The year 2021 was one of the most outstanding years for cryptocurrency. There have been several fluctuations since the beginning of 2022 that are caused by top cryptocurrency personalities. TechTrends has curated a list of the top 20 most influential people in crypto in 2022 for their impressive contributions to the growth of digital currencies.
2021 was indeed a magnificent year for the blockchain and cryptocurrency industry as crypto achieved many milestones. In 2022, cryptocurrency has fluctuated a number of times, with top crypto influencers sometimes being the reason behind it. Celebrities, tech giants, industry leaders as well as an artist back the use of digital currencies on their social media platforms. They became instrumental in fostering cryptocurrency’s widespread adoption. Some of them have even become billionaires by investing in the top two cryptos Bitcoin and Ethereum. In comparison with other tech influencers, crypto influencers have a stronger impact on the investor community. Let’s take a look at the top 10 most influential people in crypto in 2022.
Top 20 Most Influential People in Crypto 2022
The cryptocurrency world has thrived in a way that investors are cashing out and the community is becoming bigger. In addition, more people are embracing digital currencies than ever. While the crypto ecosystem is evolving, many influential and notable people continue to play a crucial role in its mainstream adoption. They also affect the reactions to cryptos. Now let’s jump into the most influential people in crypto that have exerted a great impact on the community.
Samuel Bankman-Fried (SBF)
Sam Bankman-Fried – the first on our list of the most influential people in crypto, is the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Alameda Research and FTX exchange. The 29-year-old has made a lot of contributions to the Crypto world. When it comes to the loving marriage between crypto and sports in the United States, he is one of the pioneers. His FTX exchange put pen to paper for a long-term partnership with the American professional basketball team Miami Heat. The club’s stadium was then renamed FTX Arena and during games, different crypto commercials are shown on the pitch screens. The official cryptocurrency exchange for Major League Baseball (MLB) is also FTX. It contributed to crypto’s move towards mainstream awareness.
Forbes ranking claims that Bankman-Fried is the richest 29-year-old billionaire in the world. His net worth is $22.5 billion, with his achievement as the richest young billionaire coming when FTX raised $450 million. the value of the company was then increased to an estimated $25 billion.
Michael Saylor
The founder, chairman, and Chief Executive Officer at MicroStrategy, Michael Saylor is also one of the most influential people in crypto. He played an important role in last year’s crypto industry and continues to have an impact on it. When he guided his company, MicroStrategy, to buy Bitcoin in August 2020 for the first time, he became a key pioneer in the institutional adoption of the crypto asset.
Saylor supported Bitcoin on his social media account, Twitter, and even invested in cryptos himself. He revealed that he holds 17,732 BTC worth over $832 million at the time of writing.
MicroStrategy has also not missed a chance to buy Bitcoin since its very first purchase. This enterprise analytics and mobility software company own 124,392 BTC worth $5.8 billion, making it one of the top 10 companies with the most bitcoin in 2022.
The 56-year-old also created Saylor Academy, a free online education platform, and said: “The Mobile Wave: How Mobile Intelligence Will Change Everything”.
Trung Nguyen
The CEO of Sky Mavis and Developer of Axie Infinity, Trung Nguyen, is also among the most influential people in crypto. Play-to-earn games have definitely gained popularity in 2021, courtesy of impressive success managed by gaming project Axie Infinity.
Although Nguyen objected to the use of blockchain in 2017, he created one of the most disruptive play-to-earn games that got off to a successful start. AXS token’s value has raised from $0.4 to $95.7 in 2021 because of the popularity of the game.
Sky Mavis has also been the center of attention for some notable investors, like the $150 million Series B funding round led by American venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).
Anatoly Yakovenko
Beyond a shadow of a doubt, one of the most successful blockchain projects of the year 2021 was Solana. It all came to reality because of the commitment the team had, with Anatoly Yakovenko leading them.
After the network congestion made some problems with Ethereum, decentralized application developers chose Solana as their home. After Solana enjoyed widespread adoption, its native token SOL increased. A $1000 investment in the token in January 2021 was worth $138,000 in September 2021, which was a huge success.
Based on reports from DeFi Llama, TVL or the total value locked on Solana is $11.41 billion. However, Yakovenko is confident that it has just started. During an interview with CryptoPotato, the Solana founder stated that there will be tremendous growth in the network in all ramifications, such as scalability, in the next five years.
