The Programmable Economy: AI & Blockchain Redefining Markets
https://www.aiblockchaincornelltech.org
AI is transforming how work and decisions happen; blockchain is transforming how value moves and gets verified. Together, they are creating new infrastructure for a new economy, and NYC is where these technologies meet real use cases, real deployment environments, and real market opportunities.
On April 24th, 2026, over 1,000 leaders, builders, and researchers from AI, blockchain, Wall Street, tech and academia came together for "The Programmable Economy: AI & Blockchain Redefining Markets" Conference. The convening took place at Cornell Tech, New York City’s engine for innovation, new ventures, and technologists.
This convening was co-hosted by Blockchain @ Cornell Tech, Cornell Blockchain, Blockchain Builders, and Cornell Tech AI Society.
90+ speakers spoke at this convening, including leaders from Morgan Stanley, Robinhood, NYSE, Zelle of Early Warning, J.P. Morgan, Citi, EY, Coinbase, RBC, PayPal, Franklin Templeton, Financial Times, Mastercard, Weill Cornell Medicine, Visa, Sui, Monad, Optimism, Ethereum Foundation, Solana Foundation, Notable Capital, and Harvey, as well as a dozen AI start-up founders.
• Jed Finn — Head of Wealth Management, Morgan Stanley
• Hans Tung — Managing Partner, Notable Capital
• Vasant Prabhu — Former Vice Chair & CFO, Visa
• Rich Widmann — Head of Strategy, Web3, Google Cloud
• Sandy Kaul — EVP, Head of Innovation, Franklin Templeton
• Jon Herrick — Chief Product Officer, NYSE
• David Duong — Global Head of Investment Research, Coinbase
• Artem Korenyuk — Head of Enterprise Digital Assets, Citi
• Kun Peng — GP, Blockchain Builders | Founder, Stanford
• Solomon Tesfaye — Chief Business Officer, Aptos
• German Soto Sanchez — Chief Product Officer, Broadridge
• Prashant Kher — MD, Digital Assets Leader, EY-Parthenon
• Leo Schwartz — Senior Reporter, Fortune
• Neil DeSilva — Entrepreneur in Residence, IC3 (Cornell Tech)
• Denise Leonhard — GM, Zelle, Early Warning Services
• Katie Burke — COO, Harvey
• Emin Gün Sirer — Co-Founder & CEO, Ava Labs
• Kyle Rojas — Institutional Lead, Americas, Ethereum Foundation
• John Wu — President, Ava Labs
• Adrian Wall — Managing Director, Digital Sovereignty Alliance
• Alexandra Scheibe — Partner, Co-Head of Blockchain, Steptoe
• Nassim Eddequiouaq — Co-Founder & CEO, Bastion
• Ari Juels — Co-Director, IC3
• Zoe Cruz — Founder & CEO, Menai Financial Group
• Michael Pastor — Dean, Tech Law & Co-Director, Innovation Center, NY Law School
• Matt D’Amore — Director, Law, Tech & Entrprnrshp, Cornell Tech
• Steven J. Baum — Managing Director, CBIZ
• Mark Daly — Chief Business Officer, zerohash
• Andres Lamothe — Executive Director of Partnerships, MoonPay
• Neeraj Prasad — Chief Engineer, MoonPay
• Raina Moskowitz — CEO, The Knot
• Gil Rosen — GP, Blockchain Builders | President, Stanford Blockchain Accelerator
• Jill Shah — US Trading & Crypto Correspondent, Financial Times
• Sam Elfarra — Ecosystem & Community Lead, TRON DAO
• Rishin Sharma — Head of AI Growth, Solana Foundation
• Adam Lowe — Chief Innovation & Product Officer, Arculus
• Kaya Jones — Founder, Forever 22
• Sagar Shah — Co-Founder, Fondu
• Ellie Li — CEO, Nomie
• Dele Atanda — CEO, MetaME
• Vineeth Voruganti — Founder, Plastic Labs
• Teymour Farman-Farmaian — Co-Founder & CEO, Higlobe
• Sharyn Tan — Head of Product, Liquidity & New Products, PayPal
• Jillian Batty — Head of Compliance, 1inch
• Vicky Fu — Founder, Blockrun.ai
• Ben Jones — Co-Founder, Optimism
• Evan Cheng — Co-Founder & CEO, Mysten Labs (Sui)
• Jolie Kahn — CEO, AVAX One
• Juan Bruce — Founder, Supernet
• Oscar Kuntzel — Co-Founder & CEO, Quartr
• David Han — Venture Principal, Auros Global
• Cheng Wang — COO & CFO, Akash Network
• Gary Weinstein — Founder, Infinity Advisory
• Shefali Kumar — Software Engineer, Wealthfront
• Hans Tung — Managing Partner, Notable Capital
• Amit Chaudhary — CEO & President of the Board, Palliora
• Sebastien Badault — EVP, Enterprise, Ledger
• Ben Beckmann — Chief Technical Advisor, Midnight Foundation
• Josh Peschko — Head of Compliance & Reg. Strategy, Talos
• David Gan — Founder & General Partner, Inception Capital
• Ayesha Kiani — COO, Monarq Asset Management
• Eric van Miltenburg — SVP, Strategic Initiatives, Ripple
• Robb Layfield — MD, Head of Digital Assets, Customers Bank
• Leigh Gallagher — Senior Managing Director, Teneo
• Kara Gustafson — President, RBC Foundation USA
• Emily Bao — Spot Executive, Bybit | Advisor, Mantle
• Joey Anthony — Head of Business Development, Monad
• Bill Platt — COO, Alchemy
• Elizabeth Stark — Co-Founder & CEO, Lightning Labs
• Nicola White — VP, Institutional Crypto, Robinhood
• Tanzeem Choudhury — Chief of Health Innovation, Cornell Tech
• Fei Wang — Director, Institute of AI for Digital Health, Weill Cornell
• Jeff Rundlet — VP, Institutional Solutions, Cryptio
• Steven Willinger — Founding Partner, Blockchain Builders
• Salman Avestimehr — Co-Founder & Dean’s Professor, USC / ChainOpera
• Sara Elinson — MD & Partner, L.E.K. Consulting
• Thomas Knox — Co-Founder & CEO, VitVio
• Angelo Aratan — Head of Web3 Solutions, Kinexys (JP Morgan)
• Tomas Taylor — Co-Founder, ClawCon
• Chen Arad — Co-Founder, Solidus Labs
• Drake Evans — Co-Founder & CTO, Agora Finance
• María González Manso — Founder & CEO, Tucuvi
• Amol Sharma — Director, Software Engineering, Mastercard
• Alexander Massoti — Vice President, Liberty City Ventures
• Channi Greenwall — Co-Founder & CEO, Olympix
2026 Conference Co-Hosts: Cornell Blockchain, Blockchain @ Cornell Tech, Blockchain Builders, and Cornell Tech AI Society
This is an official event of #NYFTW26