Hedera, Hashgraph and Council Members Among Future of Finance Awards 2026 Nominees

The Future of Finance Awards 2026 have shortlisted Hedera, Hashgraph and several Hedera Governing Council members across multiple categories, according to nominee lists published by the organiser. The ceremony will take place on 18 June at Plaisterers Hall in London, with DTCC, the US securities settlement utility, sponsoring the opening cocktail reception. The awards, run by Future of Finance Ltd, stand apart from most industry programmes by refusing submissions. Candidates are identified through editorial research and a quantitative analysis of publicly verifiable achievements: transactions, pilot deployments, new issuances, investments and acquisitions. Each criterion is weighted and totalled to produce a score that, in the organiser's words, "reflects material impact rather than market perception." The result is closer to a sector audit than to a marketing exercise.

In the Technology category, Hedera is one of four networks shortlisted for Best Blockchain for Mainstream Financial Services, alongside Canton Network/DAML, Hyperledger Besu and R3 Corda. The category covers blockchains positioned to underpin institutional financial infrastructure. Hashgraph, the firm that develops the Hedera network, is nominated for Best Financial Services Infrastructure Solution, alongside Fireblocks, IBM Hyperledger Fabric, Bitpanda Technology Solutions, Taurus SA and Zodia Custody.

Several members of the Hedera Governing Council, the consortium of enterprises that operate the network's validating nodes, also feature heavily. DBS Bank, the Singaporean lender, leads with eight nominations spanning Best Traditional Bank, Best Full-Service Custodian Bank Globally, Best Digital Asset Exchange Globally, Best Live Tokenised Deposit Issuer and Best Digital Bank for DLT-based Products. IBM appears alongside Hashgraph through Hyperledger Fabric. Chainlink Labs is nominated as both Best Oracle Provider and Best Tokenised Transfer Agent. UK asset manager abrdn is shortlisted for Best Digital Asset Fund Issuer in Europe. BitGo, the institutional custodian whose platform supports HBAR custody for regulated clients, also collected eight nominations, including Best Custodian Globally, Most Innovative Custodian, Best Custodian for Staking, Best Off-Exchange Settlement Platform and Best Regulated Stablecoin Issuer under the GENIUS Act.

The breadth of Hedera-linked nominations reflects the network's growing footprint in regulated financial infrastructure, an area that the awards single out as their core focus. The Technology shortlist also pits Hedera directly against Canton Network/DAML, a permissioned blockchain backed by JPMorgan and Goldman Sachs, alongside R3 Corda and Hyperledger Besu, in a category increasingly viewed as the proving ground for institutional blockchain adoption. Winners will be announced during the ceremony on 18 June, with attendees expected to include representatives from JPMorgan, HSBC, State Street, DekaBank, Standard Chartered and Lloyds Banking Group.