The Cointelegraph Top 100
2021
Welcome to the Cointelegraph Top 100 Notable People in Blockchain in 2021, selected by the editorial team at the world’s best-read crypto media outlet.
Our list this year has been determined by the choices that influenced our industry in 2020. While we may not agree with these choices, or endorse those who made them, these are the people who made a difference to the crypto industry in 2020 — and who will guide the direction of the sector in 2021.
Any Top 100 list will be defined as much by those who don’t appear, as by those who do. But whether your favorite futurists are included this year or not, we hope it provides a thought-provoking snapshot of the most notable people in crypto at the dawn of the age of mass adoption.
- 75 new entrants demonstrate the fast pace of the blockchain industry
- Only five of last year’s Top Ten, and ten of last year’s Top Twenty make the 2021 list
- 24% of our Top 50 in blockchain are women, up from 10% in 2020
All of us
Decentralizing the worldInvestor
Andre Cronje
Independent DeFi developer and founder of Yearn.finance
DeFi, Tech
Sam Bankman-Fried
Founder and CEO of Alameda Research and FTX
Exchanges
Michael Saylor
Founder, chairman and CEO of MicroStrategy
Advocate, Founder
Barry Silbert
Founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group
Founder, Investor
Hayden Adams
Founder of Uniswap
Exchanges
Juan Benet
Founder and CEO of Protocol Labs
Founder
Caitlin Long
Founder and CEO of Avanti Financial Group
Founder, Law & Politics
Kris Marszalek
Co-founder and CEO of Crypto.com
Exchanges, Founder, Payments
PlanB
Creator of the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow model
Markets
Anthony Pompliano
Co-founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital
Media; Data & Research
Vitalik Buterin
Co-founder of Ethereum
Developers, Founder, Tech
Brian Brooks
Former acting comptroller of the currency of the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency
Law & Politics
Jesse Powell
Co-founder and CEO of Kraken
Exchanges, Founder
Gavin Wood
Co-founder of Polkadot
Founder, Investor
Jack Dorsey
Co-founder and CEO of Twitter, co-founder, chairman and CEO of Square
Advocate, Founder, Payments
Edward Moncada
Co-founder of Blockfolio
Adoption
Ria Bhutoria
Director of research at Fidelity Digital Assets
Media, Data & Research
Gary Gensler
Chairman of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Law & Politics
Museum of Crypto Art
Virtual crypto art museum
Adoption
Paul Tudor Jones
Founder and chief investment officer of Tudor Investment Corporation
Investor
Kristin Smith
Executive director of the Blockchain Association
Adoption, Law & Politics
Xi Jinping
President of the People's Republic of China
Law & Politics
Sergey Nazarov
Co-founder and CEO of SmartContract, Co-founder of Chainlink
Founder, Tech
Hester Peirce
SEC commissioner
Law & Politics
Camila Russo
Founder of The Defiant and author of "The Infinite Machine"
Media; Data & Research
Robert Leshner
Founder and CEO of Compound Labs
DeFi
Pieter Wuille
Engineer at Chaincode Labs, Bitcoin Core developer, former co-founder and core engineer of Blockstream
Developers, Tech
Abigail Johnson
Chairman and CEO of Fidelity Investments
Investor
Bobby Ong
Co-founder and chief operating officer of CoinGecko
Media; Data & Research
Denelle Dixon
CEO and executive director of the Stellar Development Foundation
Adoption
Dan Schulman
President and CEO of PayPal
Advocate
Kain Warwick
Founder of Synthetix
DeFi
Akon
Musician
Advocate, Charity
Dawn Song
Co-founder and CEO of Oasis Labs
Founder, Tech
Changpeng Zhao
Founder and CEO of Binance
Exchanges, Founder
Dan Morehead
Founder, CEO and co-chief investment officer of Pantera Capital
Investor
Raoul Pal
Co-founder and CEO of Real Vision
Adoption, Investor, Markets
Samczsun
Security researcher
Tech
Anil Lulla
Co-founder and chief operating officer of Delphi Digital
Media; Data & Research