Senator Cynthia Lummis
Even politicians became some of the most influential people in crypto. They were bullish last year as Senator Cynthia Lummis, who is representing Wyoming in the United States House of Senate, took advantage of every chance she got in the Bitcoin’s mainstream adoption.
Even before being elected as the Senator of Wyoming in November last year, she was a Bitcoin proponent for a long time. based on a report in October 2021, Lummis decided to increase her Bitcoin holding by between $50,000 and $100,000. She has always shown her support for the crypto asset while preparing to counter negative remarks made by the country’s politicians.
Lummis even replied to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s comments, asking the U.S. financial authorities to back the technology instead of rejecting it.
Bobby Ong
Bobby Ong is the co-founder and COO of Coingecko, which is a popular cryptocurrency data aggregator platform. Ong was one of the most important people in crypto in 2021.
Ong and TM Lee started the project as a two-man operation in 2014. By the year 2020, Coingecko had grown to a team of 16 employees and that number increased by 54% the next year.
During an interview with CryptoPotato, Ong said that the company’s purpose is to contribute to the mainstream adoption of cryptocurrencies.
“10 years from now, we foresee cryptocurrencies gaining mainstream adoption and blockchain being used by many applications in the background without users even realizing it,” he said.
Changpeng Zhao (CZ)
The founder and CEO of Binance do not need any introduction as his crucial role in the crypto industry cannot be overemphasized. Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, has been a key in the market’s different aspects, from funding new startups that would offer users a reliable platform for trading more than 700 crypto pairs.
The Investment Director of Binance, Chase Guo, said in December that the exchange’s VC unit Binance Labs worked on more than 100 crypto projects in about 25 countries since 2018.
Notwithstanding many countries working hard against crypto asset trading, CZ was able to prevent Binance from being sanctioned. The Binance CEO was ranked third on Forbes crypto-rich list in 2018. Prior to that, he was OK Coin’s head of blockchain development and the chief technology officer. Moreover, he worked on trading software at Bloomberg and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Binance launched many financial services in 2021, namely futures, margin trading, lending and mortgages. Four fiat cryptocurrency platforms were also launched by the company worldwide. CZ also launched Binance Chain, a proprietary black box blockchain, as well as Binance Decentralized Exchange in April.
Francis Suarez
The Mayor of Miami, Francis Suarez, is another most influential person in crypto. He had a major role in promoting Bitcoin adoption. He guided Miami to become a crypto-friendly city and build many initiatives attempting to persuade more people to adopt the biggest crypto in the world.
In February, he changed some of Miami’s treasury reserves to Bitcoin. Furthermore, he becomes the first politician in the U.S. to receive a salary in BTC. He even announced in an interview that he will give free bitcoins to Miami residents, aiming to expose them to the asset class.
Nayib Bukele
The President of El Salvador is another important person when it comes to having a great influence on crypto. Nayib Bukele’s name has now entered world history when he decides for his country to be the first to adopt Bitcoin as a legal tender.
However, his bullish actions did not stop there as El Salvador has been enjoying a run on a bitcoin buying spree, making its BTC reserves more at every opportunity on the way.
Notwithstanding the 20 Bitcoin schools that have been built in the country as well as a mining facility, Bukele has given his word of honor that the country will built a city powered by the biggest crypto in the world.
Elon Musk
Who is the most influential person in crypto? Well, Elon Musk may very well be a possible answer. He is an alpha influencer in the world of crypto. Musk is an entrepreneur and business magnate. In addition, he is the founder, CEO and Chief Engineer at SpaceX; investor, CEO and Product Architect of Tesla; founder of The Boring Company and co-founder of Neuralink and OpenAl. For more information on the billionaire, check out the article on “Elon Musk Biography” on TechTrends.
The 50-year-old played a crucial role in the volatility story in May 2021 and the ups and downs of cryptocurrency value. Currently, his favorite crypto is Dogecoin, but before that, he preferred Bitcoin, even for transactions and payments.
Vitalik Buterin
The 27-year-old is well-known for co-founding Ethereum as well as Bitcoin Magazine. Vitalik Buterin is one of the world’s youngest cryptocurrency billionaires. In addition, he is among the most influential people in crypto. The Russian programmer has been involved with Bitcoin since 2011 and is one of the first followers of digital currencies. His creation, Ethereum, is the second biggest cryptocurrency today. ETH has laid the foundation for many projects. Due to his open-mindedness and presence on the network, Buterin has been quite influential and become a representative of the cryptocurrency himself. You may ask: who is the most influential person in crypto? Vitalik Buterin is another possible answer to that question. Time Magazine even named him 2021’s most influential person in crypto.
