2023
THE COINTELEGRAPH TOP 100
Cointelegraph brings you our hand-picked list of the Top 100 influencers in crypto and blockchain
For the fourth consecutive year, the Cointelegraph team has thoughtfully crafted its list of the top-100 players in the crypto industry. This year’s Top 100 features the dashing heroes and nefarious villains of the crypto space. The 2023 edition considers their moves in 2022 and what might be in store for the year ahead. Our diverse team used its industry knowledge to comb through the many potential nominees and took the results of a community voting initiative into account for both the final list of personalities and their dedicated profiles.
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#1
Good Ol’ Bitcoin
Tick tock, next block
#2
Vitalik Buterin
Co-founder of Ethereum
Brave to change mid-flight
#3
Changpeng Zhao
Founder and CEO of Binance
Do as I say, not as I do!
#4
Privacy
My kingdom for privacy!
#5
Gavin Wood
Co-founder of Polkadot
Parachaining the Web3
#6
Yat Siu
Co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands
If GameFi had a prophet
#7
Stani Kulechov
Founder and CEO of Aave
For his work on decentralized free speech
#8
Crypto in Ukraine
Because Ukraine needs your help
#9
Eli Ben-Sasson
Co-founder and president of StarkWare
For making a Stark impact on scalability
#10
Alexey Pertsev
Developer for Tornado Cash
The poster child for decentralization, privacy and ownership
#11
Gary Gensler
Chair of the United States Securities and Exchange Commission
Something something “crypto,” something something “Wild West”
#12
Snoop Dogg
Rapper
Bringing the Crip Walk to crypto
#13
Sam Bankman-Fried and Caroline Ellison
Former CEOs of FTX and Alameda Research
The fastest $10 billion rug pull
#14
Michael Saylor
Executive chairman of MicroStrategy
The Bitcoin bull with electricity for eyes
#15
Joseph Lubin
CEO of Consensys
Decentralize and optimize
#16
Brian Armstrong
Co-founder and CEO of Coinbase
Back to basics
#17
Erik Voorhees
Founder and CEO of ShapeShift
How do you DAO?
#18
Zero-knowledge proofs
Just trust me on this
#19
Rostin Behnam
Chairman of the United States Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Keeping friends close...
#20
Jack Dorsey
Block head, co-founder and chairperson of Block
Smartest career pivot ever?
#21
Elon Musk and Crypto Twitter
Buyers remorse?
#22
Sam Altman
Co-founder and CEO of OpenAI
The man behind the machine
#23
Tom Emmer
United States Representative
Calling out the SEC
#24
Sandeep Nailwal
Co-founder of Polygon
Built something that lures IRL corporate partners and users
#25
Nicole Muniz
CEO of Yuga Labs
Making monkeys famous
#26
Barry Silbert
Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group
Trouble in crypto paradise
#27
Vasil Hard Fork
Harder, better, faster, stronger
#28
Soulbound Tokens
Achievement status pending
#29
The Open Network
I get knocked down, but I get up again!
#30
Sebastien Borget
Co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox
For fitting an entire world into a Sandbox
#31
Elizabeth Stark
Co-founder and CEO of Lightning Labs
Because Bitcoin just needs that little extra charge
#32
Cynthia Lummis
United States Senator
One of few voices for crypto in Congress
#33
Pavel Durov
Founder and CEO of Telegram
Supporting a ton of decentralized tools
#34
Paolo Ardoino
Chief technology officer of Bitfinex and Tether
Pears are back on the menu
#35
Steven Goldfeder
Co-founder and CEO of Offchain Labs
Nitro-charging Ethereum’s layer 2
#36
Mark Yusko
Founder, CEO and chief investment officer of Morgan Creek Capital Management
$250,000 Bitcoin. That’s it!
#37
Decentralized Exchanges
Picking up the pieces as centralized platforms collapse
#38
Peter McCormack
Host of What Bitcoin Did
Put your Bitcoin soccer (sorry, football) socks on
#39
Hayden Adams
Founder and CEO of Uniswap
Decentralizing venture capital
#40
Kris Marszalek
Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com
FUD be gone!
#41
Caitlin Long
Founder and CEO of Custodia Bank
Bringing crypto and traditional banking closer
#42
Neil Shen
Founding and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China
He’s got the Midas touch
#43
The Metaverse
Are we there yet?
#44
ZachXBT
On-chain researcher
The Sherlock Holmes of crypto
#45
Winklevoss Twins
Co-founders of Gemini
Prepare for Genesis trouble! And make it double!
#46
Yves La Rose
Founder and CEO of the EOS Network Foundation
The people’s choice
#47
Francis Suarez
Mayor of Miami
Keeping the city gates open for crypto
#48
Mike Novogratz
Founder and CEO of Galaxy Digital
Understanding the phrase “think before you ink”
#49
Jack Mallers
Founder and CEO of Strike
Will Lightning strike in 2023?
