SpeakerSota Watanabe

Sota Watanabe
Startale
CEO
After an internship in Silicon Valley, and graduating as blockchain co-researcher at the University of Tokyo, I founded Stake Technologies in 2019, and became the founder of Astar Network. I’m also on the board of the Japan Blockchain Association (JBA), and strategic advisor for GMO Web3, Dentsu Web3, and Marui Group.

n 2022, Sota was recognized as being one of Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 and Forbes Japan 30 Under 30 in the technology category.

Astar Network, an application platform connecting different blockchains that can be used to build use cases such as DeFi and NFTs, has received funding and support from top Global funds such as Binance Labs, Coinbase Ventures, Polychain Capital, Ethereum Foundation, and Polkadot founder Gavin Wood.

As proponents of Web3, Stake Technologies' angel investors, such as East Ventures and former SONY CEO, late Nobuyuki Idei, have recorded 30x returns in 2 years, and Astar Network's early investors have seen 15x-30x returns in 1.5 years.

Astar Network’s market capitalization (Fully Diluted Value) is approximately $650M at the time of writing and $2.5B at the maximum.

Astar Network, as a non-profit organization, is aiming to become a DAO, and has now established Startale Labs, a joint-stock company.

Sota was awarded Person of the Year, and Astar Network was also selected as Product of the Year by JBA, the largest blockchain association in Japan, and is the first company in history to win two awards.

In December 2022, Sota was featured on the cover of Forbes Japan.

Sessions

2024/08/28
10:35AM - 11:20AM
bitFlyer Stage
JA
2024/08/28
5:45PM - 6:30PM
bitFlyer Stage
JA