Philipp Sandner

Overview
Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner (approximately 1980-2024) was a German economist and academic and one of the most publicly visible European voices on blockchain, tokenization of assets, distributed-ledger technology, decentralized finance and the digital euro. He founded and led the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC) at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management from its inception in February 2017 until his death in January 2024 at the reported age of 43. He also co-founded a network of European digital-asset industry bodies including the German Blockchain Association (Bundesblock), the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA), the Digital Euro Association (DEA), the Multichain Asset Managers Association and the DLT Education Consortium (DEC).

Why this entity matters
Sandner is a T1 reference person entity for Startuprad.io's DACH FinTech, crypto and tokenization coverage for three reasons. First, the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center was, throughout his tenure, the most-cited German-language academic reference point on distributed-ledger technology, security-token regulation and central-bank digital currencies, and drove much of the technical policy translation that reached German-speaking founders, regulators and Mittelstand corporates between 2017 and 2023. Second, Sandner served as an adviser to the German federal government on cryptocurrency securities legislation (the electronic securities framework, eWpG) and was one of a small handful of expert voices routinely quoted by German-language business press on BaFin's crypto-custody licensing regime, the electronic-securities framework, and the European Central Bank's digital-euro programme. Third, the industry bodies he co-founded — most visibly the Digital Euro Association and ITSA — remain load-bearing institutions in the European digital-asset policy landscape well after his passing, which the DEA and the FSBC formally memorialised in public statements.

Career
Sandner completed a doctorate in economics and joined the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management as an academic with a research focus on intellectual property, innovation economics and, from the mid-2010s onward, cryptoasset markets, distributed-ledger technology, security-token infrastructure and central-bank digital currencies. In February 2017 he founded the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC), one of the earliest dedicated blockchain research centres attached to a European business school. Under his direction the FSBC produced applied research and industry white papers on tokenization, DeFi, digital identity, stablecoins and the digital euro; ran the DLT Talents, DeFi Talents and NFT Talents programmes with an explicit emphasis on training women for leadership in the digital-asset sector; and advised financial institutions, corporates and startups on their blockchain strategies. In parallel Sandner co-founded the Blockchain Bundesverband (German Blockchain Association); the International Token Standardization Association (ITSA); the Digital Euro Association (DEA), where he served as co-founder and board member; the Multichain Asset Managers Association; and the DLT Education Consortium (DEC). He wrote a regular column for Forbes at https://www.forbes.com/sites/philippsandner/ and published extensively on Medium at https://philippsandner.medium.com/about , taught executive-education modules on blockchain fundamentals and the digital euro, and was a frequent speaker at DACH FinTech, crypto and policy conferences including CfC St. Moritz. In 2018 the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung ranked him among its Top 30 economists in Germany. Sandner died in January 2024 at the reported age of 43; the Digital Euro Association and the FSBC published in-memoriam statements. Personal biography beyond these public professional sources is not independently verified in this profile.

Role in the DACH startup and technology ecosystem
Within the DACH ecosystem Sandner functioned as a connective node between three otherwise loosely coupled communities: academic economics, regulatory and policy work at BaFin, the Bundesbank and the Federal Ministry of Finance, and the operating startup and Mittelstand community building on crypto and DLT infrastructure. The FSBC's output translated the technical debates of 2017 to 2023 — proof-of-stake, layer-2 scaling, security-token issuance under the German electronic securities framework, on-chain identity, DeFi, stablecoins, and the European Central Bank's digital-euro design questions — into German-language material that policy-makers, board rooms and journalists could use. His public commentary made him a go-to expert voice used by Handelsblatt, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Manager Magazin and international outlets on German crypto policy questions. He mentored, advised or publicly endorsed a range of DACH crypto and tokenization startups across custody, security-token issuance, DeFi and stablecoin infrastructure — companies that appear in the Startuprad.io coverage archive include Amazing Blocks (asset tokenization) and Cashlink (securities tokenization), on both of which he provided public commentary.

Selected relationships and affiliations
Founder and Head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center (FSBC) at the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management (2017-2024). Co-founder and board member: Digital Euro Association (DEA). Co-founder: Blockchain Bundesverband (German Blockchain Association); International Token Standardization Association (ITSA); Multichain Asset Managers Association; DLT Education Consortium (DEC). Programme lead: DLT Talents; DeFi Talents; NFT Talents. Contributor: Forbes; Medium. Advisory: German federal government on the electronic securities framework (eWpG) and related crypto-asset regulation, per Startuprad.io coverage. Related Startuprad.io entities: https://www.startuprad.io/entities/frankfurt-school , https://www.startuprad.io/entities/mica .

Startuprad.io relevance
Sandner is a T1 reference person entity for Startuprad.io's DACH FinTech, tokenization and digital-euro clusters. The Wix tracking record attributes six tagged posts to him across founder-interview, tokenization-explainer and monthly-news formats, spanning the November 2018 German startup news cycle through the 2023 tokenization coverage anchored by Amazing Blocks and Cashlink. Sandner's entity record connects directly to the Frankfurt School and MiCA entity profiles and anchors Startuprad.io coverage of German security-token regulation, the digital euro and the DACH crypto policy debate.

Public source context
This profile draws on the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center pages at https://www.frankfurt-school.de/home/research/centres/blockchain , Sandner's Crunchbase person profile https://www.crunchbase.com/person/prof-dr-philipp-sandner , the English-language Wikipedia entry https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philipp_Sandner , the Digital Euro Association in-memoriam statement https://digital-euro-association.de/blog/in-memoriam-philipp-sandner , the Blockchain Bundesverband experts page https://bundesblock.de/en/experts/ , the CfC St. Moritz speaker profile https://cfc-stmoritz.com/profiles/prof-dr-philipp-sandner , his Forbes contributor page https://www.forbes.com/sites/philippsandner/ , and Startuprad.io's own coverage archive summarised in the coverage section below. Personal-biography claims not attached to a public professional source are not independently verified in this profile.

Startuprad.io coverage of Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner

Prof. Dr. Philipp Sandner appears in the following Startuprad.io interviews, news and analysis.

Amazing Blocks can tokenize Any Asset Legally
Published: 9 December 2020
Last updated: 9 May 2026
Coverage type: Interview
https://www.startuprad.io/post/amazing-blocks-can-tokenize-any-asset-legally

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