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!