What to expect at CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong 2026

CoinDesk's Consensus Hong Kong 2026 is here. Over the next two days, more than 10,000 attendees will hear from over 350 speakers across five stages as they discuss tokenization, stablecoins, AI and more.

The conference comes just after crypto markets hit a period of intense volatility. Bitcoin BTC$68,619.14 crashed from over $95,000 to near $60,000 before rebounding to $70,000 within a few short weeks, swings that are familiar to longtime industry participants but jarring nonetheless.

Against this backdrop, we'll hear from Hong Kong policymakers, including Chief Executive John KC Lee, legislator Johnny Ng and Securities and Futures Commission CEO Julia Leung about their work drafting crypto-focused policies for the special administrative region.

Industry leaders like Animoca's Yat Siu, Solana Foundation's Lily Liu and BitMine's Tom Lee will present the crypto world's current status and lay out the trends they expect to see in the coming months.

It may be that the crypto industry is now melding more with traditional finance, leaving some of its more esoteric products by the wayside. Consensus speaker Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk last month that blockchains are looking more like financial infrastructure than support tools for non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or other projects.

Even so, the markets still need to mature to truly support institutional demand, Auros' Jason Atkins told CoinDesk last month.

The institutions themselves — for example, Robinhood — are also looking more deeply into blockchain as a tool that can support financialization for institutional clients, the company's head of crypto, Johan Kerbrat, said last month.