TOP 20 MOST INFLUENTIAL MEN IN CRYPTO

Changpeng Zhao

Brian Armstrong

Brian is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world that also happens to offer a wide range of products and services for institutional investors. He was featured in the 2014 movie, “The Rise of Bitcoin”, and speaks frequently at conferences on the power of Bitcoin and cryptocurrency.

Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik is known as the godfather of Ethereum, and he’s one of the key programmer’s that’s driving development of the platform forward. This year, Vitalik began to focus on making ICOs safer as well – and his recently-released DAICO concept is beginning to gain traction as a more secure (and safe) way to run an ICO.

Tyler Winklevoss

Tyler is the Principal of Winklevoss Capital and co-founder and CEO of Gemini, a next-generation digital asset exchange. Winklevoss was the world’s first bitcoin billionaire, and this year he helped to launch the Gemini dollar, a stablecoin designed to provide liquidity to crypto traders.

Brad Garlinghouse

Brad is now the CEO of crypto payments startup Ripple, which launched its xCurrent international payment protocol earlier this year. He was previously the CEO of file-sharing startup Hightail, and he also an active angel investor, with more than 40 startup investments made to date.

Roger Ver

Roger was one of the earlier investors in the first crop of Bitcoin startups. He’s now heavily involved with Bitcoin Cash, a hard fork of the original Bitcoin protocol that is intended to be used as cash (while fixing some of the key performance issues that have plagued Bitcoin Core in the process).

Barry Silbert

Barry is the founder and CEO of the Digital Currency Group, a crypto incubator and investment fund that’s already been in operation for several years. In addition, he’s the CEO of Grayscale Investments, a digital currency investment fund that runs the Bitcoin Investment Trust, a private trust invested exclusively in Bitcoin.

Jihan Wu

Jihan is one of the co-founders of Bitmain, the world’s largest crypto mining company. With a net worth estimated at more than $2B, he’s one of the most influential members of the blockchain industry. Prior to Bitmain, Jihan earned an economics degree for his undergraduate studies at Peking University.

Michael Novogratz

Formerly a hedge fund manager with Fortress Investment Group, Michael is now the CEO of crypto investment firm Galaxy Investment Partners. Roughly 20% of Novogratz’s network is held in cryptocurrencies, and the famed investor is a noted “Bitcoin bull” – he previousuly predicted a price target of $20K for the cryptocurrency next year.

Adam Back

Adam is a renowned cryptographer and inventor best known for inventing hashcash, a proof of work system that is used by numerous email providers to combat spam. He’s now the CEO of Blockstream, a startup that’s focused on developing sidechains and other applications for the crypto ecosystem.

Charles Hoskinson

@iohk_charles

Charles is a serial entrepreneur in the crypto industry, having founded three crypto startups (IOHK, Invictus Innovations, and Ethereum) in the past several years. He is also involved in developing Cardano, a third-generation cryptocurrency launched last year.

 

Cameron Winklevoss

@winklevoss

One half of the dynamic Winklevoss brothers, Cameron is a Co-Founder and President of the Gemini Exchange, and he’s also a Principal at crypto investment fund Winklevoss Capital.

 

Pieter Wuille

@pwuille

Pieter is a renowned developer who focuses on Bitcoin Core, and he was instrumental in getting SegWit added to the protocol early on. He’s also the co-founder of crypto startup Blockstream, which incidentally helps provide continued funding for the development of Bitcoin Core.

 

Joseph Lubin

@ethereumJoseph

After co-founding Ethereum, Lubin then became the founder of ConsenSys, which works on blockchain infrastructure and software projects. In addition to setting up ConsenSys VC and the Ethereum Foundation, Lubin has become an active angel investor in the crypto space.

 

Nick Szabo

@NickSzabo4

A renowned cryptographer and computer scientist, Nick helped develop the entire concept of “smart contracts”, and was the inventor of Bit Gold – a predecessor to Bitcoin that was release in the late 1990s. Szabo continues to actively perform research in the crypto space.

 

Brendan Blumer

@brendanblumer

Brendan is the CEO of Block.one, the company behind EOS’s distributed ledge software. The Hong Kong-based entrepreneur raised more than $4B in funding for EOS’s ICO, and he’s now helping to build the EOS development community around the world.

 

Charlie Lee

@SatoshiLite

Former Coinbase employee Charlie Lee is perhaps best known for creating Litecoin, which is now one of the largest cryptocurrencies in the world today in terms of market cap. Lee now spends the majority of his time working with the Litecoin Foundation to drive adoption.

 

Peter Smith

@OneMorePeter

Peter is the CEO and co-founder of Blockchain, the world’s most popular crypto wallet. Earlier this year, Peter launched Blockchain Principal Strategies, an institutional platform that helps investors gain more exposure to cryptocurrency via an over-the-counter trading desk.

 

Juan Benet

@juanbenet

Juan is the founder and CEO of Protocol Labs, the company behind innovations like IPFS (a hypermedia protocol) and Filecoin (a crypto-driven file storage network). He’s a serial entrepreneur that has started up businesses in fields as diverse as mobile gaming and knowledge sharing.

 

Dr Craig S Wright

@ProfFaustus

Craig is a computer scientist and entrepreneur perhaps best known for his involvement as one of the key pioneers behind Bitcoin. He’s now one of the leaders of the Bitcoin SV protocol, created in late 2018.

John McAfee

@officialmcafee

John McAfee is a crypto investor and entrepreneur. His ventures range from serving as CEO of enterprise crypto startup Luxcore, to doing influencer marketing for emerging cryptocurrencies.