CoinDesk 2023 Top 50 Most Influential Annual List
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CoinDesk 2023 Top 50 Most Influential Annual List
Casey Rodarmor, the founder of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol, ranks first on this list.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsSource: CoinDesk
Translation: Karen, Foresight News
This week, CoinDesk released its 2023 Most Influential list, honoring individuals who shaped the digital asset and Web3 landscape in 2023.
Top 10 Most Influential of 2023
Casey Rodarmor, founder of the Bitcoin Ordinals protocol. Ordinals, seen as NFTs on Bitcoin, allow data to be inscribed onto the Bitcoin blockchain. Initially criticized by many Bitcoin purists, Ordinals sparked Bitcoin’s first major meme coin craze.
Ryan Selkis, founder and CEO of Messari, has spent the past two years building a political fundraising machine for the crypto industry ahead of the 2024 elections. He recently transferred this effort to the political action committee (PAC) Fairshake. An insider said the group has raised around $15 million. Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong said in October he personally donated $1 million to Fairshake and hopes the PAC can raise $50 million or more. Fairshake has already begun deploying funds—Politico reported in November that the PAC spent $1.2 million on TV ads for House candidates over recent months.
Jenny Johnson, CEO of Franklin Templeton, a $1.33 trillion asset manager, is leading her firm into the forefront of crypto. Franklin Templeton has joined giants like BlackRock and Fidelity in filing for a spot Bitcoin ETF in the U.S., offers clients exposure to digital assets, and operates validator nodes on multiple proof-of-stake blockchains including Ethereum, Solana, and Stellar.
Lido DAO democratized ETH staking and now dominates the space. But Lido DAO could either serve as Ethereum’s bulwark against centralized control—or accelerate its centralization.
Paolo Ardoino, CTO of Tether, is pushing to diversify the company’s investments. One of the most prolific contributors in crypto, Ardoino made 3,275 code contributions on GitHub this year (averaging 2–3 per day), and submitted 37,720 since 2017.
Jose Fernandez da Ponte, Senior Vice President and General Manager at PayPal, drove the launch of the payment giant’s dollar-pegged stablecoin PYUSD, aiming to bring more efficient internet-based payments to people worldwide. Fernandez da Ponte predicts “we’ll see stablecoins grow tenfold in assets over the next five years. We’re still early. No one has secured dominance or market share yet. We’ll also deploy on other protocols going forward. For us, scale and throughput are the most decisive factors.”
Gary Gensler, Chair of the U.S. SEC, is undoubtedly the most influential regulator or enforcement official. In 2023, the SEC achieved a partial victory (or suffered a partial loss, depending on perspective) in its case against Ripple. Regarding spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs), despite ongoing resistance, hopes for approval have never been higher—with expectations mounting for a decision as early as next month.
Brian Armstrong, head of what remains one of the few surviving major exchanges, faces significant regulatory hurdles. In June, the SEC filed a major lawsuit against Coinbase, accusing it of operating as an unregistered securities exchange, broker, and clearing agency. Despite this, Coinbase launched its own Layer 2 blockchain Base and a derivatives exchange. With a spot Bitcoin ETF expected in 2024—and Coinbase serving as the preferred partner for most applicants—it is positioning itself at the forefront of crypto’s next wave.
Sam Altman is reshaping the world. From ChatGPT to Worldcoin, Altman stands at the forefront of the latest technological wave with bold ambition. Recommended reading: The Creator of ChatGPT Has a Dream of a World Currency
Brad Garlinghouse, co-founder of Ripple, won a landmark legal battle that significantly influenced the future of crypto. On July 13, 2023, U.S. District Judge Analisa Torres ruled that while Ripple’s institutional sales of XRP constituted unregistered offers and sales of investment contracts, XRP itself did not meet the definition of a "contract, transaction, or scheme" under the Howey test.
