.
The 2026 convention, organized by FACTBLOCK and offered in partnership with Upbit, will run from September 29 to October 1 at Walkerhill Resorts & Resorts. The primary day is reserved for the invite-only Upbit Institutional Summit, and the general public important convention will comply with on September 30 and October 1. Aspect occasions, dinners, personal conferences, and networking classes are scheduled throughout the town all through the convention.
Korea Blockchain Week’s Agenda: Six Core Themes
At KBW2026, the principle program of keynote speeches and panel discussions has been organized round six themes: coverage and market construction, the following market cycle, on-chain capital markets, 24/7 decentralized buying and selling venues, settlement and funds, and the factors the place the AI and crypto areas converge and work together.
These tracks will pull in a mixture of US coverage officers, Korean and worldwide market operators, top-ranking tech executives, and protocol founders. Patrick Witt, govt director of the White Home President’s Council of Advisors for Digital Property, is listed among the many audio system, as is Brian Quintenz, a former CFTC commissioner who later led coverage at a16z crypto and now sits on boards at corporations together with Kalshi and Sui Group Holdings.
Caroline D. Pham, former appearing chairman of the CFTC, is attending in her roles as chief authorized officer and chief administrative officer of MoonPay, and as chief govt of MoonPay Institutional. Harry Jung, a former deputy govt director of the White Home digital property council and a former CFTC chief of employees, can be on the roster.
From the Korean facet, Kyoungsuk Oh, chief govt of Upbit and its father or mother Dunamu, is scheduled to talk, together with on the institutional summit on September 29. Sungguan Yun, director basic of the Financial institution of Korea’s Workplace of Digital Forex, will carry the central financial institution’s funds and settlement coverage work into the identical room.
The Web3 house’s market-facing names might be acquainted to each skilled and on a regular basis crypto customers. Arthur Hayes, chief funding officer at Maelstrom and co-founder of BitMEX, and Tom Lee, chairman of BitMine Immersion Applied sciences and co-founder of Fundstrat, are listed on the cycle and macro monitor. Jeff Yan, co-founder and chief govt of Hyperliquid Labs, will take part within the real-time markets dialogue monitor.
Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and Consensys, is returning to Korea for the primary time since 2019. Following Consensys Software program’s deliberate break up, introduced earlier this month, he’ll function chairman and chief govt of MetaMask and as govt chairman of the brand new Consensys entity that can home protocol and institutional infrastructure work.
Different confirmed names embrace Bo Hines, chief govt of Tether USA and a former White Home crypto council official; Yuval Rooz, co-founder and chief govt of Digital Asset and a co-founder of the Canton Community; creator and entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasan (former Coinbase CTO and Common Accomplice at a16z, becoming a member of as a digital speaker); Monica Lengthy, president of Ripple; and Johann Kerbrat, who leads crypto at Robinhood.
Final yr’s Korea Blockchain Week convention drew greater than 14,000 attendees, over 340 audio system, 110-plus sponsors, and greater than 400 facet occasions, setting a promising baseline for 2026.
KBW’s Sponsor Checklist Takes a Complete View of the Web3 Trade
The industrial lineup supporting Korea Blockchain Week mirrors the occasion’s six core themes. Upbit is KBW’s presenting accomplice (represented on-stage by CEO Kyoungsuk Oh); 0G and BRV Capital Administration are official convention companions; Steady, Tria, and GOAT Community are diamond sponsors; and BitGo is the official institutional sponsor.
Michael Heinrich, co-founder and chief govt of 0G Labs, is scheduled to debate decentralized infrastructure for AI brokers, together with verifiable compute, AI-native chains, personal inference, and decentralized storage. Brian Mehler, chief govt of Steady, will communicate on blockchain rails for stablecoin transfers and funds. John Lilic, Tria’s co-founder and chief technique officer, will participate in classes on monetary infrastructure that permits companies and AI software program brokers to transact throughout a number of chains and property.
GOAT Community, a Bitcoin-native Layer 2 community designed to increase Bitcoin’s liquidity and smart-contract performance, is on the diamond tier alongside Steady and Tria. Mike Belshe, co-founder and chief govt of BitGo, can be talking.
