Finance-Focused Blockchain Ault Targets South Korea, Sets Out Vision at CIS 2026

Interview with Roland McClean, head of global capital markets at Ault Capital Group

Layer-1 mainnet to debut this month

No token sale sets project apart

DEX and other dApps to roll out this year

“We will deepen institutional partnerships”

“The AULT blockchain is a network built specifically for financial markets. Most blockchains were built for technology. We built blockchain for finance.”

Roland McClean, head of global capital markets at Ault Capital Group, made the remarks in an April 13 interview with Bloomingbit, saying speculation and infrastructure are beginning to diverge across the global Web3 market.

“Blockchain’s identity is changing from a speculative casino to a clearing house,” he said. “Ault is a blockchain designed for that transition.”

McClean spoke with Bloomingbit ahead of the Crypto Investment Show, or CIS 2026, which is scheduled to be held in Seoul from April 17 to April 19. The investor-focused Web3 conference is hosted by South Korean digital-asset data platform Xangle, with Hanwha Investment & Securities serving as title sponsor. About 200 institutional investors and 5,000 retail investors are set to attend this year.

McClean said Ault is attending because South Korea is not a secondary market for the company, but a priority one. Korean investors understand not only blockchain’s potential, but also its limitations and failures, he said, making CIS the right venue for serious discussion about the next wave of innovation.

Ault Mainnet to Launch This Month

Ault Capital Group is the private-investment subsidiary of Hyperscale Data, a Nasdaq-listed U.S. company. The firm expanded into Web3 last year and began developing Ault, its Cosmos-based layer-1 blockchain. The project entered the testnet stage in February, and Ault Capital Group plans to launch the mainnet later this month.

The company’s top priority after launch will be to generate real trading demand, McClean said. Ault Capital Group also plans to participate as the first validator to give the network institution-grade credibility.

Ault drew attention in February when it launched its testnet without conducting a separate token sale. Blockchain projects typically hold token offerings, including ICOs, soon after unveiling a testnet.

McClean said the economic advantage of that decision ultimately comes down to trust. Without an ICO, there is no cohort of early investors preparing to sell tokens into the market. That means the token’s value is tied directly to the network’s utility, while also reducing regulatory risk as governments tighten oversight of token issuance.

DEX Planned in First Half as Ault Pursues ‘Financial Cloud’ Goal

Ault plans to launch a spot-based decentralized exchange in the first half of this year. The DEX will be tested this month and begin full operations next month, McClean said. Other layer-2 dApps are scheduled for a phased rollout from the second quarter through the third quarter.

Next year, the company plans to accelerate integration of its in-house artificial intelligence service, askROI, with existing products. It also plans to deepen institutional partnerships in custody, compliance and cross-border capital movement.

On its longer-term vision, McClean said Ault aims to become a “financial cloud.” Within 10 years, much of the divide between traditional finance and decentralized finance will disappear, he said, replaced by borderless, 24-hour and transparent programmable finance. Ault’s goal is to become the network that proves programmable finance can work on the basis of real capital, real transactions and real compliance.