European Blockchain Convention
@EBlockchainCon
Europe’s Deal Floor for Digital Assets.
Join us in Barcelona on 16-17 September 2026.
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EBC12 has come to an end, and we couldn’t be more grateful for these two days.
Hundreds of people came together in Barcelona to connect across digital assets and institutional finance.
This edition put an even stronger focus on face-to-face opportunities, with exclusive side events and private meetings designed to turn conversations into real business.
A huge thank you to our sponsors, speakers, partners and everyone who helped bring EBC12 to life.
Two intense days. Countless conversations. Plenty of new connections.
Next stop: DAF New York. Who’s coming?
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Excluding digital assets from a diversified portfolio is becoming a harder position to defend.
Ondřej Kovařík (MEP), Robert Crossley (@FranklnTempletn), Ramzi Amairi (@NatixisResearch), Yves Choueifaty (TOBAM), Michal Nydrle (@invity_io) and Richard Hodges (CAAN) discussed allocation, diversification, risk and liquidity.
What role do digital assets play in your portfolio today?
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Stablecoins could simplify cross-border payments, but FX does not disappear just because money moves on-chain.
Aaron Sanchez (@MiCA_Alliance), Gabriel Lera Campo (@bbva), Immo Garlichs (@DeutscheBank), Sudeep Mehta (@stbl_official) and Jan-Oliver Sell (@qivaliseu) discussed liquidity, conversion and settlement in a multi-currency world.
Where does your business still face the most friction in cross-border payments?
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Crypto ETFs and ETPs have moved past the launch hype. What matters now is how institutions are actually using them.
Henry Jim (@BBGIntelligence), Nikhil Sharma (@BlackRock), Dovile Silenskyte (@WisdomTreeEU), Andrew Forson (Valour / @DeFiTechGlobal), Kean Gilbert (@LidoFinance) and Torsten Hunke (@vaneck_eu) discussed portfolio use cases, allocation behavior and how institutional demand is evolving.
How are ETFs and ETPs fitting into your digital asset strategy today?
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Institutional adoption has been “arriving” for years. What has actually changed?
Ariane Murphy (@StandWCrypto_EU), Martha Reyes (@DigitalAssets), Michael Howe (@Bitwise_Europe), Dr. Diana-Cezara Toader (@UBS), Peter Hubli (@zkb_ch) and Sladjan Seferović (SWIAT) discussed what is genuinely moving forward across regulation, infrastructure, products and implementation.
What has changed most inside your institution over the past year?
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Private markets are moving on-chain, but does tokenisation remove friction or just move it?
Jeroen Gillekens (@LayerZero_Core), Maarten van der Noordaa (@Rabobank), Antonina Karwasińska (@BankPekaoSA) and Samiz Bayan (@DraperDragon) discussed access, liquidity and distribution across private equity, private credit and real assets.
Where could tokenisation remove the most friction?
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24/7 settlement sounds simple.
Making it work for money market funds is not.
Harvey Li (Tokenization Insight), Nikhil Sharma (@BlackRock), Kjetil Watne (@NorgesBank), Philipp Müller (@SNB_BNS), Patrik Björklund (@JHIAdvisors) and Alastair Sewell (@avivainvestors) discussed what tokenisation changes for liquidity, yield and settlement.
What would your institution need to use tokenised MMFs at scale?
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Crypto’s path to public markets is getting more serious.
“Market Consolidation and the Road to IPO” brought together Victor Teixeira (@generaltensor), Jean-Malo Dupart (Keefe, Bruyette & Woods), Guillaume Vitrich (@WhiteCase) and Jan-Philip Grabs (@areta_io).
They discussed what is driving consolidation and what companies need to get right across governance, M&A and investor expectations before going public.
What still separates a strong crypto company from an IPO-ready one?
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Stablecoins are moving beyond crypto trading and into financial infrastructure.
“Stablecoins as Financial Infrastructure: The $33T Story” brought together Juan Ignacio Ibañez (@MiCA_Alliance), Simon Seiter (@AllUnityStable), Benoit Courtois (@UnicajaBanco), John Hallahan (@FireblocksHQ ) and Hugo Horton (@SokinGlobal).
They discussed what growing stablecoin volumes mean for payments, settlement, banking and real-world institutional use.
Where could stablecoins create the most value for your business?
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EBC was packed today.
Full rooms, fully booked side events, happy clients, and plenty of business happening across the venue.
From panels and private meetings to side events and spontaneous conversations, the day was built around one thing: bringing the right people together and creating real opportunities.
Great energy, strong conversations, and a lot of value created in one place.
That’s what EBC is about.
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Trust is moving from institutional promise to infrastructure.
