Publication date: September 28, 2026 · Bitbase Research
Korea Blockchain Week 2026 runs from 29 September to 1 October at Walkerhill in Seoul, and the ninth edition arrives with three structural changes: the IMPACT name retired, a new presenting partner, and an invitation-only institutional day before the public conference.
What follows is limited to what had been published by 28 September, the day before the opening, mostly by the organiser and its partners: dates, venue, the published speaker list and agenda, ticketing, and the changes from last year. Where a number is a target rather than a result, it says so, because before an event most of the numbers published about it are targets.
For the event itself (who runs it, every edition since 2018 and how its attendance figures are counted), see Korea Blockchain Week: FactBlock's Conference Week in Seoul, Editions and Attendance.
When and where Korea Blockchain Week 2026 takes place
KBW2026 runs 29 September to 1 October 2026 at Walkerhill Hotels & Resorts in Seoul [1]. The organiser announced the dates on 13 January 2026 [6], and as of 28 September neither the dates nor the venue had changed.
The three days are two events with different doors. The first day, 29 September, is the Upbit Institutional Summit, a private, invitation-only summit held from 09:00 to 17:00 in Walker Hall at Grand Walkerhill Seoul and co-hosted by Upbit and FactBlock [4][9]. The organiser describes its participants as policymakers and regulators, global financial institutions, institutional investors and leaders from the digital asset and technology sectors. The following two days, 30 September and 1 October, are the KBW main conference for ticket holders. The organiser's September announcement framed KBW2026 around market structure, stablecoins, tokenised assets, regulation and the intersection of blockchain and artificial intelligence [9].
That split matters for reading any figure attached to the event. Korea Blockchain Week has been described at three scales: the full week, which takes in the main conference, official side events and city-wide gatherings; the main conference itself, two days; and single sessions. The official events calendar for 2026 runs from 26 September to 4 October, and besides the summit and the main conference it lists an invitation-only Speaker Reception on 30 September, an invitation-only Policy Plate on 1 October and a Closing Reception on 1 October [1]. Attendance figures for the event have also been published under three counting methods: cumulative person-times, in which someone attending both days counts twice; headcount; and passes sold or registrations. A number that does not say which scale and which method it uses cannot be compared with another.
The venue has not moved. The organiser's announcements placed KBW2024 and KBW2025 at Walkerhill Hotel & Resort as well [10][11], so 2026 is the third consecutive edition on the same complex.
Who is speaking at KBW2026
As of 28 September the organiser's speakers page listed 40 speakers and said that new speakers would be added until the conference [2]. The page gives no overall speaker count, and a list published before the opening is partial by design.
The organiser's eight speaker highlights are Balaji Srinivasan of The Network State, listed as appearing virtually; Jeff Yan, chief executive of Hyperliquid Labs; Arthur Hayes, chief investment officer of Maelstrom; Tom Lee, chairman of Bitmine; Joe Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and chairman and chief executive of MetaMask; Kyoungsuk Oh, chief executive of Upbit operator Dunamu; Patrick Witt, executive director of the White House Crypto Council; and Bo Hines, chief executive of Tether USA₮ [1].
The Upbit Institutional Summit has its own published list of 47 speakers [4]. It includes Patrick Witt; Jonathan Hurowitz, a senior adviser at the U.S. Department of the Treasury; Representative Bryan Steil of the U.S. House of Representatives, listed as appearing virtually; and Korean National Assembly members Sungwon Kim and Byoungdeok Min. The two lists overlap, and adding them together would produce a number the organiser has not published.
What is on the agenda
The main conference agenda is published [3]. Its published stages are the 0G Stage, the BitGo Stage, the Stable Stage and the FactBlock Theatre, with sessions listed as fireside chats, panels and keynotes. On the 0G Stage, the opening morning on 30 September runs through keynotes from FactBlock chief executive Andrew Park, Kyoungsuk Oh and Arthur Hayes, whose session is titled "FLOP: Bigger Than Bitcoin", followed by Jeff Yan on how Hyperliquid brought Wall Street to 24/7 trading, Tom Lee on "Ethereum's Wall Street Moment" and Joe Lubin on MetaMask. Later sessions include SungGuan Yun of the Bank of Korea at noon on the BitGo Stage, on digital currency and Korea's monetary system, former CFTC commissioner Brian Quintenz on what comes next for U.S. crypto markets, and a keynote from Byoungdeok Min titled "Korea's Digital Asset Policy Moment".
