Introducing Most Influential 2023

It
was
a
year
of
retrenchment
and
transition
for
the
crypto
industry.
After
2022’s
scandals,
including
FTX,
Three
Arrows
and
Celsius,
asset
prices
had
gotten
crushed
and
the
industry
was
in
hunker-down
mode:
building,
retooling,
sharpening
up
compliance.
Regulators
went
on
a
warpath,
launching
major
investigations
against
Coinbase,
Binance,
Kraken
and
others.
Long-standing,
and
potentially
momentous,
legal
cases,
like
Ripple’s
with
the
SEC
over
the
sale
of
XRP,
reached
a
conclusion.

THIS
POST
IS
PART
OF
COINDESK’S
MOST
INFLUENTIAL
2023.



SEE
THE
FULL
LIST
HERE.

By
year-end,
the
industry’s
prospects
seemed
more
clear.
Sam
Bankman-Fried
was
found
guilty
of
massive
securities
fraud
in
November
and
everyone,
proponents
and
critics
alike,
was
ready
to
move
on.
The
industry
had
hopes
for
greater
regulatory
clarity
going
forward,
with
several
bills
on
Congress’s
agenda
and
MiCA’s
comprehensive
legislation
going
into
force
in
Europe,
covering
450
million
users.

At
the
time
of
writing,
bitcoin

(BTC)
has
more
than
doubled
in
price
since
this
time
last
year
and
many
other
cryptocurrencies
are
rising,
too.
TradFi
is
looking
at
digital
assets
ever
more
seriously,
getting
involved
with
staking
and
the
tokenization
of
real-world
assets
as
never
before.
With
spot
bitcoin
ETFs
likely
to
be
approved
early
next
year,
millions
more
people
are
set
to
join
crypto
markets
and
the
industry
has
finally,
properly,
joined
the
mainstream.

CoinDesk’s
“Most
Influential”
package
tells
the
story
of
the
year
in
crypto,
profiling
50
people
we
think
define
the
main
stories
and
themes.
It
features
a
lot
of
names
from
regulation,
lawmaking
and
policy-advocacy,
as
you
would
expect.
SEC
Chair

Gary
Gensler
is
in
our
top
10,
for
instance,
as
is

Ryan
Selkis,
the
Messari
CEO
who
became
a
leading
advocate
for
crypto
in
Washington,
D.C.,
this
year.

Also
in
the
top
10
are

Casey
Rodarmor,
the
creator
of
the
controversial
Ordinals
Theory,
which
brings
data
inscription
(and
digital
collectibles)
to
Bitcoin;
Coinbase
CEO

Brian
Armstrong,
who
launched
the
Base
layer
2
and
moved
strongly
in
derivatives;
and

Jose
Fernandez
da
Ponte,
who
led
fintech
powerhouse
PayPal’s
initiative
for
its
own
Ethereum-based
U.S.
dollar
stablecoin.
Similarly,

Paolo
Ardoino,
the
new
Tether
CEO,
gets
a
nod
for
his
resilience
in
leading
arguably
the
most
successful
crypto
(after
bitcoin),
despite
criticism
of
its
stablecoin
business.

The
rest
of
the
list
includes
names
from
across
the
wide
range
of
industry
sub-sectors,
from
NFTs
and
DeFi
to
hardware
and
central
bank
digital
currencies.
The
list
is
a
mix
of
familiar
names
(like
Ledger
CEO

Pascal
Gauthier)
and
new
faces
from
TradFi,
reflecting
the
increasing
convergence
of
the
two.

Larry
Fink,
the
BlackRock
CEO
and
chairman
who
once
dismissed
bitcoin,
gets
a
mention
because
his
company
is
now
looking
to
launch
a
bitcoin
ETF
along
with
other
major
names
from
Wall
Street.
Also
honored,
last
but
so
not
least,
is
CoinDesk’s
own

Ian
Allison,
who
broke
the
story
of
Bankman-Fried’s
Alameda
Research’s
dodgy
balance
sheet,
setting
off
the
collapse
of
FTX
and
SBF’s
trial
that
culminated
(jaw-droppingly)
in
November.
If
nobody
believed
it
before,
journalists
were
influencers
in
crypto
this
year.

CoinDesk
asked
10
leading
artists
to
create
10
pieces
of
original
artwork
for
the
series.
These
pieces
will
now
be
available
as
NFTs
during
an
auction
set
to
begin
after
12
p.m.
ET
(17:00
UTC)
on
Dec.
4.
It
will
run
for
24
hours
following
the
execution
of
the
first
bid
on
Transient
Labs’
sales
platform.
Part
of
the
proceeds
from
the
NFTs
will
go
to
The
Hunger
Project,
a
New
York
non-profit
that
works
to
reduce
hunger
around
the
world.
Check
out

all
the
art
here
and
make
your
bid.
It’s
the
10th
year
CoinDesk
has
been
proud
to
publish
its
“Most
Influential”
list,
our
annual
appraisal
of
what

moved
on
crypto
that
year.
Looking
back,
many
names
from
earlier
years
are
still
prominent
(Ethereum
co-founder
Vitalik
Buterin
has
made
three
appearances
on
the
list
as
has
prominent
crypto
intellectual
Balaji
Srinivasan).
Names
like
Blythe
Masters,
Theymos
and
Adam
Ludwin,
who
were
honored
in
2015
and
2016,
are
less
prominent
these
days.

We’re
aware
that
a
list
like
this
won’t
please
everyone.
There
are
many
names
who
might
have
deserved
to
be
on
this
year’s
roster
and
aren’t
–
for
which
we
are
sorry.
Most
Influential
is
meant,
above
all,
to
represent
industry
trends
and
themes
(and
the
people
associated
with
those
themes).
It
can
never
be
comprehensive
in
actually
tracking
brute
influence!
It’s
meant
more
as
a
snapshot,
and
it’s
definitely
not
a
ranking.
Outside
of
picking
the
top
10,
we
don’t
order
the
names;
they
appear
randomly,
more
or
less.

We
hope
you
enjoy
the
profiles
and
artwork
here
and
that
you
will
offer
feedback
on
the
choices
we
made.
Please
do
check
out
the
NFTs
and
make
a
bid:
the
artists
and
the
Hunger
Project
will
appreciate
your
generosity.