These are the 10 most important and influential people in the world of cryptocurrencies. This list is based not only on current influence, but also on past possibilities and admiration.
Changpeng Zhao
CEO of Binance
Changpeng Zhao ranked third in the 2018 Forbes cryptocurrency rich list. Before that, he was the head of blockchain development and the chief technology officer of OK Coin. He also developed trading software at Bloomberg and the Tokyo Stock Exchange.
Throughout the year, Binance launched several new financial services for its clients, namely futures, margin trading, lending and mortgages. The company has also launched four fiat cryptocurrency platforms around the world including the United States, Singapore, Uganda and Australia. In April, the company launched Binance Chain, a proprietary black box blockchain, and also launched Binance Decentralized Exchange.
David Marcus
Head of Calibra at Facebook
Silicon Valley elite, an executive at PayPal and Facebook and crypto enthusiast from the first hour, David Marcus has made his way up the tech-ladder. That made him the perfect CEO for Facebook’s cryptocurrency project named Libra (now called Diem).
Although there are many rumors circulating around Facebook’s cryptocurrency project, the details did not surface until mid-June 2019, with the announcement of Libra, a cryptocurrency backed by reserve assets jointly maintained by consortiums of companies around the world . Because of concerns about Facebook’s user data records, its impact on world affairs, and the possible subversion of the US dollar’s status as a global reserve currency, the news immediately sparked opposition from the US government.
Marcus was summoned to the House Financial Services Committee to testify, answering questions about currency design, privacy measures, and other topics, and subtly answering a series of questions. Although the Libra testnet and Calibra wallet have been launched, the project has been shelved in view of the huge resistance and uncertainty of supervision.
Vitalik Buterin
Founder of Ethereum
The Russian programmer, who is only 26 years old, is known as the inventor of Ethereum and co-founder of Bitcoin Magazine. Vitalik, who has been associated with Bitcoin since 2011, can be considered one of its first followers. Ethereum has become the number two stable cryptocurrency today. But saying that ETH is only number two is to underestimate them. With a revolutionary smart contract protocol, ERC20 tokens, the launch of ETH2.0 and the Ethereum network in general, Ethereum has laid the foundation for many projects. Thanks to his open-mindedness and general presence on the network, Vitalik has become more of a representative of the cryptocurrency itself. With big plans to release ETH2.0 in 2021, next year will be a turning point for the young Russian.
PlanB
Creator of the Bitcoin Stock-to-Flow model
Little is known about PlanB, which is one of the most respected analysts in the cryptocurrency field. From social media to video interviews, he used pseudonyms to evade, and quantitative analysts spent several years researching and predicting Bitcoin’s price trends. He is from the Netherlands and came to Bitcoin with a legal and quantitative financial background. In addition to his now world-renowned Stock-to-Flow Bitcoin price model, PlanB also serves as an investment manager, adding that he is part of a team that handles a multi-billion-dollar balance sheet.
2021 will be an exciting year for mysterious analysts. But when it comes to public activity, that could be his last. At the end of 2020, as Bitcoin accelerates, he confirms that he plans to “darken” and disappear from the public when prices reach sufficiently high levels. In May 2020, PlanB proposed that the cutoff point for this to occur would be after BTC reaches six digits. By that point, he argued that the war would continue, claiming that the US dollar was under threat and the available supply of Bitcoin was declining rapidly. However, until then, more stock-to-flow updates are expected, and as in the previous year, the accuracy of the model can be astonishing.
Anthony ‘Pomp’ Pompliano
Co-founder and partner of Morgan Creek Digital
Anthony Pompliano is an American investor in cryptocurrency and hosts a successful podcast based around the subject which has had more than 20 million downloads. Pompliano is one of the biggest crypto influencers on Twitter, holding an audience of nearly 460,000 subscribers. As a major industry advocate, Pompliano is known for his pro-Bitcoin stance, predicting itn to outperform gold in market capitalization in less than a decade and break $400,000 in the long term. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree, double-majoring in economics and sociology. He also served as a sergeant in the United States Army between 2006 and 2012.