Digital Asset Summit (DAS)

DAS is the one US conference where sovereign wealth funds, pensions, and endowments actually outnumber crypto-native attendees. Blockworks screens for qualifying allocators and lets them in free — a self-selecting mechanism that keeps the room at $4.2T+ AUM. If you're building tokenized products that need institutional distribution, this is the most efficient three days in your calendar to meet the people writing checks.

Programming skews practical over theoretical: tokenization infrastructure in production, stablecoin regulatory frameworks, ETF mechanics, and institutional custody. Don't expect deep DeFi protocol design — that's what Permissionless is for. DAS is where you pitch the pension fund CIO, not the Solidity dev. Side events during the week are where follow-up meetings happen, so budget an extra day.

Held at a Manhattan venue with easy Midtown access. Tickets run ~$1,800, which filters out casual attendees. The Blockworks media ecosystem (Empire, 0xResearch podcasts) amplifies speakers well beyond the room — a talk here compounds. DAS also runs London (Oct) and UAE (Dec) editions, but NYC is the flagship.