Blockchain Life 2026 Speakers: Who's Coming?

The Blockchain Life 2026 speakers are being revealed: 112 names already appear on the list for the December 1-2 forum in Dubai. Thus, exchanges, institutions, regulators, AI projects and content creators share the same lineup. Besides, the organizers announce more than 200 speakers in total.

To book your Blockchain Life 2026 ticket at the early bird rate, use our partner link and the Cointribune discount code (10% off). Click here.

Blockchain Life 2026 Speakers: The Headliners

This forum comes right after the Singapore FinTech Festival, another major end-of-year event. First, the list highlights Arthur Hayes, CIO of Maelstrom, and Jamie King, co-founder of Rockstar Games. Then, Ben Zhou, CEO of Bybit, and Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder of Polygon, round out the top of the bill. Finally, Tony Ashraf brings a traditional finance profile: he leads digital asset transformation at BlackRock.

PRELIMINARY SCHEDULE — More sessions to be announced. Subject to change.

Blockchain Life organizers, agenda page.

However, this lineup is only a start. On the one hand, the list counts 112 names as of November 10, 2026. On the other hand, the event’s website claims more than 200 speakers. To make sense of it, we have therefore grouped them into broad families of profiles.

Blockchain Life 2026 Speakers From Exchanges and Trading Platforms

Trading platforms form the most visible group. First, Bybit sends several executives: Ben Zhou (co-founder and CEO), Rockman Zhang (CTO), Derek Dai (Country Manager, MENA) and Sean Ballard (Head of Derivatives). Meanwhile, MEXC relies on its CEO, Vugar Usi Zade.

Besides, KuCoin sends Alicia Kao (Managing Director), BingX sends Kevin Lee (CSO) and Gate.io sends Edwin Cheung (Executive Director). Binance, for its part, brings Yana Minaylova and Daniel Ong, both in charge of institutional business. Finally, HashKey (Ben El-Baz) and CoinW (Chingiz Nasirov) complete the list.

Traditional Finance and Payments: BlackRock, Mastercard and Rakbank

On the traditional finance side, three big names already have a representative. Tony Ashraf speaks for BlackRock, Rajat Sakhuja for Mastercard (blockchain and digital assets) and Dishang Patel for Rakbank (head of digital assets). In addition, Marcin Matyja covers blockchain and digital assets at BCG.

Stablecoins and payments have their voices too. Thus, Saeeda Jaffar (Circle), Luke Judges (Ripple), Daniel Ishag (Bakkt) and Aishwary Gupta (Polygon Labs, payments and tokenization) appear on the list. The forum therefore tackles crypto finance from the institutions as well as from the payment rails.

Blockchain Life 2026 Speakers on Regulation: VARA, ADGM and Lawyers

Regulation weighs heavily, which is hardly surprising in Dubai. First, Ruben Bombardi (General Counsel at VARA) and Dmitry Fedotov (emerging tech at ADGM) represent the authorities. Then, Ahmed Allam, senior financial expert at the Ruler’s Court of Dubai, brings the government’s view.

Several specialized lawyers round out the group: Irina Heaver (NeosLegal), Pavel Kulikov, Andrey Tugarin (GMT Legal) and Arina Rumiantseva (Sumsub). Besides, Cointribune already covered how Dubai’s tokenized asset market is taking off with a groundbreaking fund launch.

Protocols, Wallets and Infrastructure: Polygon, Vechain, LayerZero

Protocol founders form another block. Sandeep Nailwal (Polygon), Sunny Lu (Vechain) and Mert Mumtaz (Helius) lead widely followed projects. Meanwhile, Marcin Kaźmierczak (RedStone), Jeroen Gillekens (LayerZero), Joaquin Mendes (Taiko) and Charles d’Haussy (dYdX Foundation) come from infrastructure and DeFi.

Blockchain foundations are there as well, with Brendan Ma (Arbitrum Foundation), Amar Odedra (Algorand Foundation) and Estelle Roiena (Cardano Foundation). Finally, Felix Fan (Trust Wallet), Marius Smith (Ethereum Institutional) and Alex Scott (Solana Superteam UAE) widen the picture further.

Blockchain Life 2026 Speakers From Funds and Markets: Hayes, DWF Labs and Galaxy

Funds and market makers also take the stage. Arthur Hayes (Maelstrom) rubs shoulders with Andrei Grachev and Alessia Baumgartner (DWF Labs), John Cahill (Galaxy Digital) and Kelvin Koh (The Spartan Group). Moreover, Danil Gaidamakin and Sergei Khitrov represent Jets.Capital, a company tied to the forum’s organization.

On the trader side, Garrett Jin appears on the list with the label “Legendary Crypto Whale”. Finally, Naeem Aslam (Zaye Capital Markets) and Karl Naïm (XBTO) bring their reading of the markets.

AI, Security and On-Chain Analytics: NVIDIA, Google, Chainalysis

AI takes on a new weight in this lineup. Anwesha Kar (NVIDIA), Akshay Singh Dalal (Google, risk and compliance) and Daniil and David Liberman, co-creators of the Gonka protocol, carry this theme. In addition, Omesh Tickoo, chief data scientist at PNNL of the US Department of Energy, adds a scientific profile. This topic also echoes Cocoon, the decentralized AI network presented by Pavel Durov.

On security, Mitchell Amador (Immunefi), Lakshya Kanyakubja (CertiK MENA), Mohamed Issa (TRM) and Bas Lemmens (Chainalysis) form a solid group. Finally, Ambre Soubiran (Kaiko), Arnaud Simeray (Dune) and Anton Feingold (Hypertracker) cover data.

Gaming, Mining and Media: Rockstar Games, Chiliz, Coin Bureau

Entertainment is not forgotten. Jamie King (Rockstar Games) and Yat Siu (Animoca Brands) embody video games, while Max Rabinovitch (Chiliz) represents sports and fan tokens. Mining has its voices too, with Davis Hui (Canaan) and Li HanQiang (SpiderPool).

Finally, media and content creators form a large group. They include Nic Puckrin (Coin Bureau), Paul Shikhaleev (Cointelegraph), Alex Falcon, Nikita Anufriev (Headliners Podcast), Chris MMCrypto, Crypto Kid and Crypto Jack. Thus, coverage of the forum should spill well beyond official channels.

Blockchain Life 2026 Discount Code: 10% Off With the Cointribune Code

First, tickets are at the early bird rate: 189 USD for Standard, 329 USD for Business and 999 USD for VIP. Then, the next tier is listed at 229, 449 and 1,379 USD, before a last-chance rate of 399, 729 and 2,099 USD. Besides, every ticket also includes access to the AI Future Forum.

In addition, Cointribune readers get 10% off thanks to the Blockchain Life 2026 discount code Cointribune, to be used with our partner link.

It is therefore better to act quickly, since tickets sold out before the forum date in each of the last two editions, according to the organizers. To keep the early bird rate, book your Blockchain Life 2026 ticket here with the Cointribune code.

Sebastien L.

Spécialisé dans le mining et le Proof of Work, les altcoins, les marchés crypto et la couverture d'événements du secteur (salons, conférences Web3). Passionné par l'adoption de la blockchain et la réglementation, je m''attache à décrypter ce que chaque actualité change concrètement pour le lecteur, avec un regard technique et précis sur le matériel comme sur les marchés.