CoinDesk’s Hong Kong 2026 Consensus is here. Over the next two days, more than 10,000 attendees will hear from more than 350 speakers across five stages as they discuss tokenization, stablecoins, artificial intelligence, and more.
The conference comes just after the crypto markets went through a period of intense volatility. bitcoin plummeted from over $95,000 to around $60,000 before recovering to $70,000 within a few weeks, swings that are familiar to veteran industry participants but jarring nonetheless.
Against this backdrop, we will hear from Hong Kong policymakers, including CEO John KC Lee, lawmaker Johnny Ng, and Securities and Futures Commission CEO Julia Leung, about their work in drafting cryptocurrency-focused policies for the special administrative region.
Industry leaders such as Yat Siu of Animoca, Lily Liu of the Solana Foundation, and Tom Lee of BitMine will present the current state of the cryptocurrency world and outline the trends they expect to see in the coming months.
It may be that the crypto industry is now merging more with traditional finance, leaving some of its more esoteric products by the wayside. Consensus spokesperson Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk last month that blockchains are more like financial infrastructure than support tools for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or other projects.
Still, markets still need to mature to truly support institutional demand, Auros’ Jason Atkins told CoinDesk last month.
Institutions themselves (e.g. Robinhood) are also taking a deeper look at blockchain as a tool that can support the financialization of institutional clients, the company’s head of crypto, Johan Kerbrat, said last month.
