10 most influential people in the crypto industry

We present the ranking of the most influential personalities in the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry.

In order toto answer the question: which of the members of the cryptocurrency community had the greatest impact on the industry in 2019-2020, we have compiled a rating of the 10 most suitable candidates.

1st place – Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance

Changpeng Zhao (or CZ) launched Binance in July 2017of the year. Since then, the exchange has become the largest in the world. Zhao also became a popular media personality, and his expression “funds are safu” (money is safe) became one of the most popular memes in the community. We recently published a full translation of an interview with Changpeng Zhao, in which he spoke about his vision of the future of the DeFi industry and shared his opinion on Ethereum 2.0. 

Changpeng Zhao is ranked 1st in the Cointelegraph Top 100 People ranking. 

2nd place – Kelly Loeffler, former CEO of Bakkt, US Senator

Loeffler became CEO of Bakkt after15 year career at Intercontinental Exchange – operator of large exchanges. She oversaw the launch of Bakkt, which, despite meager results at first, proved its importance for the entire cryptocurrency market.

By the end of 2019, she became the first female Republican to represent Georgia in the U.S. Congress, where she promotes innovation-friendly regulation.

3rd place – Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum

Programmer Vitalik Buterin is interested inBitcoin since 2011. Almost 10 years ago, he founded Bitcoin Magazine and has been one of the authors of articles for a long time. He is now known as the creator of Ethereum – a global blockchain network created to work with decentralized applications and smart contracts. Ethereum – the second largest blockchain platform by market capitalization after Bitcoin.

Today Vitalik is focused on finding scaling solutions for Ethereum, which will allow the network to serve a larger number of users.

4th place – Brian Armstrong, CEO Coinbase

Brian Armstrong founded Coinbase in 2012. In 2020, Coinbase is one of the most popular trading platforms with a capitalization of $1.6 billion. 

Although Armstrong is best known for creatingCoinbase, he is also a co-founder of the charity GiveCrypto, which has already raised over $ 4 million for people living below the poverty line.

5th place – Joseph Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum, founder of ConsenSys

Former Wall Street technologist Joseph Lubin becameone of the most influential people in the crypto and blockchain space. After leaving the post of COO at Ethereum, Lubin founded the “startup incubator” ConsenSys, which consists of various teams and projects that mainly develop solutions for the Ethereum blockchain.

6th place – Elizabeth Stark, CEO Lightning Labs

Elizabeth Stark – blockchain entrepreneur anddefender of the open internet. She developed programmable financial layers for the Lightning Network public beta, which was released in March 2018.

7th place – Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple

Since 2015 Garlinghouse is the generaldirector of Ripple and a member of the board of directors. Before heading Ripple, he was CEO of Hightail. He has also worked in senior management positions at Yahoo and AOL.

Garlinghouse is a major investor in firms such as Deffbot (AI development) and Wonolo. 

8th place – Justin Sun, Tron founder, Bittorrent CEO

Founded in Singapore in September 2017non-profit organization Tron Foundation. This organization was headed by Justin Sun. In three years, Tron has grown to become one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world. In 2018, Tron acquired the BitTorrent company. At the same time, a new native token of the platform – was launched. BTT. 

San– one of the most controversial personalities in the crypto space. He is known for his convoluted marketing strategies and signature “announcement announcements.”

9th place – Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square

Jack Dorsey – CEO of Twitter and PaymentsSquare company. Back in 2017, Dorsey stated that “blockchain – this is the next step in evolution.” He is also a major Bitcoin investor. Square recently invested $50 million in BTC, sparking its growth.

10th place – Michael Novogratz, CEO Galaxy Digital

Michael Novogratz – founder of Galaxy Digitaland co-founder of Galaxy Digital LP – cryptocurrency bank located in New York. Novogratz is a longtime supporter of Bitcoin. In 2017, he stated that at least 20% of his total funds are in Bitcoin and Ethereum. Novogratz is known for his optimistic forecasts, which rarely come true.

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