SALT (investment forum)

SALT was launched to strengthen dialogue among capital allocators and asset managers in the wake of the global financial crisis. After the 2008 market crash, Wall Street firms had canceled their Las Vegas conferences and SkyBridge itself was on the verge of bankruptcy when Anthony Scaramucci decided to hold a conference anyway.⁠[1][2]

The first SALT opened on May 13, 2009, at the Encore hotel in Las Vegas, with Michael Milken and Wesley Clark as keynote speakers and about 460 attendees.⁠[2]

In 2010 SALT moved to the Bellagio in Las Vegas, with former U.S. President Bill Clinton as a keynote speaker; attendance was capped at 1,500.⁠[2]

The 2011 conference was again held at the Bellagio, from Wednesday to Friday, produced by Vision Matrix, with between 1,750 and 1,800 attendees and speakers including George W. Bush. Its full name was the SkyBridge Alternatives Conference, also known as the SALT Conference. That year Scaramucci began holding one-on-one interviews with hedge fund managers at the event, starting with SAC Capital founder Steve CohenSteven A. CohenSteven A. Cohen is an American hedge fund manager and the founder of the investment firm Point72, where he is chairman, chief executive officer and co-chief investment officer; he is also chairman and chief executive officer of Major League Baseball’s New York Mets.Open the full entry.⁠[3][2]

SALT Asia was held at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore in 2012 and 2013.⁠[1][4]

In 2013 attendance at SALT peaked at 2,000. In 2014 Appaloosa Management founder David Tepper said at SALT that “the market is dangerous right now,” causing stocks to fall.⁠[2]

In 2017 Scaramucci was selling his stake in SkyBridge, but the deal had not closed by May, when SALT was held, and he served as the event’s emcee. Because the sale still had not gone through, the 2018 event was canceled.⁠[2]

After the sale was called off, SALT returned in 2019. Scaramucci said he was branching into other areas of finance such as venture capital and focusing SALT less on hedge funds and more on investment themes; that year’s program included panels on crypto and cannabis.⁠[2]

In 2021 SALT’s flagship event moved to New York. SALT New York 2021, an evolution of the SALT Conference held in Las Vegas for about a decade, drew 2,500 attendees and nearly 1,000 asset allocators and was the first event held at the new Javits Center Expansion; it used the iConnections platform to connect allocators, investment managers and entrepreneurs.⁠[1][4]

In April 2022 SALT hosted the inaugural Crypto Bahamas in partnership with the crypto exchange FTXFTXFTX was a cryptocurrency exchange founded in 2019 by Sam Bankman-Fried and Gary Wang that operated FTX.com, moved its headquarters from Hong Kong to the Bahamas in 2021 and was valued at $32 billion in January 2022. In November 2022 it filed for U.S. bankruptcy protection amid a liquidity crisis, and Bankman-Fried was later convicted of fraud and related charges. Its reorganization plan took effect in January 2025, after which the FTX Recovery Trust began paying creditors in stages.Open the full entry.⁠[4]

SALT New York 2022 took place September 12–14 at the Javits Center Expansion, and on November 14–16 SALT and iConnections held their first joint conference, SALT iConnections Asia, at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore.⁠[4][1]

On January 18, 2023, SALT and iConnections announced that SALT iConnections New York would take place May 16–18, 2023, at The Glasshouse in New York City, convening more than 1,000 alternative investment managers, asset allocators, entrepreneurs and policy experts.⁠[5]

On March 2–3, 2023, SALT partnered with Investopia on a conference at the Hilton Abu Dhabi Yas Island, its second conference in the Middle East; in November SALT iConnections Asia 2023 was held at Marina Bay Sands, SALT’s fifth event in Asia.⁠[6][1]

On December 12, 2023, SALT announced its 2024 slate: Investopia x SALT on February 28–29 at the St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort in Abu Dhabi; SALT iConnections New York on May 20–21 at The Glasshouse; a new event, the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium, on August 19–22 at the Four Seasons Resort Jackson Hole; and SALT iConnections Asia in November.⁠[7]

