Eddie Li is the Chief Executive Officer of AEON Protocol. His career has focused on product management and leadership across blockchain infrastructure, cryptocurrency payments, NFTs, and financial technology. ^[5]

Career

Li began his career at HSBC, where he worked in business systems from 2012 to 2015 in the Greater Vancouver area. He subsequently worked in business development at E-Link Entertainment from 2016 to 2018 and served as a director at the Blockchain Impact Institute from 2017 to 2020. During 2019 and 2020, he was a product manager focused on blockchain payments at JRR Group in Shanghai. Li joined Binance in 2020 as a senior product manager focused on fiat channels before becoming product team lead for NFTs in 2021. In that role, he worked on developing the Binance NFT trading platform. From December 2022 to December 2023, he served as a senior product manager at Chainlink Labs, where his responsibilities included Chainlink VRF and blockchain-agnostic proof-of-concept solutions connecting Chainlink with capital markets. Since December 2023, Li has served as CEO of AEON Protocol. His role at AEON has focused on developing cryptocurrency payment infrastructure spanning on-chain and off-chain transactions, including payment applications for merchants and AI agents. ^[1]

Presentation

Scaling AI with Crypto

At the Unchained Summit in July 2025, Li discussed the development of AEON as a crypto payment settlement layer designed to address fragmentation across blockchain networks. He noted that although crypto had reached roughly 200 million users, less than 2% were using it for payments, attributing the gap to fragmented infrastructure and usability challenges. AEON was presented as a consolidated settlement layer that allowed merchants to accept different crypto assets through exchanges, wallets, and fiat sources, with more than 3 million merchants in Southeast Asia reportedly supporting scan-to-pay transactions. Li also discussed extending the infrastructure to AI agents, which he argued could use crypto to overcome limitations associated with traditional fiat payment systems. The system was described as providing AI agents with wallets and incorporating identity verification, payment-intent checks, and audit trails before agents executed transactions on users' behalf. A demonstration showed an AI agent connecting to a wallet, processing a purchase, and completing a crypto payment without manual intervention, while Li outlined potential applications across e-commerce, transportation, delivery services, and AI platforms. ^[3]

Panels

Memecoin Trends

At Thailand Blockchain Week in September 2025, Li participated in a panel examining memecoin trends, with particular attention to community takeovers (CTOs) and the factors that influence their success. The discussion covered the appeal of community-led projects, including community participation, financial incentives, and endorsements from established industry platforms, while also addressing challenges such as sustainability, funding, leadership, and the potential influence of external stakeholders. Panelists discussed how platforms such as AEON, Yellow, and Mod could support memecoin ecosystems through payment infrastructure, market making, community engagement, and user acquisition across different regions. The panel concluded that memecoins could evolve through fairer launches, stronger community involvement, and greater integration of utility and entertainment while retaining their cultural and community-driven characteristics. ^[4]