Five Years at the Forefront of Web3
This 2026, we celebrate our 5th Annual Web3 Investor Day.
This milestone is a reflection on five years of conviction through cycles, five years of community, and five years of watching ideas become infrastructure. What began as conversations about the future has evolved into active collaboration among the investors, founders, institutions, and innovators building it in real time.
Our inaugural gathering in Chicago in 2022 was about defining the frontier. Web3 was still early, but the conviction was clear: ownership, decentralization, and digital coordination would fundamentally reshape how value moves online.
2023's theme, Proof of Adoption, shifted the conversation from speculation to substance. The focus turned to real-world utility, resilient infrastructure, and the builders continuing to innovate through the cycle.
In 2024, Transformation to a Fresh Tomorrow captured a new phase of maturity. Institutional capital, AI, security, infrastructure, and consumer applications began converging as Web3 evolved from isolated experimentation into a broader technology movement shaping finance, identity, gaming, and the internet itself.
Then in 2025, the momentum accelerated. Full Speed Ahead reflected the growing alignment of macro trends, markets, regulation, and adoption. The conversation was no longer about whether Web3 would endure. It was about how quickly the technologies would scale and integrate into the global economy alongside AI and next-generation computing.
This year’s theme, Investing in Adoption, focuses on where real-world traction is accelerating across digital assets, stablecoins, tokenization, AI infrastructure, and blockchain-enabled applications. As markets mature and institutional participation deepens, the conversation shifts from speculation to scalable adoption.
Sessions
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SPEAKERS
Abdul Al Ali
Investor
Decasonic
Abin Kuriakose
Chief Strategy and
Innovation Officer
World Business Chicago
Amanda Young
COO
BitRobot
Andrew Gordon
President
Gordon Law Group, Ltd.
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Bayley Wang
Co-Founder
PrismaX
Bruno Faviero
Head of Protocol & Institutional Growth
Kraken
Brian Walls
Partner
Bridge Alternatives
Charlie Sandor
Investor
CMT Digital
David Ervin
Finance
Ondo Finance
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Dev Bharel
Developer Relations - AI
Solana
Duane Block
Managing Director, Crypto
Alvarez and Marsal
Duke Kim
Director of Institutional Solutions
Securitize
Emnet Rios
Chief Operating Officer
Digital Asset
Erik Brown
Senior Director, Private Equity
Northwestern University
Greg Girasole
Founder, Managing Partner
Motus Capital
Jan van Eck
President and CEO
Van Eck Associates
John Kobs
CEO & Founder
Giant
Joseph Naggar
CEO
Feynman Point Asset Management
Joseph Green
VP, Global Derivatives
Cboe Global Markets
Justin Patel
Investor
Decasonic
Komil Desai
Head of US Crytop & Partnerships
Visa
Long Do
Founder & CEO
Anomaly
Mark Frank
Professor
University at Buffalo
Matt McAffee
Head of Digital Assets
M&T Bank
Max Kauffman
Founder
MomentumX Global
Michael Frisch
Partner
Croke Fairchild Duarte & Beres
Milica Cvetkovic
Applied AI Solutions Lead
Mohamed Allam
AI & Crypto Researcher
Neil Thakur
Managing Director & Co-Founder
Teknos Associates
Olta Andoni
Partner
Bellementis
Paige Xu
COO
Fabric Foundation
Paul Hsu
CEO
Decasonic
Philip Simotas
Co-Founding Partner
New Form Liquid Capital Management
Ram Ahluwalia
CEO & Founder
Lumida Wealth
Rick Johanson
Founding Partner & Vice President
Arbitrum Gaming Ventures
Rob Schmults
General Partner
Blockchange Ventures
Robert Musiala
Partner & Co-Leader of Blockchain & Digital Assets Practice
BakerHostetler
Sam Green
CEO
Cambrian Network
Samir Mayekar
Managing Director
UChicago
Sam Hallene
Investor
CMT Digital
Srini Dhulipala
General Partner
New Form Capital
Tim McDermott
Public Director
Kalshi
Vishal Sachdev
Academic Director
UIUC
Wyatt Lonergan
General Partner
VanEck Ventures
Xiaochen Zhang
Chief Responsible AI Officer
AI 2030
Yuval Rooz
CEO
Digital Asset (Canton)
Zayd Alzein
CTO & Co-Founder
Kairos
