Bitcoin Korea Conference 2026: two days in Seoul on 7-8 November as the crypto tax delay is debated

The Bitcoin Korea Conference 2026, a bitcoin conference in Seoul now in its third edition, runs on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November. Day 1 is a single main stage at COEX in Gangnam; Day 2 moves to Myeongdong, with three rooms split between the Korea Federation of Banks and Community House Masil on the same street. Talks start at 13:00 Korea time (04:00 UTC) on 7 November and the last ones end at 18:00 KST (09:00 UTC) on 8 November. The site footer names the company behind it as Bitomun, registered in Daegu.

The timing is what makes it more than a community meetup. South Korea’s 22% tax on crypto gains is still written into law for 1 January 2027, and the presidential office and both main parties are now discussing a fourth delay. Forty minutes into the main-stage programme, a tax accountant takes the microphone on exactly that subject.

A bitcoin conference in Seoul built around Lightning and privacy

The Day 1 schedule is short. After an opening by the host, Spector, at 13:00, podcaster Stephan Livera talks about preparing for the quantum computing era at 13:10. Kang Jae-nam, co-CEO of MADE Tax & Accounting, follows at 13:40 with a keynote on crypto taxes in 2026 and tax-saving strategies for people who stack sats; her bio says she will also show a capital gains tax calculator she built. Adam Gibson, listed as an individual contributor and known for JoinMarket, takes 14:10 with offchain bitcoin games.

After a break, a 15:10 panel titled “Bitcoin in Korea: Where Are We Now?” brings together YouTuber Respect, developer Calvin Kim, Spector and Mineey of NonceLab. Daniel James, CEO of Wallet of Satoshi, speaks at 15:40 and Alex Li of the Human Rights Foundation covers central bank digital currencies at 16:10. At 17:10 a fireside chat on VPNs and internet freedom pairs Carl Dong of Obscura VPN with Livera. HOPE, founder of the cashback service Kopay, closes the day from 17:40 to 18:00, and an after party is listed from 18:30.

Three of those Day 1 slots go to sponsors. Wallet of Satoshi and the Human Rights Foundation are gold sponsors; Obscura VPN is a bronze sponsor, as is Fedi. The main media partner is Korea Economic TV.

Day 2: three rooms in Myeongdong from 09:40

Sunday has a separate Day 2 schedule, marked subject to change. It runs from 09:40 to 18:00 KST across KFB Hall, in the Federation of Banks building at 19 Myeongdong 11-gil, and the first and second floors of Community House Masil at number 14. The morning is a single room: Fabian Jahr opens Masil 1F with “CISA & Friends”, followed by speakers from India’s Bitshala and from Openswap on private atomic swaps, before a lunch break from 11:40 to 13:00.

From 13:00 the three rooms run in parallel. Tadge Dryja, who co-designed the Lightning Network, gives “Post Quantum Recovery” in KFB Hall at 13:30, a technical follow-up to Livera’s quantum talk of the day before. At 14:00 the same hall hosts a debate on self-custody against custodial storage between Respect and Billy Jo, listed as a bitcoin treasury company investor. Duncan Dean and Matthew Vuk of Second speak on Bark and Ark in the Masil rooms at 14:30 and 15:30, and Dan Gould of the Payjoin Foundation has the 16:30 slot on Masil 2F, opposite Scott Odell on privacy for bitcoin’s base layer.

The last half hour belongs to Piriya Sambandaraksa of Right Shift, on “orangepilling” a country from the bottom up, and to Luis Schwab on the Floresta node. Gio Galt of Tether on open mining, Nick Farrow of Frostsnap and Louis Ko of NonceLab, which runs Bitcoin Center Seoul, are also on the Sunday bill.

Speakers: 43 listed, “60+” promised

The home page promises “60+ Korean & Global Speakers”. The speakers page lists 43 names as of 27 October, and 42 of them have a slot on one of the two schedules. Shaun of Bitcoin House Malaysia is on the list without a time. No Korean regulator or government official is among the speakers.

