From Institutional Finance To Agentic AI: Inside The Lineup For HSC Conference Seoul 2026

by
Alisa Davidson

Revealed: September 18, 2026 at 8:11 am Up to date: September 18, 2026 at 8:11 am

by Anastasiia O

Edited and fact-checked:
September 18, 2026 at 8:11 am

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The upcoming HSC Conference in Seoul is about to deliver collectively an distinctive roster of contributors, uniting world leaders from monetary establishments, crypto funding funds, and know-how firms to discover the developments and alternatives defining the following part of digital asset adoption in Asia-Pacific and past.

Happening on October 1, 2026, at Novotel Ambassador Seoul Gangnam, the convention will convene founders, executives, and traders on the intersection of blockchain infrastructure, tokenization, and on-chain monetary markets, analyzing the forces shaping the following part of digital finance, from funding and market construction to the rising convergence of blockchain and AI.

Among the many notable taking part firms within the Seoul version are S&P World, Galaxy Digital, Ethereum Institutional, Maelstrom, Canary Capital, C² Ventures, Animoca Manufacturers, Offchain Labs, ZKsync, Monad Basis, Steakhouse Monetary, Cactus Custody, Ledger Enterprise, Bybit, Tether, Base, BNB Chain, and Ether.fi, amongst many others.

Here’s a take a look at a number of the convention’s prime contributors.

Few firms have performed extra to construct the infrastructure of digital possession than Animoca Manufacturers. The Hong Kong-based blockchain developer and crypto investor reported $314 million in income for 2024, a 12% year-over-year enhance, with $165 million generated via its digital asset advisory enterprise and holdings throughout greater than 600 Web3 firms, together with stakes in Consensys and Kraken. In November 2025, the corporate filed for a Nasdaq itemizing through a reverse merger with Currenc Group, a transaction anticipated to create what Animoca’s co-founder and govt chairman Yat Siu described because the world’s first publicly listed, diversified digital property conglomerate, spanning DeFi, AI, NFTs, gaming, and DeSci. By Might 2026, the deal carried a nominal valuation of $8.7 billion primarily based on Currenc’s market capitalisation, with the transaction concentrating on a Q3 2026 shut. For these centered on the place Web3 funding, digital possession, and mainstream adoption converge, Animoca Manufacturers is as near a definitive reply because the trade has produced.

No conventional monetary establishment has moved extra intentionally into the digital asset area in 2026 than S&P World. Latest milestones embody tokenizing the iBoxx U.S. Treasuries Index on the blockchain in March 2026, the primary time a serious index supplier made a monetary benchmark obtainable as a local digital asset, in addition to launching a co-branded S&P Kaiko Digital Asset Indices suite for world, 24/7 digital asset markets in September 2026. The corporate has additionally printed Stablecoin Stability Assessments and issued its first credit standing for a DeFi protocol. Most lately, S&P World agreed to amass sensible contract safety agency OpenZeppelin, increasing its digital property technique into onchain danger evaluation, a transfer that brings the safety requirements behind the world’s main stablecoins, tokenized funds, and DeFi protocols beneath the S&P umbrella. For anybody looking for to know how institutional-grade requirements are being utilized to on-chain finance, S&P World is the clearest window into that course of at present working at scale.

Galaxy Digital listed on the Nasdaq in Might 2026, ending a years-long dual-listing association on the Toronto Inventory Change that had been necessitated by U.S. regulatory warning round its crypto-centric enterprise. Based by Mike Novogratz, the agency has advanced from a crypto monetary providers firm right into a multi-engine platform spanning asset administration, buying and selling, and information middle infrastructure. Its flagship Helios information middle in West Texas is being constructed out for AI and high-performance computing workloads, with CoreWeave occupying important capability within the facility, putting Galaxy on the intersection of crypto and the AI infrastructure growth. The Nasdaq-listed agency stands to profit from continued digital asset market restoration, an increasing ETF market, and information middle revenues, a mix analysts have known as a multi-engine progress mannequin. With one of many deepest analysis operations within the trade and a rising institutional footprint throughout Asia, Galaxy Digital brings each market authority and strategic breadth to the Seoul agenda.

Maelstrom is the household workplace of Arthur Hayes, co-founder of BitMEX, investing throughout the crypto and Web3 ecosystem. Co-founded with Managing Accomplice Akshat Vaidya in 2023, the fund takes a affected person capital method emphasizing high quality initiatives over quick deployment, a philosophy that has outlined its portfolio technique since inception. In 2025, Maelstrom moved to boost $250 million for its debut personal fairness fund, Maelstrom Fairness Fund I, concentrating on 4 to 6 acquisitions of medium-sized firms within the crypto area, with a give attention to buying and selling infrastructure, information analytics, and blockchain service suppliers. Coming into 2026, Arthur Hayes positioned the fund at near-maximum danger publicity, betting on a liquidity wave pushed by U.S. deficit spending and leaning into privateness cash and rising DeFi tokens as his highest-conviction performs. With Arthur Hayes additionally delivering a solo handle at HSC Convention Seoul, Maelstrom represents some of the intently watched views in energetic crypto investing right now.

