Inaugural forum, hosted by Herald Media Group, brings together leading voices in stablecoins, tokenization and blockchain banking
The people shaping the next chapter of finance are coming to Seoul.
Executives and experts from Standard Chartered, JPMorgan, Evernorth, Sygnum, Ondo Finance, Circle and other major financial and digital asset companies will join the inaugural World Digital Assets Forum on Nov. 9 at The Grand Lotte Seoul.
Hosted by The Korea Herald and Herald Business, WDAF 2026 will offer a closer look at how stablecoins, tokenized assets and blockchain technology could change the way people pay, invest and manage wealth — and where Korea fits into that transformation.
Through keynote speeches, conversations and panel discussions, participants will hear from the bankers, technology leaders and investors helping turn those ideas into financial services.
Naveen Mallela, Standard Chartered’s global head of payments, will deliver the keynote address on how tokenization is breaking down the boundaries between traditional banking and digital finance, and what that means for the structure of finance and the future role of banks.
Mallela previously served as global co-head of Kinexys, JPMorgan’s blockchain business, before joining Standard Chartered in March to lead its global payments operations.
Don Tapscott, co-founder and executive chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute, will explore how blockchain and artificial intelligence could transform finance and industries beyond it. Tether founder and CEO Paolo Ardoino will contribute a video message on the possibilities stablecoins present for financial markets and the global financial ecosystem.
The program will connect those broader visions with the practical changes already underway inside financial institutions.
Akshika Gupta, global head of product sales and solutions at Kinexys by JPMorgan, will discuss the “New Physics of Finance,” examining how blockchain-based payments and tokenization are changing traditional finance and what those developments could mean for Korea.
Sagar Shah, chief business officer of Evernorth, the world’s first XRP-focused digital asset treasury company, will discuss the expanding XRP ecosystem and how companies and institutions are approaching digital asset management. A former senior director of stablecoins at Ripple, Shah is helping lead Evernorth as it pursues a Nasdaq listing later this year and explores opportunities in Korea.
Gerald Goh, co-founder and Asia-Pacific CEO of Sygnum, the world’s first regulated digital asset bank, will examine how digital assets are reshaping private wealth management and opening new approaches to portfolio construction.
Rania Rahardja, Asia-Pacific head at Ondo Finance, will join a conversation on bringing traditional assets, including US Treasuries, onto blockchain networks. She will also discuss the US Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently announced “Innovation Exemption" and its implications for asset tokenization.
The forum’s panels will give attendees a deeper look at three areas central to the industry’s development: real-world asset tokenization, digital asset treasury strategies and payments.
The real-world asset, or RWA, tokenization session will explore what it takes to move bonds, stocks and other financial assets onto blockchain-based systems, from technology and infrastructure to financial institutions’ participation.
Speakers include Lee Yong-jae, head of the digital asset business department at Mirae Asset Securities; Gabriel Gareth Foo, DeFi growth lead at Securitize; Christie Chan, director of digital assets and currencies at HSBC; Ashfaq Shaik, vice president and head of engineering and digital assets at Broadridge; Niki Ariyasinghe, vice president for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East at Chainlink Labs; and Justin Kim, vice president of global business development at Ava Labs.
The digital asset treasury, or DAT, session will address how companies and institutions invest in, manage and safeguard digital assets amid heightened market uncertainty. The panel brings together Sagar Desai, Asia-Pacific head of wholesale at Coinbase; Ko Heung-seok, chief strategy officer at Korea Digital Asset Custody; and CJ Fong, Asia-Pacific general manager at GSR.
The payments discussion will bring banking and stablecoin perspectives to the same stage, examining how digital currencies are reshaping payments and creating a new competitive landscape.
Panelists include Fabian Khoshbakht, BNY’s Asia-Pacific head of global payments and trade; Jinnie Lee, Ripple’s Asia-Pacific institutional sales director; David Katz, Circle’s vice president of strategy and policy for Asia-Pacific; and Queenie Le, Tether’s regional expansion lead for Asia-Pacific. BNY and Ripple are participants in Open Standard, a “dollar coin alliance” expected to launch later this year.
Together, the sessions will give attendees a view of digital finance from both sides of the transition: established institutions adapting their businesses and digital asset companies building new services.
Program and speaker information is available on the WDAF website at www.wdaf.heraldcorp.com
jylee@heraldcorp.com
