The Cointelegraph team has scoured the deepest trenches of the blockchain world to find the most artistic, analytical and innovative out there to be featured in this comprehensive list of people and trends that shaped the industry in 2021 and will continue to drive it further in 2022.

2021 was a year like no other. With El Salvador making Bitcoin (BTC) legal tender, miners undergoing their great migration, nonfungible tokens (NFTs) breaking sales records and cryptocurrency prices surging to all-time highs and lows, it was one of the most eventful years in the history of blockchain.

DISCOVER COINTELEGRAPH’s TOP 100 IN CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN 2022

But behind all the great moves and events that transpired stood the people who worked on and contributed to the development of an industry that’s still only just over a decade old. Beyond the people (and maybe the animals — spoiler alert!) are the concepts and technologies that were brought to life, or have become more prominent, over the past year and are likely to continue developing as part of the industry into the future.

While not everyone will agree with the characters included on, or left off, the final list, it was conceived with a simple main criteria in mind: discovering those who made an impact in 2021 and are ultimately likely to have a significant influence on the direction of the industry in 2022.

The Top 100 profiles will be published daily in batches of 10, countdown-style, starting with #100 through #91 on Feb. 17. The full list of people and concepts that contributed to the development of the blockchain community — gathered together in a comprehensive and carefully researched, though slightly controversial, selection — will be released here: Cointelegraph’s Top 100 in 2022.