Global Financial Leaders Gather in Seoul This September

Key figures from major financial institutions leading the on-chain transition of the global financial market will gather in Seoul this autumn. From Franklin Templeton, which manages assets worth $1.8 trillion (approximately 2,500 trillion won), to Northern Trust, which oversees $20 trillion (approximately 28,000 trillion won) in assets, leaders from companies driving real business at the intersection of traditional finance and digital assets will attend KBW2026 with Upbit to discuss the future of institutional finance.

FactBlock, the organizer of KBW2026, announced on the 1st that key speakers confirmed for the event include Chetan Karkhanis, Senior Vice President of Digital Asset Client Strategy at Franklin Templeton; Alvin Chia, Senior Vice President of Digital Asset Innovation at Northern Trust for Asia-Pacific; and Jin Pang, Executive Director at Moody's Ratings. Thomas Tsai, Managing Director of Multi-Asset Solutions at New York Life Investment Management, and Ryo Kato, General Manager at SBI Securities, will also join as speakers.

Franklin Templeton stands out prominently. Chetan Karkhanis, who will participate as a speaker at KBW2026, is responsible for new financial products and client strategies utilizing digital assets in the Asia-Pacific region. Franklin Templeton is one of the traditional asset management firms that has actively applied public blockchain technology to real financial products. In 2021, it introduced a fund that utilized public blockchain as an official system for transaction processing and equity recording, becoming the first registered mutual fund in the U.S. to do so. Recently, it has expanded its business to use tokenized money market funds as collateral for institutional investors' digital asset transactions. Karkhanis's speech this year, focusing on the extension of asset tokenization to collateral and liquidity management in institutional finance, is highly anticipated.

Northern Trust's scale is even larger. As of the end of June this year, its assets under custody and management reached $20 trillion. Alvin Chia, Senior Vice President leading Northern Trust's digital asset business in Asia, will participate as a speaker at KBW2026. Chia is responsible for developing next-generation financial infrastructure utilizing tokenization and blockchain in the Asia-Pacific region. Following the launch of a tokenized money market fund share class, Northern Trust is also working on establishing a custody and asset management system for institutions using the Canton Network. Given that Chia is directly leading the on-chain transition of the global custody and asset management market in Asia, attendees can expect to hear specific examples of how traditional financial institutions are integrating digital assets.

Jin Pang, Executive Director at Moody's, one of the three major global credit rating agencies, will also speak at KBW2026. Pang leads Moody's Asia-Pacific sovereign and quasi-government credit ratings, as well as its digital economy strategy in Asia. Moody's credit analysis services cover 18,000 companies worldwide, over 2,380 banks and financial institutions, and more than 1,000 insurance companies. This year, Moody's unveiled a system that allows it to directly provide its credit ratings and analysis information to blockchain financial infrastructure, expanding its reach into the on-chain financial market. Previously, Charles Jansen, Managing Director overseeing DeFi transitions at another global credit rating agency, S&P Global, was also confirmed as a speaker.

Thomas Tsai, Managing Director of Multi-Asset Solutions at New York Life Investment Management, the largest mutual life insurance company in the U.S., will take the stage at KBW2026. Tsai leads a multi-asset solutions team managing global investment strategies exceeding $11 billion (approximately 15 trillion won) and oversees the company's digital asset solutions. From Japan's financial sector, Ryo Kato, General Manager at SBI Securities, will visit Seoul. SBI Securities surpassed 70 trillion yen (approximately 603 trillion won) in entrusted assets at the end of April this year and has demonstrated a trading structure between securities firms using Ethereum and USDC, considering the future cross-border distribution of tokenized securities issued and managed in Japan.

Additionally, speakers include John D'Agostino, Head of Institutional Strategy at Coinbase; Mike Belshe, Co-Founder and CEO of BitGo; and Hong Kim, Co-Founder and CTO of Bitwise Asset Management. In the market infrastructure sector supporting the on-chain transition of financial institutions, Yuval Rooz, Co-Founder and CEO of Digital Asset, will also participate as a speaker.

Hosted by FactBlock, a builder of the Web3 ecosystem, KBW is now in its 9th year. This year, Upbit will participate as a presenting partner, and the event will be held under the name 'KBW2026 with Upbit' at the Walkerhill Hotel & Resort in Gwangjin-gu, Seoul. On the opening day, September 29, a private event called 'Upbit Institutional Summit' will be held, focusing on institutional investors and designated attendees, followed by the main conference of KBW2026 with Upbit from September 30 to October 1.

Park Wi-ik, CEO of FactBlock, stated, "Until a few years ago, blockchain initiatives in the financial sector were close to technology demonstrations and feasibility validations. Now, we are moving to a stage where core functions that actually operate the financial market, such as products, custody, and credit rating information, are connected to on-chain systems. KBW2026 will be a gathering of key figures from global financial institutions and digital asset companies leading these changes to discuss the next direction of institutional finance."

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