Korea Blockchain Week was initially conceived and launched by FACTBLOCK (a globally impactful Web3 ecosystem builder that actively helps Korean crypto and digital asset companies) in 2018, and the occasion has since grow to be one of the vital in style and extremely anticipated conferences on the business’s international calendar. FACTBLOCK’s core actions embrace strategic recommendation and consultancy providers, constructing bridges and connections between the Korean market and worldwide corporations, and lowering data asymmetry. It additionally operates a reward-based platform referred to as FABLO, which allows Web3 customers to simply uncover and become involved with blockchain, crypto, and digital asset tasks.
Korea’s Web3 Trade Is Transferring From Buying and selling to Infrastructure
South Korea has lengthy been one of many world’s most energetic digital asset markets by way of retail participation, with tens of millions of individuals already buying and selling cryptocurrencies, utilizing DeFi providers, and interesting with different in style Web3 verticals. That exercise has motivated establishments and Web3 builders to work on a brand new set of tasks, from banks creating stablecoins, digital asset custody options, tokenized real-world property, tokenized deposits, and different new monetary merchandise to securities corporations getting ready for safety token choices (STOs) and regulators creating guidelines for longer-term institutional use.
Devoted virtual-asset custody is turning into a extra established a part of South Korea’s regulated market. For instance, BitGo Korea turned a VASP (Digital Asset Service Supplier) in August, after its registration was accepted by the Korea Monetary Intelligence Unit. The approval permits the agency to supply digital asset custody and switch providers to institutional and enterprise purchasers in South Korea.
Main Korean banks have additionally been finding out won-linked stablecoins, custody, and blockchain settlement, whereas the Financial institution of Korea has additionally superior digital foreign money work by its Workplace of Digital Forex and Venture Hangang, which examined tokenized deposits and tokenized central financial institution cash with industrial banks.
KBW2026’s classes will function Korean banks and regulators alongside international exchanges, protocol groups, and coverage officers, and canopy core subjects reminiscent of programmable cash, on-chain property, real-time settlement, licensing, liquidity, settlement rails, decentralized buying and selling platforms, authorized and regulatory compliance, new guidelines and frameworks, capital formation and market infrastructure, and extra.
Korean AI and Crypto Methods Come Into Focus at KBW
The AI monitor at Korea Blockchain Week is more likely to be extraordinarily in style this yr, as South Korea is residence to Samsung Electronics and SK hynix, two of the biggest reminiscence and semiconductor suppliers within the AI provide chain. After talks tied to the 2025 APEC conferences, the federal government and main Korean teams set out a plan to safe greater than 260,000 of Nvidia’s newest GPUs throughout public and private-sector tasks, together with allocations for a nationwide computing effort and company “AI factories” at Samsung, SK Group, Hyundai Motor Group, and Naver.
Because of this Korea occupies an uncommon, extremely influential, and profitable place the place high-volume retail crypto exercise, a banking system testing on-chain merchandise, and a nationwide push so as to add AI compute capability are all converging. KBW’s convention monitor on AI and crypto will study the methods by which AI fashions and programs can provoke transactions and funds and handle digital property, moderately than merely serving as instruments for evaluation and analysis. It’ll additionally take into account the emergent dangers across the factors at which AI and crypto applied sciences work together, reflecting considerations which might be turning into more and more mainstream in 2026.
Korea Blockchain Week Begins Tuesday, September 29
The primary day of KBW, the Upbit Institutional Summit, will open its doorways tomorrow at Walkerhill Resorts & Resorts, with unique entry for designated attendees and institutional buyers by invitation solely. The primary KBW2026 convention will then happen on Wednesday and Thursday.
The general public days are scheduled to incorporate classes throughout six tracks (market construction and coverage, the following crypto market cycles, capital markets arriving on-chain, real-time exchanges that function 24/7, infrastructure for settlement and funds, and AI-crypto convergences). In-depth discussions may even cowl won-denominated stablecoins, tokenized deposits, digital asset custody, cross-border settlement and remittances, safety token issuance, and the alternatives and dangers that the overlap between AI programs and on-chain finance can introduce. Korean financial institution and central financial institution officers will function throughout this system alongside a star forged of specialists, coverage employees, and executives representing international exchanges, protocol groups, and extra.
FACTBLOCK has run Korea Blockchain Week in Seoul since its creation in 2018 – and with an intensive vary of facet occasions, personal conferences, dinners, and different networking alternatives persevering with throughout the town alongside the principle convention program, KBW2026 may very well be probably the most vital version but.
Go to Korea Blockchain Week
The submit Korea Blockchain Week 2026 Returns to Seoul as Establishments Take Middle Stage appeared first on 99Bitcoins.
