Who Was Crypto's Most Influential in 2020? Vote Now

CoinDesk's Most Influential list highlights those who helped advance the crypto and blockchain industries, in spite of this year's tragedies.

AccessTimeIconOct 20, 2020 at 8:26 p.m. UTC
Updated Sep 14, 2021 at 10:12 a.m. UTC
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It’s fair to say that 2020 has not been a good year by most metrics. A pandemic raged worldwide, the global economy tanked and social divisions grew wider. There is no way to avoid this in a year-end retrospective.

Still, crypto has been on the up-and-up. It was a year of firsts. The U.S. Congress entertained the idea of a digital dollar for the first time. Ethereum will become the largest blockchain to completely reinvent itself. Bitcoin, for the first time, ended up on the balance sheets of multiple publicly traded corporations as a hedge against inflation

There’s work to be done and more barriers to break, but the financial and technological revolution underpinned by open-source, public blockchain technology is well on its way. We’ve seen the maturation of decentralized finance (plus plenty of food fights), the well regarded launch of Filecoin and astounding growth in the value and use of crypto-dollars. 

Every year, CoinDesk recognizes the “Most Influential” people working to expand cryptocurrency and blockchain’s reach. It’s a list of the 10 outsized individuals who have gone the furthest and done the most, as determined by our readers and editorial staff.

In this most unusual year, we need your help determining who should be named as Most Influential. Take a moment to check out a long list of the top contenders, as determined by CoinDesk editors and reporters, and cast a vote to help us determine a shortlist of 15. 

If your choice is not on the long list, nominate someone else in the second question. 

We try to feature fresh faces every year, though there are exceptions if repeated nominees have outdone themselves again. Here are all the previous winners: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014.

Who had the best year in crypto? Who was at the top of his or her game, and deserves recognition for their efforts and achievements? And most important, who did we miss?

Click here to vote for the Most Influential 2020.
Click here to vote for the Most Influential 2020.

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CoinDesk is an award-winning media outlet that covers the cryptocurrency industry. Its journalists abide by a strict set of editorial policies. In November 2023, CoinDesk was acquired by the Bullish group, owner of Bullish, a regulated, digital assets exchange. The Bullish group is majority-owned by Block.one; both companies have interests in a variety of blockchain and digital asset businesses and significant holdings of digital assets, including bitcoin. CoinDesk operates as an independent subsidiary with an editorial committee to protect journalistic independence. CoinDesk employees, including journalists, may receive options in the Bullish group as part of their compensation.