Who is speaking at TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026 on October 7-8: 14 speakers from Nasdaq, BlackRock, PayPal, Paxos and Midnight, with stages and session times.
Singapore — TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026 runs October 7-8 at Marina Bay Sands, and the organizer reports more than 300 speakers across its stages. The useful question is which sessions justify leaving a meeting. These 14 speakers cover the subjects most attendees came for: institutional money, stablecoins, AI, Ethereum and privacy. Stages and times are as printed on the official agenda on October 1 and can still move.
At a glance
- Dates: October 7-8, 2026 (Wednesday and Thursday)
- Venue: Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
- Expected scale (organizer-reported): 300+ speakers, 25,000+ attendees
- Access note: Institutional Stage sessions are for approved TOKEN2049 Institutional participants only
- Official agenda: TOKEN2049 Singapore agenda
- Official site: token2049.com/singapore
Wall Street arrives at TOKEN2049 Singapore
Adena Friedman, Chair and CEO, Nasdaq
Friedman runs one of the world's largest exchange operators. Her fireside chat is on the OKX Main Stage on Thursday at 2:00 pm, moderated by CNBC managing editor Joanna Ossinger. At 2:40 pm she joins Kraken co-CEO Arjun Sethi on the approval-only Institutional Stage for "24/7 Markets: The Future of Global Trading."
Jenny Johnson, CEO, Franklin Templeton
Johnson leads a global asset manager and opens Thursday on the OKX Main Stage at 9:10 am in "The New Institutional Market: Tokenized Assets. Global Liquidity. Onchain Settlement," with Binance co-CEO Richard Teng. At 10:20 am she joins Tom Lee on the Institutional Stage for "The Next Wave of Institutional Capital."
Nikhil Sharma, Director, Digital Assets, BlackRock
Sharma appears twice on Thursday afternoon. At 3:20 pm he joins a tokenization panel on the Institutional Stage, and at 4:20 pm he is on the closing OKX Main Stage panel, "Tokenization: The Next Investment Revolution," with executives from Fidelity Investments, Bitwise, Morgan Stanley and ICE.
Timothy Moe, Chief Asia Pacific Equity Strategist, Goldman Sachs
Moe moderates "The New Macro Order: Liquidity, Capital and Digital Assets," a 20-minute fireside with Zoltan Pozsar of Ex Uno Plures, on Thursday at 10:00 am. It opens the Institutional Stage, so it is limited to approved participants. Pozsar also appears on the OKX Main Stage on Wednesday at 4:00 pm.
Stablecoins, payments and policy
May Zabaneh, SVP, PayPal
Zabaneh speaks on "Stablecoins: The Payments Industry, Rebuilt" on the OKX Main Stage on Thursday at 11:10 am, with MoonPay founder and CEO Ivan Soto-Wright and Rain co-founder and CEO Farooq Malik. It is the main-stage session on how payments companies are putting stablecoins to work.
Charles Cascarilla, Co-Founder and CEO, Paxos
Cascarilla leads Paxos, a stablecoin and tokenization infrastructure company. He joins "From the White House to Wall Street: What's Next for Crypto?" on the BingX Labs Stage on Wednesday at 2:50 pm, with Kraken's Arjun Sethi, Pantera Capital president Scott Lawin and Jake Chervinsky of the Hyperliquid Policy Center.
Deepa Raja Carbon, Vice Chair and Managing Director, VARA
Carbon helps lead VARA, Dubai's virtual assets regulator. She sits on "Regulation: Finding Clarity Across Borders" on the OKX Main Stage on Thursday at 10:00 am with Arjun Sethi, Jake Chervinsky and Brian Quintenz, then leads "Why Dubai Wins" on the BingX Labs Stage at noon.
AI and crypto speakers to watch
Emad Mostaque, Founder and CEO, Intelligent Internet
Mostaque gives a keynote titled "Intelligence You Own, Not Rent" on the BingX Labs Stage on Wednesday at 10:40 am. He returns at 4:35 pm on the OKX Main Stage for "The Agent Economy: Why AI Needs Crypto," a panel with Illia Polosukhin and Jesse Pollak of Base.
Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder, NEAR Protocol
Polosukhin speaks on "Making AI and Finance Private by Default" on the BingX Labs Stage on Wednesday at 11:20 am. He then joins the 4:35 pm agent-economy panel on the OKX Main Stage. The two slots cover where AI agents meet onchain payments and privacy.
Magnus Grimeland, Founder and CEO, Antler
Grimeland runs Antler, the early-stage venture firm founded in Singapore. His 15-minute keynote, "The Center of Gravity Has Moved: Asia's AI & Crypto Decade," is on the Bit Digital Stage on Wednesday at 4:15 pm. Founders raising in the region get an investor's view of where early-stage capital is heading.
Ethereum and infrastructure
Steven Goldfeder, Co-Founder and CEO, Offchain Labs
Goldfeder leads Offchain Labs, the company behind the Arbitrum network. He has a 15-minute keynote on the Bit Digital Stage on Wednesday at 10:30 am. The agenda lists it only as "Keynote," so the topic is unannounced. Developers building on Ethereum layer-2 networks should hold the slot.
Joseph Lubin, Co-Founder, Ethereum
Lubin, listed on the agenda as Ethereum co-founder and MetaMask chairman and CEO, joins "Ethereum's Next Act: From Asset to Economy" on the OKX Main Stage on Thursday at noon with Morpho's Paul Frambot and Bit Digital CEO Sam Tabar. At 2:40 pm he returns for a panel on real-world assets with Robinhood's Johann Kerbrat.
Privacy keynotes at TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026
Fahmi Syed, President, Midnight
Syed is president of Midnight, a privacy blockchain from the Cardano ecosystem and a Gold sponsor on the official partners page. His 15-minute keynote is on the Bit Digital Stage on Wednesday at 11:45 am, with no title published yet. It is one of several privacy sessions that day, alongside talks from Zcash and NEAR.
Charles Hoskinson, Founder and CEO, Input Output
Hoskinson founded Input Output, the engineering company behind Cardano and Midnight. His keynote, "Midnight City," is on the OKX Main Stage on Thursday from 9:40 to 10:00 am, directly after the opening panel with Jenny Johnson. That gives a privacy network a main-stage slot on the most institution-heavy morning.
Frequently asked questions
Who is speaking at TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026?
The agenda includes Adena Friedman of Nasdaq, Jenny Johnson of Franklin Templeton, Shayne Coplan of Polymarket, Jeff Yan of Hyperliquid Labs, Arthur Hayes, Balaji Srinivasan and Joseph Lubin. The organizer reports more than 300 speakers, and the full list is on the official speakers page.
When is TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026?
The conference takes place on Wednesday, October 7 and Thursday, October 8, 2026, at Marina Bay Sands. Doors open at 7:30 am and the first sessions start at 9:00 am. TOKEN2049 Week runs from October 5 to 11.
Which day is best for institutional sessions?
Thursday, October 8, at Marina Bay Sands. The OKX Main Stage carries Franklin Templeton at 9:10 am, PayPal at 11:10 am, Nasdaq at 2:00 pm and the tokenization panel at 4:20 pm.
Planning for TOKEN2049 Dubai 2027?
For dates and tickets, see the TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026 preview and the conference page; for the evenings, the side events guide. The next edition is TOKEN2049 Dubai, April 21-22, 2027. Powerclub Global helps companies plan sponsorships, speaking slots and side events: schedule a call or read about roadshow management.