The Lightning Market in Myeongdong

The other draw of Sunday is the Lightning Market, where visitors buy goods by scanning a QR code and paying in bitcoin over Lightning. Four vendors are named so far: BitKit with self-custody hardware such as SeedSigner devices, Bitscent with plaster aroma stones, Protocol Studio with silver rings engraved with genesis block data, and Bitcoinpills.com with collectibles. More sellers are to be announced. The page gives Myeongdong as the place but no opening hours.

Staff on site help newcomers install a wallet, and the FAQ suggests installing Wallet of Satoshi beforehand; it is one of the two gold sponsors. Over lunch, a classical trio plays in Masil 2F from 12:30 to 13:00, free for Day 2 ticket holders.

Tickets and prices as of 27 October

Prices on the tickets page are in won and exclude VAT. Only the free Student ticket was sold out on 27 October; the four paid tiers still had a “Get Tickets” button. On the General and Premium cards, the networking party is struck through and marked sold out. Euro amounts are Coindaro’s conversion at the ECB reference rate of 26 October (EUR 1 = KRW 1,482.72), rounded, before VAT.

General, Premium and VIP cover both days; Main Day is the 7 November ticket alone. The QR ticket arrives by e-mail after payment and is checked at the entrance. Refunds are full up to 30 days before the event and 50% up to 14 days before, so with 11 days to go a ticket bought now cannot be refunded, except on the day of purchase if cancelled before midnight. The site does not say which payment methods it accepts.

From 200 to 800 attendees, by the organiser’s count

The conference started in 2024 as a “Bitcoin Mini Conference” in Gangnam with eight speakers and about 200 attendees, according to the recap page. The 2025 edition, held over two days late in the year across Magok NSP Hall, SpaceB Yeonnam and Hongdae, drew more than 800 people according to the home page, which calls its Lightning Market Asia’s largest. One Korean outlet linked from the recap put Korean attendance above 98%. The “1000+ total attendees” on the site is the organiser’s cumulative claim, and none of these figures has been counted independently.

The event also anchors a “Bitcoin Korea Week” of side events, from a DMZ tour on 3 November to a 5 km run in memory of Hal Finney on the morning of 7 November, open without a conference ticket. Its closest neighbour is the bitcoin++ Seoul privacy edition on 5 and 6 November, a developer conference held at Community House Masil and listed as co-hosted with the Bitcoin Korea Conference.

Korea’s crypto tax delay frames the main-stage day

The tax at issue is 22% (20% income tax plus 2% local tax) on annual crypto gains above KRW 2.5 million. It was legislated in 2020 for 2022 and has been postponed three times, most recently in December 2024. On 16 October, Democratic Party lawmaker Park Min-gyu filed a bill tying the start date to Korea’s first exchange of crypto data under the OECD’s reporting framework, which would push it to 2029, Blockhead reported. People Power Party lawmakers want the tax scrapped or delayed by two to three years. The finance ministry met the five won exchanges on 20 October, as we covered at the time.

The government line has since moved. On 26 October, Cointelegraph, citing the Korean outlet Newsis, quoted a presidential office official: “We are discussing postponing the implementation of virtual asset taxation.” The report gives 2029 as the earliest year Korea could exchange such data with the United States. Until Parliament amends the Income Tax Act, the law still says 1 January 2027.

A separate rule lands first. Under the amended Foreign Exchange Transactions Act, from 3 December 2026 crypto operators must report to the Bank of Korea transfers between domestic and overseas platforms and between domestic platforms and personal wallets, daily by 11:00 the next business day, Cryptometer reported. Direct wallet-to-wallet transfers stay outside it. Our piece on Korea’s reporting of crypto sent abroad has the details.

What a European visitor should know

Seoul is a long-haul trip from Europe. A Main Day ticket comes to about €94 before VAT, and the site says talks by international speakers come with translation. For readers who prefer to stay closer to home, the same weekend has B-Only in Annecy, also bitcoin-only, from 7 to 9 November.

What is still unknown

Doors and registration times, the Lightning Market’s opening hours, room capacities and the exact dates of the 2025 edition are not published. Neither is an explanation for the gap between 43 listed speakers and the 60 promised. Check the official site before travelling: the Day 2 schedule is marked subject to change, and ticket availability can move before 7 November.