CoinDesk 2023 Most Influential: Honorable Mentions (40)
Digital artist Refik Anadol, in collaboration with Brazil’s indigenous Yawanawa community, launched the Winds of Yawanawa NFT series, which generated 8,759 ETH in trading volume. His AI-generated video artwork “Unsupervised” was acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York as a permanent installation.
Rune Christensen, co-founder of MakerDAO, led the large-scale integration of real-world assets such as U.S. Treasuries onto the blockchain this year.
Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, is one of Wall Street’s biggest Bitcoin believers. BlackRock reignited interest in a spot Bitcoin ETF this year. Other traditional financial institutions—including Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, and VanEck—as well as crypto-native firms like Bitwise and Hashdex, followed suit by filing applications for their own Bitcoin ETFs.
Jordi Baylina, technical lead at Polygon, spearheaded the launch of Polygon zkEVM. A crypto OG, Baylina founded a white-hat group that recovered funds during the 2016 Ethereum DAO hack. He also created Hermez Network, a zero-knowledge rollup later acquired by Polygon in 2021.
Avery Ching: Co-founder and CTO of Aptos Labs.
Stefan Berger, a key EU legislator, led the development of the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and is currently working on the digital euro initiative.
Cuy Sheffield, Visa’s Head of Crypto: Since 2021, Visa and Circle have experimented with blockchain to improve cross-border payments. In Q3, Visa announced it would use Solana to send USDC to select merchants in a new pilot program.
Jesse Pollak leads Coinbase’s Layer 2 network, Base. After Base’s launch, other exchanges began following suit.
Karl Floersch is CEO of OP Labs, overseeing the development and rollout of the OP Stack.
Recommended reading: Is the Optimism Feast Coming? A Full Overview of OP Stack Ecosystem Projects
Lisa Neigut, a developer at Blockstream, has been working on Lightning v2 since 2019 and is preparing for its release by year-end.
Sergey Nazarov, co-founder of Chainlink, has helped the oracle platform facilitate over $9 trillion in transaction value across industries such as banking, DeFi, global trade, gaming, insurance, and more since 2022.
Jeremy Allaire, founder of Circle Internet Financial in 2013, is a heavyweight in crypto. Circle continues to push stablecoins like USDC into mainstream finance, promote global financial inclusion, and navigate the complex world of crypto regulation.
Mike Belshe, CEO of top-tier crypto custodian BitGo, closed a $100 million funding round in August at a $1.75 billion valuation.
Ria Bhutoria: Partner at Castle Island Ventures. Prior to joining, she focused on identifying potential Web3 investments.
Balaji Srinivasan, former CTO of Coinbase, placed a $1 million bet early in 2023 that the U.S. dollar was nearing collapse during the banking crisis.
Yat Siu, co-founder and Executive Director of Animoca Brands. By 2023, Animoca Brands’ portfolio had expanded to include 450 projects and brands.
Paul Sztorc, a Bitcoin developer and founder of Layer 2 Labs, proposed BIP 300, introducing a sidechain design that allows developers to build permissionlessly atop Bitcoin, add new features, and leverage Bitcoin’s massive hash power to secure the sidechain.
Racer, co-founder of friend.tech, the overnight sensation Web3 social platform.
Recommended reading: Foresight Ventures: Is friend.tech a 'SocialFi Revolution' or a 'Pump-and-Dump Gamble'?
Miguel Morel, CEO of blockchain analytics platform Arkham. Arkham’s Intel Exchange platform, which pays users to identify wallets—its so-called “dox-to-earn” program—sparked controversy.
Ogle: Has helped recover over $350 million from exploits in crypto protocols.
Caroline Ellison, former girlfriend of SBF and ex-CEO of Alameda Research, delivered shocking testimony during the fraud trial against SBF.
Recommended reading: On the Stand: Caroline Ellison’s Account of Sam, Alameda, and FTX
“Exposed: The Diary of SBF’s Ex-Girlfriend Caroline – Inside Stories with SBF and Alameda”
Pascal Gauthier, CEO of Ledger, launched a controversial seed recovery service this year.
