More Than 600 Global Digital-Asset Leaders Gather in Seoul as EastPoint: Seoul 2026 Concludes

EastPoint: Seoul 2026, a private Web3 conference that drew more than 600 senior figures from the global digital-asset industry and financial sector, concluded on Sept. 28 at the Westin Seoul Parnas in Seoul's Gangnam district.

The event was jointly hosted by global venture capital firm Hashed, digital-asset media outlet Bloomingbit under Hankyung Media Group, and The Korea Economic Daily. More than 270 domestic and overseas institutions sent key decision-makers to the conference.

Now in its second year, EastPoint was designed to examine market changes driven by the institutionalization of digital assets and expanding institutional investment, while exploring ways to connect policy, capital and technology.

This year's event centered on five themes: the start of the institutional investment era, the evolution of stablecoins, the on-chain shift in capital markets, the age of AI agents and the adoption of blockchain in everyday life. As traditional financial institutions deepen their push into digital assets, tokenization of conventional financial assets such as government bonds, real estate and commodities, as well as the buildout of blockchain-based trading, clearing and settlement infrastructure, featured prominently on the agenda.

Senior executives from major global finance and digital-asset firms including Franklin Templeton, Andreessen Horowitz, Tether and Circle attended. Chetan Karkhanis, senior vice president at Franklin Templeton, and Guy Wuollet, general partner at a16z crypto, shared views on institutional adoption of digital assets and shifts in investment markets.

Other speakers included Ethereum co-founder Joseph Lubin, Maelstrom Chief Investment Officer Arthur Hayes and Canton Network Chief Executive Officer Yuval Rooz, who discussed the development of blockchain infrastructure and on-chain capital markets.

Global policy and regulatory experts also took part. Harry Jung, former deputy director of the White House Digital Assets Advisory Council, Caroline Pham, chief executive officer of MoonPay Institutional and former acting chairman of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, and Kirk Cullimore, Republican majority leader in the Utah State Senate, shared perspectives on the U.S. digital-asset policy and regulatory environment.

Wai Lum Kwok, senior executive director for authorization and fintech at Abu Dhabi Global Market, outlined the state of digital-asset regulation in Middle Eastern financial markets.

Among domestic speakers were Min Byoung-dug, a lawmaker from the Democratic Party of Korea, Ahn Do-geol, the party's floor vice leader, and Lee Jun-seok, a lawmaker from the Reform Party. They discussed legislation and industrial policy related to digital assets.

Participants also included representatives from securities firms and major asset managers, including Mirae Asset Securities, NH Investment & Securities, Meritz Securities and Eugene Investment & Securities, as well as payments companies such as Visa, Samsung Card, Hyundai Card and BC Card. They examined the potential uses of security tokens and digital payment infrastructure.

The event ran with a main stage alongside closed-door roundtables. Public sessions focused on policy and industry changes in the global digital-asset market, while private roundtables discussed business cooperation in areas including stablecoins, real-world assets, digital-asset custody and infrastructure for institutional investment.

Separate business meetings were also held among participating companies and institutions.

"Digital assets have moved beyond proving their potential and now need to prove their sustainability," Hashed Chief Executive Officer Kim Seo-jun said. "I hope EastPoint becomes a venue where those building the market and those designing the rules can learn from each other and decide the next steps together."

Kim San-ha, chief executive officer of Bloomingbit, said this year's EastPoint was meaningful because key decision-makers from global institutions, policy circles and capital markets gathered in one place for in-depth discussions on the digital-asset market's most pressing issues.

He added that the event focused in particular on practical problems faced by financial institutions and infrastructure companies in the field, as well as concrete opportunities for new cooperation.

"We will grow EastPoint into a global digital-asset platform that connects domestic and overseas policy, capital and technology, and helps design a new financial market structure together," he said.