Michael Terpin is founder and CEO of Transform Capital, his personal family office vehicle for investments in blockchain and real estate, and its sister companies, Transform Ventures, an incubator/accelerator for early stage blockchain companies, and Transform Studios, a Bermuda blockchain incubator. In March 2023, Terpin invested in the parent company of Alpha Sigma Fund to create Alpha Transform Holdings, which announced two new funds with $100 million AUM. Terpin also founded and remains chairman of the largest advisory/marketing firm in the cryptocurrency sector, Transform Group, representing more than half the market capitalization of the cryptocurrency sector, excluding bitcoin. He is most known for the high-profile launches of Augur, Bancor, Ethereum, Gnosis, Mastercoin, Neo, Tether and WAX, as well as marketing of exchanges including Bittrex, Kraken and OKex. He also started CoinAgenda, the oldest continually operating conference series in the cryptocurrency sector, in 2014, running high-end investor conferences in the US, Europe, Caribbean, Dubai and Asia. Terpin co-founded BitAngels, the world’s first angel network for digital currency startups, in May, 2013, which has expanded to 25 city chapters. He is also a general partner in Tradery Capital, an algorithmic trading fund for digital assets; a general partner in Tradecraft, a market neutral liquid venture fund; an LP and senior advisor to Alphabit Fund, a leading international digital currency fund; and an LP at OP Crypto, one of the leading Asian cryptocurrency venture capital funds. He also co-founded and profitably exited the Dapps Fund, one of the first cryptocurrency venture funds, in March, 2014. Additionally, Terpin is chairman and co-founder of First Block, a collection of vertical market newswires, including Blockchain Wire , investor services and NFT properties. Previously, Terpin founded Marketwire (now Globe Newswire), one of the world’s largest company newswires, which was acquired in 2006, later sold to NASDAQ for $200 million, and ultimately to Intrado Digital Media, a division of Apollo Global Management (NYSE: APO). He also co-founded Direct IPO, one of the earliest equity crowdfunding companies, in 1996. Most recently, Terpin co-founded OpenCarbon, the first enterprise NFT marketplace for carbon credits, which debuted at the 2022 United Nations General Assembly Climate Week. A pioneer in new use cases for NFTs, Terpin also created the SIM Dogs with famed pop artist Andre Miripolsky to create visibility and additional funding for his multi-year legal fight against AT&T for its negligence in allowing criminal gangs to bribe its store representatives and steal identities, leading to the loss of $24 million in cryptocurrency. Terpin previously founded and sold The Terpin Group, which represented many of the early Internet leaders, including America Online, Earthlink, Match.com and the Motley Fool. The firm is now part of FTI Consulting (NYSE: FCN). Terpin holds an MFA from SUNY at Buffalo and dual BA in journalism and English from Syracuse University, where he serves on the board of advisors at the top-ranked Newhouse School of Public Communications. Terpin lives with his wife, Maxine, and toy poodle in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he received the first Act 22 tax decree granted to a blockchain industry investor and has widely been credited with being the father of the Puerto Rico blockchain migration (now more than 700 investors and entrepreneurs in seven years). He also co-founded the Caribbean Blockchain Association with industry leaders Gabriel Abed and Roger Ver.