World Digital Assets Forum
World Digital Assets Forum (WDAF) is a digital-assets and finance forum hosted by Herald Media Group. Its inaugural event, WDAF 2026, was scheduled for November 9, 2026, in Seoul under the theme “The New Financial Architecture.”[1]
WDAF 2026
The forum is planned for the Crystal Ballroom at The Grand Lotte Seoul in Seoul, South Korea. Its announced agenda centered on changes and challenges associated with on-chain finance, including tokenization, digital-asset treasury strategies, stablecoin payments, and digital payments. The event was presented as a gathering of leaders from finance, blockchain, and digital assets. [1][2]
Organizers expect more than 700 attendees and advertised AI-powered interpretation. The forum’s official website was announced as live on July 29, 2026; later posts dated November 2 and November 5 describe the venue as The Grand Lotte Seoul.[1][2]
Speakers
The announced speakers included
- Paulo Ardoino, founder and chief executive officer of Tether;
- Don Tapscott, co-founder and executive chairman of the Blockchain Research Institute;
- Naveen Mallela, global head of payments at Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Ltd.;
- Sagar Shah, chief business officer of Evernorth;
- Felix Eigelshoven, managing director and head of Asia-Pacific at DFNS; Jae-Hyuk Lee of PwC Korea;
- Rania Rahardja, senior director for Asia-Pacific at Ondo Finance;
- Daniel Kim, founder and chief executive officer of Tiger Research;
- Yongjae Lee, head of the Digital Asset Business Department at Mirae Asset Securities;
- Gabriel Gareth Foo, decentralized finance growth lead at Securitize;
- Jongsub Lee, professor of finance at Seoul National University Business School;
- Justin Kim, vice president of international business development at Ava Labs;
- Seung Jae Yoo, foreign attorney at Kim & Chang;
- Eric Ko, chief strategy officer at Korea Digital Asset Custody.[1]
Other listed speakers included Christie Chan, director of digital assets and currencies; Ashfaq Shaik, executive vice president of engineering and digital assets; Niki Ariyasinghe, vice president for Asia-Pacific and the Middle East; Gerald Goh, co-founder and executive chairman for Asia-Pacific; Jem Kim, executive director of innovation and strategy; Fabian Khoshbakht, head of Asia-Pacific for global payments and trade; Jinnie Lee, sales director for Asia-Pacific; Chris Park, head of Korea commercial strategy; Sagar Desai, Asia-Pacific head of wholesale; CJ Fong, Asia-Pacific general manager; David Katz, vice president of strategy and policy for Asia-Pacific; and Queenie Le, regional expansion lead for Asia-Pacific at Tether.[1]
Registration and Future Agenda
The official registration was listed as closed as at November 5. A VIP ticket was priced at 1,000,000 Korean won, while complimentary registration for undergraduate and graduate students had closed earlier; student status was to be verified for complimentary admission.[1]
Organizers also invited speaker applications for the 2027 agenda and said submissions would be reviewed on a rolling basis.[1]