Anatoly Yakovenko, co-founder of Solana Labs, led Solana’s comeback—SOL surged over 500% this year, and its DeFi and NFT ecosystems flourished.
Analisa Torres, the judge who gave Ripple and XRP hope. Her partial ruling in favor of Ripple injected confidence into the crypto industry.
Patrick McHenry, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services, stated after PayPal’s stablecoin announcement that stablecoins could become a pillar of 21st-century payment systems if issued under clear regulatory frameworks.
Richard Teng, Binance’s new CEO, is guiding Binance into a new era of compliance.
Hayden Adams, founder of Uniswap. In June, Uniswap announced V4, which will introduce customizable liquidity pools via “hooks,” native support for dynamic fees, limit orders on-chain, and TWAMM (Time-Weighted Average Market Maker) for breaking up large trades.
Recommended reading: Unveiling Uniswap v4: What Groundbreaking Features Are Coming?
Pacman’s NFT marketplace Blur disrupted OpenSea’s dominance. Last month, he launched Blast, a revenue-generating Layer 2 network, which attracted $700 million in total value locked within just two weeks.
Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Singapore maintains a balanced approach to crypto regulation. Under MAS’s proposed comprehensive framework for crypto service providers, companies offering digital payment token (DPT) services in Singapore must refrain from offering financing, margin trading, or trading incentives to prevent retail speculation.
Luca Schnetzler, CEO of the blue-chip Pudgy Penguins collection. Under Schnetzler’s leadership, Pudgy Penguins survived the crypto winter and became a “beacon of hope” in the digital collectibles space.
In April 2022, a group led by Luca Netz acquired control of the project and its royalties from Pudgy Penguins’ original four co-founders. In May 2023, Pudgy Penguins raised $9 million in a round led by 1kx, with participation from Big Brain Holdings, Kronos Research, and the founder of LayerZero Labs.
Additionally, Pudgy Penguins launched physical toys based on the Pudgy Penguin IP—Pudgy Toys. These debuted in 2,000 Walmart stores across the U.S. at the end of September and made their Canadian debut at Toys “R” Us stores in November.
Shytoshi Kusama, lead developer of Shiba Inu, and the SHIB community: With the launch of Shibarium, Shytoshi Kusama and the SHIB community have emerged as a force in DeFi and Web3. The Manny Pacquiao Foundation, led by the World Boxing Council champion, will use the Shibarium blockchain for fundraising and operational needs.
Antonio Juliano, CEO of dYdX, led the platform’s migration from Ethereum to Cosmos and the launch of dYdX Chain.
Stani Kulechov, founder and CEO of Avara, the software development firm behind Aave, upgraded the Aave lending protocol this year. Its open-source social media protocol Lens recently launched Lens V2 on the Polygon mainnet.
Recommended reading: Complete Guide to Lens V2: Composable Social Networking, Monetization, and Profile V2
Caroline Pham, Commissioner at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), proposed a time-bound pilot program to regulate crypto markets and tokenization.
Ron Faris, General Manager of Nike’s virtual studio, which focuses on deepening digital and virtual experiences with fans and customers.
Barry Silbert, CEO of Digital Currency Group (DCG), faced numerous lawsuits and challenges in 2023. In November, DCG sold CoinDesk to Bullish, an institutional digital asset exchange, after originally acquiring it for $500,000 in 2016.
Elizabeth Warren, often called Washington D.C.’s “chief crypto critic,” remains deeply skeptical of cryptocurrencies.
Martin Köppelmann: Co-founder of Gnosis Chain.
Julia Leung, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, positioning Hong Kong as a crypto hub.
Ian Allison (CoinDesk journalist) won the Gerald Loeb Award for Financial Reporting for his investigative reporting on Alameda Research’s balance sheet.
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