#50
Meltem Demirors
Chief strategy officer of CoinShares
Give it up for the real crypto queen
#51
Jay Hao
CEO of OKX
For showing us the proof
#52
Ray Youssef
Co-founder and CEO of Paxful
The Bitcoin in Africa maximalist
#53
Frank DeGods
Founder of DeGods and y00ts
Get doxed, got dosh
#54
Steven Vasilev
Co-founder and CEO of RTFKT
For stepping up the phygital NFT game
#55
Alexis Ohanian
Co-founder of Reddit
The fund never stops
#56
Analisa Torres
Judge for the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York
Her decisions are set to make a Ripple
#57
Epic Games
Getting GameFi the Victory Royale
#58
Staking
For helping delay global warming
#59
Zooko Wilcox-O’Hearn
Founder and CEO of Electric Coin Company
Keep that private
#60
Kieran Warwick
Co-founder of Illuvium
Insert coin to continue
#61
Jason Les
CEO of Riot Platforms
Stay calm and keep mining
#62
Raoul Pal
Co-founder and CEO of Real Vision
Helping investors see through the dust
#63
Nick Johnson
Founder and lead developer of Ethereum Name Service
You get a name! You get a name! You get a name!
#64
Nuseir Yassin
Host of Nas Daily
Showing us that a lot can be done in a minute
#65
Hardware Wallets
Enjoying free marketing in 2022
#66
Alexandre Dreyfus
CEO of Chiliz and Socios
Kicking crypto into the mainstream
#67
Central Bank of Nigeria
Reminding the world why we crypto
#68
Jeremy Allaire
Co-founder, chairman and CEO of Circle
Pushing the Circular economy
#69
Nayib Bukele
President of El Salvador
A fitting position for the president of El Salvador
#70
Sheila Warren
CEO of the Crypto Council for Innovation
A diamond in the regulatory rough
#71
Sunny Lu
Co-founder and CEO of the VeChain Foundation
Fighting carbon neutrality’s corner
#72
Adam Back
Co-founder and CEO of Blockstream
To the moon and Back on a satellite
#73
Jaime Leverton
CEO of Hut 8
You can’t lose what you don’t sell
#74
Cobie
Trader and influencer
Twitter profile pics as volatile as the market
#75
Alex Gluchowski
Co-founder and CEO of Matter Labs
Roll up, roll up! Behold the amazing snark!
#76
Cathie Wood
Founder, CEO and chief investment officer of ARK Invest
Coinbase stock? Yes, please!
#77
Pentoshi
Analyst
It’s not over until the fat penguin sings
#78
Rishi Sunak
Prime minister of the United Kingdom
Look at me. I’m the crypto captain now.
#79
Lazarus Group
Flying too close to Ronin’s sun
#80
Coin Bureau
The crypto apocalypse will be YouTubed
#81
Do Kwon
Co-founder and CEO of Terraform Labs
ReDeFining the meaning of “stable” coin
#82
Rune Christensen
Co-founder of MakerDAO
When will the U.S. dollar... just go Dai?
#83
The Crypto Dog
Influencer
The only pooch to pull off Aviators
#84
Gary Vaynerchuk
Co-founder and CEO of VaynerMedia
Shut up and take my NFTs!
#85
Wes Geisenberger
Vice president of sustainability and ESG at the HBAR Foundation
Was it ReFi or refinancing?
#86
Green Tokens
Proving them wrong
#87
Lisa Loud
Co-founder and CEO of Fluidefi
Supporting DeFi out Loud
#88
Mitchell Amador
Founder and CEO of Immunefi
Throwing in the white hat
#89
Keith Grossman
President of enterprise at MoonPay
MoonTime for crypto payments?
#90
Kimbal Musk
Founder of Big Green DAO
The Musk is greener on the other side
#91
Hany Rashwan
Co-founder and CEO of 21Shares
The SEC keeps swiping left on its ETFs
#92
Arthur Hayes
Co-founder and former CEO of BitMEX
Megabear unchained
#93
Artificial Intelligence
We asked ChatGPT to write this
#94
Ronghui Gu
Co-founder of CertiK
Bringing order to DeFi
#95
Trippy
Founder of Trippy Labs
Making NFTs instafamous
#96
Maria Sharapova
Tennis player
Game, set, NFT!
#97
19Keys
Entrepreneur and thought leader
A Web3 champion for the people
#98
Eugenia Kuyda
Co-founder and CEO of Replika
Undressing AI
#99
Su Zhu and Alex Mashinsky
Founders and former CEOs of Three Arrows Capital and Celsius
Zero points for the shot
#100
Digital Fashion
Oh wait, that’s hot!