American Banker will host its inaugural On-Chain executive summit on March 19-20 at Convene 360 Madison in New York. According to American Banker, the event comes as the passing of the GENIUS Act for stablecoin regulation last summer and federal consideration of a crypto market structure bill in recent weeks has formally kicked off a digital asset race within the financial services industry. The summit will feature dozens of digital assets experts, including BNY Chief Product and Innovation Officer Carolyn Weinberg, who stated that "the blockchain, in concert with our traditional ways of doing business, is going to transform how we do business for the future." Recent discussions at Davos 2026 have further reinforced this momentum, with President Donald Trump announcing that "Congress is working very hard on crypto market structure legislation, Bitcoin, all of them, which I hope to sign very soon, unlocking new pathways for Americans to reach financial freedom."
The summit's focus on institutional adoption is exemplified by recent major launches in the digital asset space. Nomura's digital asset subsidiary Laser Digital has launched an upgraded actively managed tokenized Bitcoin-based fund called the Bitcoin Diversified Yield Fund SP, evolved from their existing Bitcoin Adoption Fund launched in 2023. As reported by Caproasia, the fund targets non-United States institutional and accredited investors with a minimum subscription of $250,000 in USD or Bitcoin-equivalent. The fund provides long-term and long-only exposure to Bitcoin along with market-neutral strategies designed to generate yield for income. Laser Digital's portfolio also includes other actively managed funds such as the Laser Digital Carry Fund (LCF) and Multi Strategy Fund (MSF), demonstrating the growing sophistication of institutional digital asset products.
Stablecoins will be a major focus of the summit, as these digital currencies tied to fiat currencies like the U.S. dollar have moved from the edge of cryptocurrency conversation to the center of policy and banking discussions. As reported by American Banker, once U.S. financial institutions received stablecoin issuing guidance from the government via the GENIUS Act in July 2025, banks, fintech companies and payments providers started testing stablecoins for cross-border payments, liquidity management and digital wallets. In American Banker's recently released On-Chain Finance survey, over half (55%) of survey respondents agreed that increasing the speed of payments was the top use case for issuing stablecoins, followed closely by cross-border payments. This regulatory progress aligns with recent developments, as Bermuda announced plans to transition its entire national economy to run "fully on-chain," using USDC as a primary medium of exchange and public blockchain infrastructure for government services.
The summit will feature prominent industry executives discussing digital asset strategies. According to American Banker, a Thursday panel will include Custodia Bank CEO Caitlin Long, Uphold Enterprise CEO Robin O'Connell, Moonpay President Keith Grossman, and American Banker's Paul Vigna discussing how traditional financial institutions can build institutional-grade stablecoin infrastructure. Ryan Rugg, Citi's global head of digital assets for Treasury and Trade Solutions, will discuss stablecoins and compare them to tokenized assets in a Friday fireside chat.
As reported by American Banker, decentralized blockchain assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are becoming more mainstream as the U.S. government becomes increasingly crypto-friendly in its regulation. Digital assets are reshaping payments, custody, and compliance as banks explore use cases for blockchain infrastructure. Major crypto-native custody providers including Coinbase, Binance, Anchorage Digital and Gemini have partnered with big banks such as Citi, JPMorganChase, and PNC in recent months. Summit sessions will include panels on opportunities and risks for banks in digital assets featuring State Street Chief Product Officer Donna Milrod and discussions on wealth management impact for younger investors. Recent infrastructure developments include SWIFT and Chainlink announcing an interoperability milestone demonstrating that legacy banking systems can now successfully settle transactions on public blockchains without needing to overhaul their entire existing IT stack.
Tokenization, the process of creating digital representations of real assets, will be another key summit topic. According to American Banker, there are currently two main tokenization use cases for banks: deposits and real world assets (RWAs). Citi earned a 2025 Innovation of the Year Award from American Banker for its launch of Citi Token Services, a blockchain technology platform that converts deposits into digital tokens for real-time cross-border payments and liquidity management. The summit will feature a tokenization session with panelists including J.P. Morgan's Global Co-head of Kinexys Kara Kennedy and Coinbase Head of Tokenization Shaun Martinak discussing how traditional institutions can participate safely in on-chain finance. Industry validation for tokenization continues to grow, with BlackRock CEO Larry Fink stating at Davos that "Tokenization is necessary… if we have one common blockchain, we could reduce corruption," while Valérie Urbain, Euroclear Belgium CEO, cited tokenization as "real" capital-markets plumbing, highlighting Euroclear's commercial paper tokenization work in France at large scale.
Recent statements from Davos 2026 underscore the growing convergence between traditional finance and digital assets that the summit will address. David Sacks, White House Chief of Artificial Intelligence and Cryptocurrency, remarked that "In the long run, banking and crypto will cease to be separate worlds and will transform into 'a single digital asset industry.'" UBS CEO Sergio Ermotti echoed this sentiment, stating "Blockchain is the future for traditional banking… You will see a convergence," while Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters commented that "Most things will settle in digital form... we're at a major inflection point... this is the year when this is happening in scale." François Villeroy de Galhau, Governor of the Bank of France, highlighted tokenization's potential to "bring progress in global finance, delivery versus payments, diminish cost of financial transactions." These executive perspectives reinforce the summit's focus on practical blockchain applications and the institutional adoption driving the digital asset transformation.