J.D. Salbego is a serial entrepreneur, Web3 industry veteran, strategic business leader, and Web3 BUIDLer for over nine years. He was previously founder and CEO of Moonstax, a next-gen digital assets platform frequently called the “Fireblocks for game businesses” backed by industry leading VCs and advisors. A familiar name in the Web3 communities, before Moonstax, he founded AnRKey X, a top Polygon GameFi studio with 5 x #1 NFT Sales on Rarible, $70M+ TVL in game tokens, and numerous industry top chart positions. He was one of the first to innovate GameFi back in 2020, coining the original name “DeFi Gaming” and launching the market with industry leaders like Polygon, Chainlink, CertiK, Conflux network, Crypto Blades, etc.
Aside from being a startup mentor of global renowned accelerator Techstars and others like Founders Institute and Block Dojo, J.D. is a weekly on-air contributor live from NYSE (New York Stock Exchange) trading floor on FintechTV Global covering the crypto and Web3 markets, and member of Cointelegraph’s Innovation Circle for Web3 Experts.
Over the course of his Web3 career as a serial entrepreneur, J.D. has also held numerous C-Suite executive positions, such as CEO of an Asia based digital asset exchange, leading the restructuring, go-to-market, and managing $150M+ ADTV, while securing MAS (Monatory Authority of Singapore) PSA exemption license, and Head of U.S. building out the market for an RWA/STO platform for Hong Kong based investment bank.
J.D. has advised and helped numerous Web3 and tech companies, including Google’s Startup Grind, a global startup platform with 3M entrepreneurs and operations across 400+ cities and 120+ countries. Along with advising companies, he’s worked with governments utilizing blockchain infrastructure to fuel economic growth, and organized blockchain conferences globally. In June of 2018 he co-organized one of the largest blockchain conference in the world in Tokyo (JBC2018), in partnership with the government, which was nationally televised with 15,000 attendees. Forbes and Business Insider linked J.D.’s work in Japan to boosting Japan’s economy with blockchain and crypto.
As an acclaimed global speaker, published author, and internationally-recognized subject matter expert, J.D. is regularly invited to host presentations at leading conferences and events worldwide (45+), such as the World Economic Forum, NFT.NYC, GeckoCon (CoinGecko), LA Blockchain Summit, London Blockchain Summit, Deloitte Blockchain, BlockShow, and Delta Summit. He has been a featured speaker alongside industry leaders such as Tim Draper, Roger Ver, Chang “CZ” Pengzhao, Robby Yung, Kristalina Georgieva (CEO of the World Bank), Gabby Dizon, Brock Pierce, Charles Hoskinson, Yoshitaka Kitao (CEO SBI Group), Bobby Lee and many more.
J.D. frequently gives media interviews, has been quoted by blockchain and crypto news sites, and previously was a featured contributor on the leading crypto news site Cointelegraph.com. His work has been featured in NASDAQ, NYSE, Bloomberg, Forbes, Business Insider, Yahoo, Entrepreneur, Cointelegraph, and Inc. He also appeared on the Acuvue “One Day” Celebrity Contest Campaign 2011, as a digital entrepreneur mentor, which aired on national U.S. TV to a 3M national audience. J.D. also hosts his own blog on his official site, consistently writing articles and reports on blockchain innovation, market trends and outlooks, and strategy.
Earlier in his pre-Web3 career spanning 12+ years, J.D. was an entrepreneur and executive with business interests focused on entertainment and media tech industries, working with some of the biggest global celebrity IP creators, venture funds, and executing national and international strategic partnerships and financing with Fortune 100 and 500 entertainment and media companies such as YouTube, Disney, Sony, Universal, WMG, NBC, and Shazam.