The summit's agenda is published separately [4]. After a keynote from Kyoungsuk Oh, it moves through Patrick Witt on "What Washington's Crypto Shift Means for the World", Jonathan Hurowitz on building America's stablecoin framework, a session with Brian Quintenz and Harry Jung on "The GENIUS Act's First Year: What's Next", Tom Lee and Joe Lubin on "Ethereum's Institutional Future", and a session titled "The Regulators Shaping Asia's Digital Asset Future". None of it is open to ticket holders.
The organiser's published targets for the event are 100+ sessions, 300+ speakers and 300+ side events [1]. Each is an expected figure published before the event, not an attendance number and not a result. The organiser has published no attendance target for 2026 [1][6][9].
The official companion app is FABLO, a Web3 rewards platform [1][12]. As of December 2025, Newstop Korea reported roughly 560,000 cumulative members and about 2.65 million cumulative task participations for it, both platform totals since launch rather than figures for any single edition.
How to attend
As of 28 September, both ticket types on the official ticketing page were sold out: the Last Minute Pass at $999 and the Student Pass at $99 [5]. The General pass at $699 listed in August no longer appears. Under the published refund schedule, no refunds are available after 28 September.
A pass covers the main conference on 30 September and 1 October. The published rules admit attendees aged 19 or over only, require the name on the ticket to match the holder's legal ID and do not allow proxy attendance [5]. Under the published schedule, pre-registration opens on the evening of 29 September without venue access, and doors open at 09:00 on both conference days. The Upbit Institutional Summit is by invitation and is not covered by either pass.
Everything else about attending, from flights and accommodation to access to individual side events, depends on details the organiser has not published. The official site lists preferential rates at the two Walkerhill hotels without publishing the rates themselves [1].
What is different about this edition
Three documented changes set 2026 apart from the editions before it, and a decision by Upbit's operator sits beside them.
The IMPACT name is gone. From 2021 through 2025 the main conference carried that name [13]. At KBW2025 the founder, Seonik Jeon, said the main conference would be called KBW rather than IMPACT from the following year, according to Financial News, a publication whose publisher is the event's founder [14]. The 2026 edition is officially titled KBW2026 with Upbit [7].
The title backer changed again. The co-host or title backer has moved from Hashed, a blockchain venture capital firm that co-hosted through 2024 [10], to Bithumb in 2025, according to the same Financial News report [14], and to Upbit, the 2026 Presenting Partner [7][8]. The organiser's April announcement said Upbit would operate a dedicated Upbit Zone within the main conference area [7]. The organiser's September partner announcement lists 0G and BRV as Official Conference Partners, Stable and Tria as Diamond Sponsors and BitGo as Official Institutional Sponsor [8]. BRV was also an Official Conference Partner in 2024 [10].
Upbit's own conference is not being held this year. Dunamu, which operates Upbit, is not holding UDC in 2026, the first break in eight years, and is instead sponsoring KBW2026 and concentrating on the Upbit Institutional Summit, BizWatch reported [15]. UDC remains Dunamu's own conference, which it says it plans to bring back [15].
The institutional programme now also has its own day. In 2024 the organiser introduced an Institutional Stage inside the main conference [10], and in 2025 an institutional stage was again one of the conference's stages, according to the same Financial News report [14]. In 2026 the organiser has added a separate, invitation-only summit on the day before the public conference, and it lists BitGo as Official Institutional Sponsor [4][8].
Sell-outs are the one point of comparison with earlier editions, and only a partial one. In 2023 the organiser capped ticket sales at 3,000 and stopped selling four days before the event [16]. In 2026 both ticket types were listed as sold out as of 28 September, but no sales figure or cap has been published, so the two cannot be compared by size.
