Steven Venino is a Partner at Strobe, an early-stage, crypto-native venture firm focused on backing founders building long-term, sustainable businesses on blockchain rails. Formerly BlockTower Venture Capital, Strobe was spun out by Steven and his partners in 2024, bringing with it the same fund, portfolio, and investor base — and a renewed focus on disciplined venture investing in digital assets.

Steven began his career in traditional finance, with experience across hedge funds and public markets, before moving into crypto during its early institutionalization. At BlockTower, he helped build and deploy a multi-year venture strategy spanning DeFi, real-world assets, consumer crypto, and on-chain financial infrastructure, with an emphasis on ownership, thoughtful token design, and long-term value creation.

At Strobe, Steven focuses on leading and co-leading seed investments in companies that often look more like Web2 startups on the surface, but use blockchain infrastructure to unlock new capabilities under the hood. His work centers on applying proven venture frameworks — from portfolio construction to founder support — to a market that has historically been driven by short time horizons and speculative incentives.

Operating at the intersection of traditional venture discipline and crypto-native innovation, Steven brings a pragmatic, long-term perspective on token design, capital formation, and what it will take for crypto businesses to mature beyond hype into enduring companies.

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Nick Cherney is Head of Innovation at Janus Henderson Investors, a global asset manager overseeing more than $400 billion in assets. With over two decades of experience in ETFs and investment product development, Nick has been deeply involved in some of the most important structural shifts in modern asset management.

Nick began his career in the early days of ETFs at iShares, where he helped build the category inside what would later become BlackRock. He later founded VelocityShares in 2010, developing specialized exchange-traded products for institutional traders and hedge funds across volatility, commodities, and structured strategies.

Today at Janus Henderson, Nick focuses on how blockchain and tokenization intersect with traditional asset management. His work centers on practical adoption — identifying where on-chain infrastructure can deliver real, incremental value, both through tokenized funds serving DeFi-native demand and blockchain-based efficiencies embedded within traditional investment products.

Operating at the intersection of ETFs, institutional finance, and on-chain markets, Nick brings a pragmatic perspective on how tokenization can scale — and what it will take for on-chain finance to move beyond experimentation into meaningful adoption.

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Niklas Kunkel is the Founder and CEO of Chronicle Labs, a leading oracle infrastructure provider securing both decentralized finance and the rapidly growing market for tokenized real-world assets. Formerly a core contributor at MakerDAO, Niklas helped architect the original DAI stablecoin system — designing the first generation of Ethereum oracles and building foundational infrastructure long before DeFi existed as an industry.

Today at Chronicle, Niklas focuses on the critical problem of connecting off-chain financial data to on-chain markets with the reliability, security, and transparency required by institutions. His team provides oracle infrastructure for tokenized money market funds, private credit, stablecoins, and next-generation financial products issued by firms like BlackRock, Apollo, Janus Henderson, and Superstate.

Operating at the intersection of blockchain, data security, and institutional asset management, Niklas brings a rare perspective across both crypto-native and traditional financial systems. His work is helping define how tokenized assets are priced, monitored, and integrated into automated on-chain markets — and why robust oracle infrastructure is becoming core to the future of tokenized finance.

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Thomas Cowan is the Head of Tokenization at Galaxy, a crypto-focused merchant bank bridging traditional finance and on-chain markets. Based in New York, he leads tokenization within Galaxy's investment banking arm, where his team focuses on structuring and placing tokenized products — from money market funds to on-chain debt and securitized credit.

At Galaxy, Thomas works at the intersection of institutional capital and blockchain infrastructure, helping traditional financial institutions explore how blockchain can deliver faster settlement, greater transparency, and more efficient secondary markets for complex products like CLOs and other structured debt. His perspective spans both TradFi and crypto-native markets, giving him a front-row seat to how tokenization is evolving from technology experiment to core market infrastructure.

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Tanner Taddeo is the Co-Founder and CEO of Stable Sea, a company building the infrastructure layer for stablecoin-powered cross-border payments. Stable Sea connects U.S. and emerging market businesses through stablecoin rails, enabling faster, cheaper, and more transparent international transactions.

Before founding Stable Sea, Tanner led product and strategy initiatives at Plaid and Block, where he helped build core financial infrastructure powering next-generation fintech applications. His experience spans financial inclusion, enterprise payments, and Web3 infrastructure — positioning him at the intersection of traditional finance and on-chain innovation.

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Nikhil Raghuveera is the Co-Founder and CEO of Predicate, a company building on-chain policy infrastructure that enables organizations to set programmable, enforceable rules for transactions within blockchain-based financial systems. Predicate's technology underpins compliance and policy enforcement for next-generation stablecoins, privacy protocols, and real-world asset tokenization platforms.

Before founding Predicate, Nikhil was Head of Strategy and Innovation at Celo, where he led many of the blockchain's early Web3 deployments and helped shape its evolution from a Layer 1 to Layer 2 network. He has also been a Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, focused on digital asset policy and the future of global financial systems. Earlier in his career, Nikhil worked in economic and management consulting, including at BCG, advising on securities, antitrust, and financial innovation.

Bridging deep technical expertise with a sophisticated understanding of regulation and markets, Nikhil is helping define how institutions and fintechs operate on-chain as blockchain becomes a global financial settlement layer.

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Matt Homer is the Founder and General Partner of The Venture Dept., a venture capital firm investing at the intersection of fintech, digital assets, and regulation, with a particular focus on stablecoins and stablecoin infrastructure.

Before founding The Venture Dept., Matt was a regulator at the FDIC and then the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS), where he helped design and oversee some of the earliest digital asset frameworks in the U.S. He later joined Nyca Partners, a leading fintech venture firm, where he developed its digital asset investment strategy.

Matt also serves on the boards of Gemini and Standard Custody (acquired by Ripple), bringing a unique blend of regulatory insight, fintech experience, and early-stage investing to one of the most rapidly evolving sectors in finance.

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Will Peck is the Head of Digital Assets at WisdomTree, a $130 billion asset manager and ETF sponsor and a pioneer in tokenized assets. Over his 11-year tenure at WisdomTree, Will has helped the firm navigate the evolution from ETFs to tokenized assets, stablecoins, and on-chain investment infrastructure.

WisdomTree is at the forefront of innovation, applying lessons from ETFs—transparency, liquidity, tax efficiency, and standardization—to build scalable, accessible tokenized products for both institutional and retail investors. With ongoing regulatory developments and growing adoption of digital assets, WisdomTree is well positioned to expand its tokenized ecosystem.