IBW 2026 Agenda

Welcome to IBW 2026 (opens in IBW Connect)

IBW looks different this year. New city, new month, new rooms. In the opening session, Karthik Selvaraj explains why none of that happened by accident. Three years in Bangalore built the community. The move to Mumbai puts IBW in the same city as India’s exchanges, banks, asset managers and a state government engaging with the industry faster than most. The move from December to November lines IBW up as the opening act of India Blockchain Week, ahead of Devcon 8, Solana Summit India, ETHGlobal Mumbai and 90+ side events. And the shift from a Web3 conference to a broader industry platform adds two new rooms alongside the IBW Mainstage: the invite-only Institutional Forum, bringing 100 to 120 leaders from banking, regulation and global finance together under the Chatham House Rule, and the Future Asset Forum, on the asset classes forming where AI, sport, film and fandom meet ownership.

• Karthik SelvarajHead of Operations & Events, Hashed Emergent

How India Wins Really Big in the New Economy (opens in IBW Connect)

India’s opportunity is expanding far beyond web3. As AI agents become economic actors and blockchain makes money and assets programmable, a new global economy is taking shape. In his fourth consecutive IBW opening keynote, Tak Lee explores why India is uniquely positioned to help shape this transformation—from its digital public infrastructure and global technology reach to emerging opportunities in programmable finance and cultural assets. The keynote examines what it will take for India to move beyond serving global markets to creating and owning more value, and why collaboration among builders, investors, and policymakers will be essential to turning this potential into lasting global leadership.

• Tak LeeCEO & Managing Partner, Hashed Emergent

India Landscape Report Launch 2026 (opens in IBW Connect)

• Sharanya SahaiInvestments, Hashed Emergent

TradFi-DeFi Convergence & the Financial Super App Evolution (opens in IBW Connect)

Exploring how crypto exchanges are transforming into financial ecosystems and what this means for retail access across markets

• SB SekerHead of APAC, Binance

Collateral Is the New Bridge: RWAs Merge TradFi and DeFi (opens in IBW Connect)

For years the conversation about tokenised real-world assets was about access: giving more people a way to buy treasuries, gold or equities. The real merger of TradFi and DeFi is happening somewhere less visible: in collateral. Tokenised treasuries now sit as margin on the world’s largest exchanges, tokenised gold backs lending and settlement, and stablecoins have become the settlement layer between the two systems. Exchanges, which already hold the users, the custody and the fiat rails, are where that collateral gets posted, lent and liquidated. The leaders of India’s largest exchanges and Binance’s APAC business discuss what tokenised assets are actually doing on their platforms today, what changes when a treasury bill can be posted as collateral in the same account as a crypto position, and what it would take for an Indian investor to hold and use these assets through a regulated Indian platform.

• SB SekerHead of APAC, Binance
• Ashish SinghalCo-Founder & CEO, CoinSwitch
• Mridul GuptaFounding Partner, CoinDCX

India’s Balance Sheet On-Chain: Gold, Land and Bonds (opens in IBW Connect)

India holds an estimated 25,000 tonnes of household gold, trillions of dollars of illiquid real estate and a corporate bond market that retail barely touches. The previous panel asked how exchanges will distribute tokenized assets. This one asks who will create them. A gold-backed token issuer, a regulated tokenization infrastructure builder and an enterprise tokenization platform discuss which Indian assets are worth putting on-chain first, what the legal wrapper and custody stack actually look like, and whether India’s regulatory environment lets any of this be issued from here or forces the supply side offshore.

• Varun ChughExternal Financial Advisor, BINGOLD
• Tajinder VirkFounder & CEO, Blockmaze
• Manish TewariCEO, Spydra

No Star, No Fee, No Media Plan: The Hanuman Ansh Story (opens in IBW Connect)

Hanuman Ansh was made for around Rs 2 crore with no stars, a director who took no fee, and a marketing spend smaller than most films’ trailer launch. It could not get screens in week one. It has since grossed over Rs 400 crore worldwide on the back of bhandaras, viral devotional reels, word of mouth and a lean team doing a marketing department’s job with a handful of people and tools. In this fireside, writer-director-producer Vishal Chaturvedi breaks down what actually did the work, where the money went, why he chose profit share over a fee, and what he will do differently on the sequel now that making a film is cheaper and winning attention is harder. A preview of the Future Asset Forum conversation on Day 2: when intelligence is abundant, what is the asset you are really building?

