CoinGape Unveils Jury for Global Onchain Awards 2026 as Institutional Leaders Take the Judging Bench

CoinGape has announced the names of the members of the jury judging the Global Onchain Awards 2026.

These members are executives from leading companies in the financial industry, namely Franklin Templeton, Kalshi, Nansen, and RedStone.

The jury’s main task is to assess the shortlisted companies and leaders. The winners will be announced at the closing stage of the Global Onchain Summit Singapore 2026.

Why the Jury Matters for This Edition

The purpose of the Global Onchain Awards is to recognize the leaders, companies and institutions that are ushering in the next era of crypto, the institutional era.

CoinGape had already announced that the closed jury will consist of executives from the banking, asset management, and digital custody sectors. And the announcement lives up to that promise.

The composition of the jury is important, especially since it mirrors the focus of the awards: recognizing people and platforms bringing TradFi infrastructure to onchain reality.

Meet the Jury

The Global Onchain Awards bring together four jurors that have already established their names on the institutional crypto front. Their focus is on tokenized funds, onchain data, regulated event contracts, and price oracles. Their presence gives the panel a practical view of what real execution looks like. Here are the members of the jury.

• Chetan Karkhanis, Senior Vice President, Franklin Templeton

Chetan Karkhanis is a senior vice president at Franklin Templeton, one of the world’s largest asset managers. Franklin Templeton’s presence at the Global Onchain Summit is significant since the firm has made an early move into tokenized funds, for example, BENJI.

Karkhanis is bringing his asset manager’s point of view to the jury, which is relevant to platforms focusing on tokenization and RWA.

• Andy Ross, Head of Institutional, Kalshi

Kalshi’s Head of Institutional, Andy Ross, is a recent addition to the CFTC-regulated prediction market’s leadership. Before this, he was part of Standard Chartered as Financial Markets UK Head and Global Head Prime Brokerage.

Prediction markets are one of the breakout sectors of 2026. Part of the reason is the institutional demand for event contracts and the regulated structure.

Therefore, Ross’s nuanced assessment is central to finding out which decentralized and centralized prediction market platforms win the prize.

• Hürcan Polat, Growth Lead, API & CLI, Nansen

Bringing a growth-based perspective to the panel is Hürcan Polat, Growth Lead, API & CLI at Nansen, an AI-powered blockchain analytics and onchain intelligence platform.

Polat’s focus is on growing the company’s API and MCP products. His inclusion was already announced in September. And his presence as one of the members highlights the need to assess the data-driven onchain traction of platforms instead of looking at headline claims.

• Marcin Kaźmierczak, Co-Founder, RedStone

RedStone’s Co-Founder Marcin Kaźmierczak is the fourth member of the jury. His role at a leading oracle provider is significant in the cryptocurrency industry. RedStone currently supports over 110 chains and over 1,300 assets. In December 2025, blockchain network Canton, with $6T in real-world assets, tapped RedStone for DeFi access.

With Kaźmierczak being one of the jury, platforms that focus on tokenization and institutional DeFi will get an institutional-level judgement.

What the Jury Will Evaluate

This year’s Global Onchain Awards received over 100 nominations in more than 10 categories. Among these categories are the Best Prediction Market Platform, Best Institutional DeFi Solution, Best Tokenized RWA Platform, Best Stablecoin Custodian, Digital Asset Bank of the Year, and the Onchain Leadership Award.

Once nominations were closed, voting followed. Each member of the jury has weighed the strengths of each platform with respect to the current needs of the institutional space. They have taken an evidence-based, multi-stage evaluation approach, ensuring that every platform is judged on merit when.

The jury is judging the platforms on three main factors: execution, adoption, and institutional readiness.

From Singapore to the Institutional Era

The Global Onchain Summit at Pullman Singapore Hill Street started on October 6th. The summit itself is a confluence of senior leaders across the crypto and traditional finance space, covering Web3, finance, blockchain and infrastructure. Their focus is to discuss institutional adoption, regulations and onchain markets.

CoinGape has a long track record of such awards. Previous programs have attracted over 300 projects and over 50,000 community participants in over 30 categories. This year, the focus is on high-quality institutional projects capable of bridging the gap that lies between traditional finance and onchain systems.