David Marcus
David Marcus has pushed his way up the ladder of technology, being a Silicon Valley elite, an executive at PayPal and Facebook and crypto enthusiast. That resulted in him being the perfect CEO for Libra, now named Diem, Meta’s cryptocurrency project.
Although there are many speculations surrounding Meta’s crypto project, the detail only surfaced in mid-June 2019, when Libra was announced. It is a cryptocurrency backed by reserve assets jointly kept by consortiums of companies around the world.
Due to concerns over Meta’s user data records, its effect on world affairs and the potential subversion of the US dollar’s status as a worldwide reserve currency, the news received opposition from the country’s government.
Marcus was called to testify in the House Financial Services Committee, responding to questions regarding currency design, privacy measures and other subjects. Despite the launch of Libra testnet and Calibra wallet, the project has been laid aside due to resistance and uncertainty of supervision.
PlanB
PlanB has yet to be known by many people but he is one of the highly respected analysts in the field of cryptocurrency and has been quite influential. He spent many years conducting research and predicting Bitcoin’s price trends. Aside from his world-renowned Stock-to-Flow Bitcoin price model, PlanB is also like an investment manager. Moreover, he is a member of a team handling a multi-billion-dollar balance sheet.
Anthony Pompliano
The American investor in cryptocurrency is the co-founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital. He has a successful podcast that has had about 20 million downloads. Pompliano is one of the most influential people in crypto, with his Twitter account having 1.4 million followers. He is also well-known for his pro-Bitcoin stance, believing that it will outperform gold in market cap in a decade.
Barry Silbert
The founder and Chief Executive Officer of Digital Currency Group, the pivotal blockchain company which is the parent of CoinDesk, Grayscale, Genesis, Foundry and Luno, Barry Silbert, is another most influential person in crypto.
Before that, he was the founder and CEO of SecondMarket which was acquired by NASDAQ. Last year, Silbert continued to promote crypto adoption.
Read more: Top 10 Crypto Influencers on Social Media You Should Be Following in 2022
Jack Dorsey
The co-founder and CEO of Twitter as well as the founder and CEO of Square, the financial services company, Jack Dorsey has played an important role in Bitcoin adoption. In 2020, his company Square invested $50 million in Bitcoin and he believes that this currency is ‘probably the best’ on the internet.
His future plan is to establish Bluesky, which is a non-profit platform working on blockchain social media protocols.
Charles Hoskinson
He is the co-founder of Input-Output HK, IOHK, which is an industry working on blockchain and crypto research. It contributes to academic institutions, corporations and government agencies.
Charles Hoskinson is also a co-founder of Ethereum and Invictus Innovations. Moreover, he was the Founding Chairman of the Bitcoin Foundation, the educational committee, and the founder of Cryptocurrency Research Group.
Gavin Wood
Gavin Wood is President and Founder of Web 3.0 Foundation, you can read the article What Is Web 3.0: Everything You Need to Know about Web 3.0 on TechTrends. Developers are working on a complete decentralized web made with the help of independent blockchains. It will be used to exchange information and execute transactions.
Before this, he was the Ethereum co-founder, inventing its solid contract language. He also wrote the Yellow Paper, which was used to formally specify the first blockchain protocol.
Adam Back
Adam Back is yet another one on the list of the most influential people in crypto. He is the co-founder and CEO of Blockstream, which is a blockchain and Bitcoin technology company and Liquid creators. In addition, he is a cryptographer and created Hashcash. Some believe that he is Satoshi Nakamoto but he denied it.
Brian Armstrong
Last but not least on our list of the top 20 most influential people in crypto 2022 is Brian Armstrong. He is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, which is an open cryptocurrency trading platform and wallet.
Moreover, he is the co-founder of GiveCrypto, which is a platform for philanthropy that aims for cryptocurrency to be given to underprivileged people who are unable to access finance or investment chances otherwise.
Final Thoughts
Generally, influencers play a crucial role in fertilizing the ground for cryptocurrency’s growth. Since cryptocurrency is community-based and each community has knowledgeable leaders, who shape and guide people’s opinions in certain directions. The above influencers are shaping people’s views in the crypto industry. However, it may have its risk as some may be misleading and cause negative volatility.