The WAIB Summit Monaco 2026 brought together 2,000 decision-makers representing more than $10 trillion in assets under management at One Monte-Carlo. Institutional adoption, tokenization, MiCA regulation and AI debates dominated this second edition.
🔑 Key takeaways
- 2,000 vetted attendees, 80% of whom were executives and founders from 1,000 companies
- More than $10 trillion in AUM represented in the room
- 150+ speakers across 40 sessions split between Digital Assets and AI tracks
- Key MiCA session with Peter Kerstens, adviser at the European Commission’s DG FISMA
- VIP dinner at the Yacht Club de Monaco and a 24-hour AI hackathon sponsored by Alibaba Cloud
A ‘Davos of Web3 and AI’ at One Monte-Carlo
Held on June 9 and 10, 2026, right after the Monaco Formula 1 Grand Prix, the WAIB Summit Monaco set up shop at One Monte-Carlo on the Place du Casino. Marketed by organizers as ‘the Davos of AI and Web3,’ this second edition gathered an exceptional crowd of senior executives from across the digital-asset and technology worlds.
According to figures released by the organizers, the 2026 edition welcomed more than 2,000 vetted attendees, of which 80% were executives and founders from 1,000 companies. Over twenty family offices from Monaco and major global financial hubs attended, alongside 200 thought leaders and media partners including Cointelegraph, CoinDesk and Decrypt. Organizers also claimed $10 trillion in assets under management were represented in the room.
The program was built around two thematic tracks: Digital Assets (institutional adoption by family offices, tokenization, Web3 infrastructure, the stablecoin-vs-Bitcoin battle, creator economy) and Artificial Intelligence (infrastructure and compute, governance and ethics, enterprise applications, generative and agentic AI). Ludmilla Raconnat Le Goff, representing the Government of Monaco, delivered the opening ceremony on day one.
MiCA and European regulation take center stage
One of the marquee moments of the 2026 edition was the panel titled ‘MiCA and the Future of Digital Asset Regulation in Europe,’ moderated by Zoltan of Cointelegraph with Peter Kerstens, adviser at the European Commission within DG FISMA (Directorate-General for Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union). The discussion unfolded against the backdrop of the gradual rollout of the MiCA (Markets in Crypto-Assets) regulation across the European Union, which now governs the issuance and sale of crypto-assets.
Kerstens also joined a broader panel on trust, regulation and jurisdiction in the era of AI and digital assets, alongside Dr. Clara Guerra (Government of Liechtenstein), Ondrej Kovarik (former Member of the European Parliament) and Beatrice Fares (European Commission), exploring how existing regulatory frameworks can absorb AI-driven market participants.
« The Family Office Playbook for Digital Assets: Make a Bold Move in Crypto — 1% or No Future at All »
WAIB Summit 2026 panel title
Family offices: the digital-asset playbook
The adoption of digital assets by family offices (wealth-management structures for ultra-high-net-worth families) featured prominently. The panel ‘The Family Office Playbook for Digital Assets: Make a Bold Move in Crypto — 1% or No Future at All’ brought together Paul Infante Moñozca (Moñozca Family Office) and Julien Busnel, head of institutional sales at CoinShares AM, an asset manager specialized in crypto products.
A dedicated session titled ‘When Should Family Offices Be Ready for Tokenisation?’ was led by Dotun Rominiyi, strategy lead at Assetera, a tokenization platform. Discussions covered entry timing, due diligence and investment vehicles suited to large private fortunes, in a context where crypto allocations still oscillate between 1% and 5% of family-office portfolios.
Tokenization, stablecoins and RWAs: the infrastructure battle
Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) structured several roundtables. The panel ‘From Stablecoins to Tokenised Assets — Unlocking Europe’s Capital Markets’ gathered Julien Clausse, head of Asset Foundry at BNP Paribas, Ramzi Amairi, director of Tech Coverage Fintech and Digital Assets at Natixis, and Rafael Mastroberardino from Franklin Templeton, alongside Adriana Ennab (Stand With Crypto) and Elie Naba (ABN AMRO). The stake: bridging DeFi and European capital markets around shared infrastructure.
Another roundtable, ‘RWAs: Is There Real Market Demand?’, featured representatives from Kraken, Brickken, Assetera, Atom Real Tokens, Realiz and CV VC Labs. The displayed consensus: tokenization remains constrained by secondary-market illiquidity and uneven legal frameworks across jurisdictions, even as institutional demand gradually picks up.
Key figures from the 2026 edition
| Indicator | WAIB Summit Monaco 2026 |
|---|---|
| Dates | June 9-10, 2026 |
| Venue | One Monte-Carlo, Place du Casino |
| Attendees | 2,000+ (80% executives/founders) |
| Companies represented | 1,000 |
| AUM represented | $10 trillion |
| Speakers | 150+ |
| Sessions | 40 |
| Family offices | 20+ |
| Media partners | Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Decrypt |
AI: between governance and enterprise applications
The AI track brought together heavyweight ecosystem players. Mascha Driessen, VP for Continental Europe at Microsoft AI, discussed enterprise use cases and the carbon footprint of datacenters. The session ‘The AI Moment: Are We Really Ready for What’s Coming?’ extended the conversation on organizational readiness for the acceleration of generative models and on governance frameworks for autonomous agents.
The crypto ecosystem was also represented: Sabina Liu (Managing Director, KuCoin EU), Nenter Chow (CEO of BitMart) and Georg Harer (co-CEO of Bybit EU) spoke on behalf of major exchanges. Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido, and Ada Vaughan, DeFi lead at the Stellar Development Foundation, moderated a panel on institutional DeFi, illustrating the convergence between traditional finance and decentralized protocols.
A 2026 edition aimed at creative ecosystems and startups
Beyond the main conference, the WAIB Summit 2026 hosted several high-profile side events. A VIP dinner brought together more than 80 participants — family offices, financial-institution leaders and government representatives — at the Yacht Club de Monaco. An AI film festival ran alongside a 24-hour hackathon sponsored by Alibaba Cloud, challenging participants to produce a one-to-three-minute short film fully generated by AI.
The jury featured Anthony Bourached (Associate Professor in Machine Learning at University College London), Vincent Lowy (former head of ENS Louis-Lumière), Nicholas Shoolingin-Jordan (Series Director at Netflix) and Andrew McNamara (head of generative AI at Cinesite). Startup pitch sessions were held in the presence of investors including Draper University, CV VC Labs, funders.vc, Gini Capital and MonacoTech. The summit closed with a beach party on the Riviera seafront.
Sources
- Cryptoast — WAIB Summit Monaco 2026
- WAIB Summit Monaco — Official agenda
- Coinpedia — WAIB Summit Monaco profile
- Cointelegraph via TradingView — WAIB Summit 2026
This article is for informational and educational purposes only. It does not constitute investment advice. Do your own research (DYOR) before making any decision.