• Dr. Vishal ChaturvediWriter, Director and Producer, Hanuman Ansh

The Next 100 Million will never search for 'Crypto' (opens in IBW Connect)

• Mridul GuptaFounding Partner, CoinDCX

The Stablecoin Stack: Emerging-Market Rails, What Is Missing (opens in IBW Connect)

Stablecoins have moved from a crypto trading instrument to a settlement layer carrying real payment volume, and the sharpest adoption is in emerging markets where banking rails are slow, expensive or simply absent. Africa has already built stablecoin infrastructure that fintechs use without touching a blockchain themselves. India, the world’s largest remittance market, has UPI at home, an LRS cap abroad and a regulator that has not said yes. A Lagos infrastructure founder, an India cross-border fintech founder and a growth investor discuss what stablecoin rails actually do for a market, why India’s path will look nothing like Africa’s, and where the money is being deployed.

• Sitashwa SrivastavaFounder & CEO, Borderless
• Abdulfatai SuleimanCo-Founder & CEO, Blockradar
• Shravya AggarwalGrowth Investor, Norwest

Future of Ownership & the Rise of Third Markets (opens in IBW Connect)

• Tajinder VirkFounder & CEO, Blockmaze

Reserved (opens in IBW Connect)

• Adv. Ashish ShelarCabinet Minister of Electronics, IT, AI & Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra

A Tale of Two Strategies: Why Liquid and Venture Diverge (opens in IBW Connect)

For most of crypto’s history, venture and liquid returns moved together: back the protocol early, hold the token, ride the cycle. That correlation broke. This cycle, the majors and a few public-market equity exits delivered, while a generation of venture-backed token launches listed at inflated valuations and bled out. LPs are asking why they should lock capital for ten years when the liquid market is right there. Four investors spanning prop trading, pure early-stage venture, ecosystem funds and Ethereum infrastructure debate what actually went wrong, whether equity has quietly replaced tokens as the venture exit, and what a crypto fund should look like for the next cycle.

• Doug HsuInvestor, CMT Digital
• Praneeth SrikantiInvestment Partner & Co-founder, Ethereal Ventures
• Amit MehraPartner, Borderless

What Happens When AI Can Build a Protocol? (opens in IBW Connect)

The distance between an idea and a working application is shrinking. AI agents can increasingly write code, run tests and help ship products, but building a protocol is different from building a prototype. What does it take to move AI-generated software into production, where security vulnerabilities have real financial consequences?

• Nick DodsonCo-Founder & CEO, Fuel Network
• Harshit TiwariVP of Growth, NEAR Foundation

Devcon in India: What It Means for Indian Builders (opens in IBW Connect)

Devcon lead addresses the room on Devcon, the Ethereum Foundation's flagship developer conference, its relationship with India, and what Indian builders should expect and prepare for.

• NethanDevcon Lead, Ethereum Foundation

Day 1 Wrap-up and Day 2 Preview by Crypto Addy (opens in IBW Connect)

• Aditya SinghCo-Founder, Crypto India

The Next Gateway - What India built in 2026 and the step ahead (opens in IBW Connect)

India has built the rails for the next global economy. The question is whether it is ready to open the gate. In her keynote at the IBW Institutional Forum 2026, Nishtha Upadhyay explores Mumbai’s evolution as a gateway for global trade and finance, and what it will take for India to become a gateway for the next generation of capital, assets and economic activity. From tokenised real-world assets and digital currencies to institutional blockchain infrastructure and the emerging machine economy, the keynote examines how India can move beyond enabling global markets to attracting capital, shaping financial infrastructure and owning a greater share of the value it creates. The opportunity is significant—but unlocking it will require the right regulatory clarity, institutional collaboration and ambition to turn India’s potential into global leadership.