Offchain Labs is the unique developer of Arbitrum, the market-leading Ethereum Layer 2 community, and in 2025 and 2026, it has been transferring decisively past infrastructure. Arbitrum has processed over 2.1 billion lifetime transactions on Arbitrum One and reached $20 billion in whole worth secured in 2025, persistently rating as the biggest Ethereum Layer 2 by market share. In August 2025, Offchain Labs acquired ZeroDev, a number one sensible account infrastructure supplier, marking its evolution from a chain-level infrastructure firm to a full-stack developer platform with sensible account abstraction now central to how establishments and shopper functions onboard customers. Most lately, Robinhood chosen Arbitrum as its blockchain of alternative for bringing tokenized U.S. shares to European traders, a landmark vote of confidence in Arbitrum’s institutional capabilities. Co-founder Ed Felten, a former Deputy U.S. Chief Know-how Officer, brings each technical depth and coverage credibility to the Seoul stage.

Ethereum Institutional launched on July 1, 2026 as an impartial nonprofit devoted to accelerating institutional adoption of Ethereum, its Layer 2 networks, and the broader ecosystem. Based by David Walsh, Matthew Dawson, and Marius Smith, three former members of the Ethereum Basis’s enterprise group, the group positions itself as a impartial, devoted level of contact for banks, asset managers, custodians, and sovereign establishments evaluating Ethereum for tokenization, stablecoins, and on-chain finance. Anchor funding comes from BitMine, SharpLink, and Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin. Based on Token Terminal, Ethereum holds practically 58% of the tokenized RWA market, and the community accounts for about half of the $311 billion stablecoin market. Ethereum Institutional exists to translate that market dominance into institutional relationships — and its presence at HSC Convention Seoul displays how significantly the Ethereum ecosystem is now pursuing TradFi engagement.

Who’s Coming to Seoul: A Convention Constructed Throughout Each Layer of Digital Finance

The HSC Convention Seoul 2026 will deliver collectively a wide-ranging solid of traders, builders, protocol builders, and institutional operators, every representing a definite layer of the digital asset financial system because it converges with world capital markets.

Capital allocation and funding views will anchor the opening of the day. Maelstrom and C² Ventures deliver energetic crypto fund views to the Investments At this time panel alongside Canary Capital and Portal Ventures, collectively providing a direct window into how skilled capital is being deployed throughout digital property and rising blockchain alternatives within the present cycle. A solo keynote handle by Maelstrom’s CIO will set the mental tone for the day’s funding dialog.

Institutional finance and controlled infrastructure take centre stage via S&P World, Galaxy Digital, and Ethereum Institutional, whose representatives lead DeFi and digital property technique, Asia institutional operations, and institutional ecosystem improvement respectively. Their joint presence on the Institutional Adoption of Digital Property panel, alongside IBM Digital Asset, Ether.fi, and Soter Insure, makes it some of the substantive conversations on the agenda, mapping how conventional monetary establishments are transferring from pilot programmes to operational deployment of blockchain-based monetary infrastructure.

Blockchain infrastructure and protocol improvement are represented by a notably various set of contributors. ZKsync, Monad Basis, Base, Sonic Labs, and BNB Chain every deliver distinct views on scalability, developer tooling, and the situations required for Web3 infrastructure to achieve mainstream throughput. Hashgraph provides an enterprise blockchain perspective to the Mainstream Web3 Adoption panel, grounding the infrastructure dialogue in actual institutional deployment.

The tokenisation and RWA phase attracts on a number of the area’s most operationally energetic contributors. RedStone, Atom Finance, Hypernative, Dfns, and Shinhan Financial institution collectively method on-chain asset infrastructure from complementary angles, from oracle-layer information integrity and tokenisation technique to institutional safety and the angle of a serious Korean financial institution already energetic in world blockchain enterprise. Custody and key administration infrastructure will likely be addressed by Cactus Custody and Ledger Enterprise, overlaying each institutional-grade custody structure and the {hardware} safety layer underpinning asset administration at scale.

Stablecoin and funds dynamics will likely be explored via Tether, StraitsX, Steakhouse Monetary, Secure, and makebanc, collectively mapping what comes after stablecoins’ rise to funds dominance, from regional cost rails and APAC market penetration to DeFi-native monetary design. The DeFi infrastructure perspective is bolstered by STON.fi’s keynote on cross-chain liquidity, whereas Chainlink brings the oracle and cross-chain connectivity layer into the Mainstream Web3 Adoption dialogue.

Rounding out the programme, the Agentic AI panel brings collectively MetaMask, AI PET, Velvet, AEON, Rewardy Pockets, and TiDB of PingCAP, grounding the trillion-dollar agentic financial system thesis in actual infrastructure, cost rails, and shopper utility improvement. The roundtable on the agentic financial system, that includes Animoca Manufacturers, Offchain Labs, Zero Gravity Labs, and Serotonin, ensures that the strategic and philosophical stakes of autonomous on-chain brokers are debated by these actively constructing the underlying situations for them to exist.

Alisa, a devoted journalist on the MPost, makes a speciality of crypto, AI, investments, and the expansive realm of Web3. With a eager eye for rising developments and applied sciences, she delivers complete protection to tell and interact readers within the ever-evolving panorama of digital finance.

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