The Wyoming Blockchain Symposium was presented by KrakenKrakenKraken is a digital-asset trading platform founded in 2011 by Jesse Powell and Thanh Luu and launched for trading in 2013. As Payward’s flagship brand, it has expanded into spot and derivatives trading, equities, tokenized assets, custody and payments through jurisdiction-specific entities.Open the full entry in partnership with the University of Wyoming Center for Blockchain and Digital Innovation as a 250-person, invitation-only event. SALT Managing Director John Darsie said SALT’s 2023 events in New York, Abu Dhabi and Singapore had hosted more than 10,000 GP-LP meetings.⁠[7]

In 2025 SALT partnered with Penrose Partners and the Decentralized AI Society (DAIS) to launch the Bermuda Digital Finance Forum at the Hamilton Princess in Bermuda, held the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2025 at the Four Seasons Jackson Hole in August, and held SALT London 2025 at The Chancery Rosewood in London in November.⁠[1]

In February 2026 SALT and CoinDeskCoinDeskCoinDesk is a cryptocurrency media, events, index, and data company founded in 2013 and headquartered in New York. Its businesses include the CoinDesk news website, the annual crypto industry conference Consensus, and the CoinDesk Indices index business. In November 2023, the digital asset exchange Bullish acquired CoinDesk from Digital Currency Group, and CoinDesk has since operated as an independent subsidiary of Bullish.Open the full entry launched the Hong Kong Institutional Summit hosted by Consensus X SALT at the Grand Hyatt in Hong Kong; SALT also partnered with Penrose Partners on the second Bermuda Digital Finance Forum and held the Wyoming Blockchain Symposium 2026 at the Four Seasons Jackson Hole in August.⁠[1]

On October 14, 2026, SALT announced the speakers and agenda for the second SALT London, held November 3–4 at The Chancery Rosewood in Mayfair, London. Presented by PaywardPaywardPayward (Payward, Inc.) is the parent company of the cryptocurrency exchange Kraken, founded in July 2011 by Jesse Powell and others and incorporated in Wyoming, United States. Its flagship is Kraken, and its other businesses include the futures brokerage NinjaTrader, the tokenized equities platform xStocks and the index company CF Benchmarks; it serves more than 190 jurisdictions and has been led since October 2024 by co-CEOs Arjun Sethi and Dave Ripley.Open the full entry, the invitation-only event was to convene about 500 institutional asset allocators, asset managers, technology executives and public officials, with topics including digital financial markets, tokenization, emerging technologies, macroeconomic trends and the market impact of the U.S. midterm elections.⁠[8]

SALT describes itself as a global investment platform connecting institutional asset owners with asset managers and technology entrepreneurs, with a mission of “connecting investment capital with intellectual capital”; its audience ranges from sovereign wealth funds and government pensions to endowments, foundations, family offices and financial advisors. SALT now operates as a standalone entity separate from SkyBridge Capital.⁠[9]

Besides its annual conferences, SALT produces SALT Talks, a video and podcast series of conversations with investors and founders.⁠[10]

SALT’s senior leadership consists of Chairman Anthony Scaramucci, Co-Chairman and President AJ Scaramucci and Chief Executive Officer John Darsie. Darsie is also a partner and head of business development at SkyBridge Capital, which he joined in 2015.⁠[9][11]

SALT: Official website: https://www.salt.org/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

SkyBridge Capital: Official website: https://www.skybridge.com/ (opens in a new window).⁠[11]

X: Public account: https://x.com/SALTConference (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

LinkedInLinkedInLinkedIn is a social networking platform for professionals. It was founded in 2002 by Reid Hoffman and others, launched in 2003, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 2011; after Microsoft acquired it for approximately $26.2 billion in 2016, it became a wholly owned Microsoft subsidiary. Its revenue comes from membership subscriptions, advertising, and recruitment solutions.Open the full entry: Public profile: https://www.linkedin.com/company/salt-conference/ (opens in a new window).⁠[9]

YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is Google’s video-sharing and creator platform, founded in 2005 by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim and acquired by Google in 2006. Built around video uploading, viewing, and creator earnings, the platform has developed Shorts, YouTube Music, Premium, YouTube TV, and products for children, and is headquartered in San Bruno, California, United States.Open the full entry: Public channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCnhrPnlIOHxr9kviPgqq-g (opens in a new window).⁠[9]