Nikhil Sharma
Digital Assets Director, BlackRock
Nikhil Sharma moved from product and growth roles on J.P. Morgan's Onyx blockchain platform to BlackRock's Digital Assets team, where he oversees international initiatives across cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokenised assets.
Why the room needs them.
Nikhil Sharma, Director, Digital Assets at BlackRock, spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 on scaling the distribution layer for tokenised markets. He joined BlackRock in December 2025 from J.P. Morgan's blockchain unit, now Kinexys, where he was a Senior Product Manager and later Head of Growth for Onyx Digital Assets.
The full account.
Nikhil Sharma is a Director on the Digital Assets team at BlackRock, based in London. He announced the move in December 2025, writing that he would oversee the firm's international digital-assets initiatives from its London office. Speaker listings for Paris Blockchain Week in April 2026 and the Nordic Blockchain Conference in May 2026 carry the title Director, Digital Assets, and The Big Whale describes his remit as spanning cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokenised assets.
He came to BlackRock from J.P. Morgan, which he joined in 2019 as part of the blockchain product and strategy team that later launched Onyx by J.P. Morgan; by his own account he was employee number nine on the bank's blockchain programme. The Onyx Digital Assets platform was renamed Kinexys Digital Assets in November 2024. According to his Digital Assets Asia 2024 speaker page, he led development of two solutions on the platform from idea to market as a Senior Product Manager, and that year held the title Executive Director, Head of Growth, Onyx Digital Assets. Before J.P. Morgan he worked at SinoPac Securities Asia, structuring solutions for alternative investment funds.
He is one of the named inventors on US Patent 12,494,920, granted in December 2025 and assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank, which covers the use of digital identity frameworks to access and interact with decentralised applications. His co-authored papers include a 2023 report published by Bain & Company, "How Tokenization Can Fuel a $400 Billion Opportunity in Distributing Alternative Investments to Individuals", and "Project EPIC", a 2024 J.P. Morgan Kinexys study of on-chain enterprise privacy, identity and composability, written with Alexandra Prager and Keerthi Moudgal. He trained as an electronics and telecommunications engineer and holds an MBA from the University of Hong Kong and London Business School.
Sharma spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 as Director, Digital Assets at BlackRock. On Day 2, 3 June 2026, he took part in the panel "Scaling the Distribution Layer for Tokenised Markets" on the Hecto Main Stage, from 11:40 to 12:20, alongside Johann Kerbrat, Tom Zschach and Stani Kulechov. Henry Jim moderated the session.
What Nikhil believes about the next ten years.
Years of shipping.
What they have built, written, and backed.
Built
- Digital identity patentOne of the named inventors on US Patent 12,494,920, "Systems and methods for using digital identity frameworks and infrastructure to access and interact with decentralized applications", granted 9 December 2025 and assigned to JPMorgan Chase Bank.
- Onyx Digital Assets solutionsAs a Senior Product Manager, led development of two solutions on J.P. Morgan's Onyx Digital Assets platform from idea to market, according to his Digital Assets Asia 2024 speaker page.
- Tokenisation distribution reportCo-authored "How Tokenization Can Fuel a $400 Billion Opportunity in Distributing Alternative Investments to Individuals", a 2023 report published by Bain & Company.
- Project EPICCo-authored "Project EPIC: Fueling Tokenized Finance with On-Chain Enterprise Privacy, Identity, and Composability" (J.P. Morgan Kinexys, 2024) with Alexandra Prager and Keerthi Moudgal.
The next Proof of Talk is in Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi, 3–4 December 2026. Admission is by application, and the room is capped at 2,000.
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