In “The Integrity Economy: Why Digital Trust is the New Global Currency,” @F_Gregaard (@Cardano_CF) explored why digital trust increasingly needs to be verifiable, not simply assumed.
The keynote looked at integrity, transparency and accountability as more economic activity moves on-chain.
What does your business need to prove trust digitally?
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Digital assets move globally. Regulation does not.
“EU, UK, US and UAE: Multiple Regulatory Paths and One Global Digital Asset Market” brought together Stephane Blemus (@WhiteCase), Richard B. Levin (@Taftlaw), Colin Payne (@TheFCA), Patrick Hansen (@circle) and David Bequette (@aml_incubator).
They discussed how firms can operate across major jurisdictions while navigating different regulatory and compliance requirements.
Which market is creating the biggest regulatory challenge for your business today?
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Institutional blockchain is moving beyond pilots.
“Programmable Financial Infrastructure: The Next Phase of Institutional Blockchain” brought together Ian Allison (@CoinDesk), Simona Pasero (@GENERALI), Lorenzo Valente (@ARKInvest), Martin Onyeador (@NatWestGroup) and Simone Cortese (@fnality).
They discussed what programmability enables across settlement, liquidity and institutional workflows once markets move on-chain.
Where could programmability create the most value for your business?
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Institutional crypto allocation is no longer a side conversation.
“From Skepticism to Allocation: How Institutional Investors Are Building Crypto into Their Portfolios” brought together Carl Szantyr (Blockstone Capital), André Dragosch (@Bitwise_Europe), Karl Naïm (@xbtogroup), Tommaso Mancuso (@3iq_corp), Rani Jabban (@arabbankCH) and Stefan Klauser (@aisotHQ).
They discussed what drives adoption, how institutions assess risk and how crypto fits into broader portfolios.
What does an ideal digital asset allocation look like in your portfolio?
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Traditional financial markets and on-chain systems are starting to converge.
"The Convergence of Money: Building the Infrastructure Between Traditional and On-Chain Finance" brought together Adriana Torres (@adan_asso), Mattia Calvosa (@Visa) and Sabina Liu (@euKuCoin).
They discussed the infrastructure and interoperability needed for both sides to work more seamlessly together.
What does your business still need to make that connection work?
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Trusted infrastructure is still central to institutional digital asset adoption.
Joseph Saliba, Deputy CEO of @CACEIS, joined @Victoria_AGago for a chat on how asset servicers are adapting to digital assets, connecting traditional finance with blockchain-based markets, and what regulated adoption in Europe requires.
What does your institution still need to fully adopt digital assets in Europe?
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The journey of a tokenised asset does not stop at issuance.
That was the subject of EBC12’s “The End-to-End Journey of a Tokenised Asset” panel.
Stuart Petersen (@wyden_io), Kathleen Wrynn (@InvescoUS), Miguel Vaz (Hauck Aufhäuser Digital Custody), Nico Braun (@dzbank) and Jonathan Leßmann (SWIAT) discussed the infrastructure and coordination needed across trading, asset management, custody, banking and settlement.
Where do you see the biggest friction in that journey today?
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Tokenization is easy to discuss. Getting internal approval is much harder.
That was the focus of EBC12’s “What Makes a Financial Institution Say Yes to Tokenization?” panel.
From regulation and governance to infrastructure, risk and the business case, the discussion looked at what institutions need to get right before tokenization can scale.
Adriana Ennab (@GlobalDigitalFi), Lloyd Nelson (@howdenlocaluk), Mattia Calvosa (@Visa), Sandro Knöpfel (@Cardano_CF), Nadia Filali (@caissedesdepots) and Sabina Liu (@euKuCoin) shared their perspectives on what stands between experimentation and real institutional adoption.
How is your institution preparing for tokenization?
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EBC12 is officially underway.
@Victoria_AGago and @danielsalmeronm opened the event, followed by a welcome speech from Stuart MacDonald, Managing Partner at Bride Valley Partners.
Hosting us through the day: Oisin Lunny.
Two days of conversations, connections and institutional digital assets start now.
Which panel are you most looking forward to?
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Institutional blockchain is moving beyond individual use cases. Can programmability become part of the financial infrastructure itself?
🎤 Ian Allison (@IanAllison123) — @CoinDesk
🎤 Simona Pasero — @GENERALI
🎤 Lorenzo Valente (@LorenzoARK) — @ARKInvest
🎤 Martin Onyeador — @NatWestGroup
🎤 Simone Cortese — @fnality
The conversation will explore what it takes to move from experimentation to infrastructure institutions can use at scale.
📍 Barcelona | 16–17 Sept 2026
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