Frequently asked questions
When exactly is KBW2026? It runs 29 September to 1 October 2026 at Walkerhill Hotels & Resorts in Seoul: the invitation-only Upbit Institutional Summit on 29 September and the main conference on 30 September and 1 October.
Can I still buy a ticket? As of 28 September both ticket types, the Last Minute Pass at $999 and the Student Pass at $99, were listed as sold out, and the published refund schedule allows no refunds after 28 September.
Is there a minimum age? Yes. The published ticketing rules admit attendees aged 19 or over only.
Why is it not called IMPACT this year? The IMPACT name ran from 2021 to 2025 and has been retired. From 2026 the main conference is called KBW.
How many people attend? Attendance figures for this event come in three counting methods at three scales, and figures that do not state both cannot be compared. For 2026 the organiser has published targets for sessions, speakers and side events, but no attendance target.
Is UDC happening in 2026? No. Dunamu is not holding UDC in 2026, the first break in eight years; it is sponsoring Korea Blockchain Week and concentrating on the Upbit Institutional Summit, which Upbit co-hosts with FactBlock.
Related reading
Other Bitbase articles on this topic:
- Consensus: CoinDesk's Crypto, Blockchain and AI Conference, Editions and Attendance
- ETHDenver: SporkDAO's Community-Owned Ethereum Conference, Editions and Attendance
- TOKEN2049 Singapore 2026: What to Expect, Dates, Speakers and Tickets
- From Pizza to Unit of Account: The Prehistory of Bitcoin Price Discovery
- What Is Double Spending in Crypto? The Problem Bitcoin Solved
References
[1] Korea Blockchain Week, official site and events calendar, accessed 28 September 2026. koreablockchainweek.com
[2] Korea Blockchain Week, 2026 speakers page, accessed 28 September 2026. koreablockchainweek.com
[3] Korea Blockchain Week, 2026 agenda page, accessed 28 September 2026. koreablockchainweek.com
[4] Korea Blockchain Week, Upbit Institutional Summit page, accessed 28 September 2026. koreablockchainweek.com
[5] Korea Blockchain Week, official ticketing page and ticketing FAQ, accessed 28 September 2026. tickets.koreablockchainweek.com
[6] FactBlock, "KBW 2026 Returns to Seoul September 29–October 1, Upbit Joins as Main Sponsor," press release, 13 January 2026. prnewswire.com
[7] FactBlock, "KBW Partners with Upbit to Launch as a Global Premium Conference," press release, April 2026. chainwire.org
[8] FactBlock, "KBW2026 Unveils Partner Lineup Featuring Global Digital Asset Leaders," press release, September 2026. chainwire.org
[9] FactBlock, "KBW2026 Brings Global Finance, Policy and Crypto Leaders to Seoul," press release, 14 September 2026. chainwire.org
[10] FactBlock, "Korea Blockchain Week 2024 Bolsters Its Flagship IMPACT Conference," press release, August 2024. u.today
[11] FactBlock, "Korea Blockchain Week 2025 Returns to Seoul in September as Asia's Premier Web3 Event," press release, March 2025. chainwire.org
[12] Newstop Korea, report on FactBlock and FABLO, December 2025. newstopkorea.com
[13] Edaily, report on KBW 2021 IMPACT, December 2021. edaily.co.kr
[14] Financial News, report on KBW2025, September 2025. fnnews.com
[15] BizWatch, report on Dunamu's decision not to hold UDC in 2026, August 2026. bizwatch.co.kr
[16] VentureSquare, report on Korea Blockchain Week 2023, September 2023. venturesquare.net
Disclaimer: This article is editorial coverage from Bitbase Research about an industry event, provided for information only. Bitbase is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by this event or its organizers. Attendance, speaker and sponsorship figures are as published by the organizers and have not been independently audited. Nothing here constitutes investment, trading, tax, or financial advice. Event details such as dates, venues and speaker line-ups can change, so refer to the official event sources for the latest information.