• Nishtha UpadhyayLegal Counsel, Hashed Emergent

Banking the Non-Human Client: AI x Payments (opens in IBW Connect)

AI agents are beginning to do more than answer questions: they negotiate, trade, buy services, and allocate capital without human approval at every step. Stripe and Coinbase have launched payment rails for machines; Pine Labs has entered the space. But India's KYC framework has no onboarding route for an autonomous agent. As machines start paying machines, the opportunity extends beyond payments to identity, compliance, custody, and credit, and to the institutions that will bank the non-human economy. Discussion points: What agentic commerce actually looks like today: real transaction volumes, real use cases The KYC problem: how do you onboard a client that isn't a person or a legal entity? x402 and Stripe's Machine Payments Protocol, and what an Indian equivalent would require Where the liability sits when an agent transacts badly: bank, developer, or principal? Is this a 2027 revenue line for Indian banks and payment companies, or a 2030 one?

• Amit DasFounder & CEO, Think360.ai
• Ashutosh DubeyHead of Innovation, Jio Financial Services
• Vishal GuptaHead of Digital Assets, Mastercard

Code, Capital, Compliance: Indian Law Meets Smart Contracts (opens in IBW Connect)

Smart contracts and tokenisation are creating new possibilities for financial markets, but their adoption depends on how they interact with India's existing legal framework. From the enforceability of on-chain transactions to the treatment of tokenised assets under securities, property and foreign exchange laws, several questions remain open. This panel brings together leading legal practitioners to examine how Indian law applies to smart contracts and tokenised assets, where regulatory and legal uncertainties remain, and what changes are needed to enable institutional adoption.

• Jaideep ReddyPartner, Trilegal
• Suril DesaiLeader - Disruptive Technologies Practice, Nishith Desai Associates
• Harshil AgarwalPartner, TLP Advisors
• Chandan GoswamiPartner, AT & Partners

Issue, Hold, Distribute: India’s Tokenisation Value Chain (opens in IBW Connect)

Tokenisation isn't one product. It's a chain. An asset has to be structured and tokenised, it has to be held securely, and it has to reach investors who can buy, trade and exit. In most markets one of these links is still missing, and that missing link is what stops tokenisation from scaling. This session brings together three operators who each own a different part of that chain: a tokenisation platform issuing real-world assets through GIFT City, an institutional custody provider, and one of India's largest digital asset investment platforms. Together they trace a single tokenised asset from creation to investor portfolio, covering how it gets structured and issued, how it's custodied, and how it finally reaches the people who buy it. The session closes on a straight question: which link in India's chain is weakest today, and who fixes it?

• Shaan ZaveriDesignated Partner, Terazo
• Manhar GaregratSVP, Country Head, India & Global Partnerships, Liminal Custody
• Vishwas BajajVice President of Digital Asset Custody and Tokenization, State Street
• Pranjal AgarwalSVP - Business and Strategy, Mudrex and Saber Money

Digital Assets Without Borders: Tax for Global Investors (opens in IBW Connect)

A token has no fixed home. The platform is offshore, the counterparty is non-resident, the wallet is self-custodied, and the Indian investor still has to file a return. India answered the domestic question with a flat 30 percent and a 1 percent TDS, but the cross-border questions are still open: where income arises, who deducts, how a treaty reads a token, and what India's new information-exchange commitments mean for anyone holding assets abroad. This session works through the principles that apply today and the ones that will bite from 2027, covering foreign exchanges, staking and DeFi yield, GIFT City structures, and what investors and platforms should be getting right now rather than scrambling for later.

• Vinod TanwaniPrincipal Commissioner of Income Tax
• Abhishek MundadaPartner, Dhruva LLP
• Dinesh C PatwariRetired IRS

Policing the Invisible: AI, Cybercrime and Digital Assets (opens in IBW Connect)

Every digital asset story has a quieter one running underneath it: the fake trading app, the mule account chain, the funds converted to crypto and gone across borders before anyone files a report. India has seen both the scale and the damage, from retail scams to one of the largest exchange hacks in the world. This session puts the people who chase these cases, and the people who have to secure the assets in the first place, in the same room. It covers how a digital asset crime actually moves from complaint to wallet freeze, where the trail goes cold, and what police, banks, exchanges and the FIU would each need to change for recovery to stop being a race the criminals usually win.

• Madhukar PandeyADG, Maharashtra Police
• Nisha Kant OjhaCyber Security Expert
• Kaushal BhedaDirector, Pelorus Technologies

Day 1 Close (opens in IBW Connect)

Summary of the day and preview of Day 2.

• HEM / E-Sutra