Rhett Mankind: Casey Rodarmor 'Wasn't Just Another Elusive Figure'
The artist made an NFT of the Ordinals protocol creator for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:43 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
Feature
Presenting CoinDesk's Most Influential 2023
Fifty people who defined the year in crypto.
Nov 30, 2023 at 6:29 p.m. UTC
Updated Dec 4, 2023 at 9:43 p.m. UTC:format(webp)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/coindesk/RE2EVW6ABVF6LI2HWKKAJGGRCM.png)
Nov 30, 2023 at 6:29 p.m. UTC
Updated Dec 4, 2023 at 9:43 p.m. UTCPresenting CoinDesk's Most Influential 2023
Fifty people who defined the year in crypto.
What to Know
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CoinDesk's Most Influential recognizes the people, who, for the better, and sometimes the worse, defined the year in digital assets and Web3. There are 10 top honorees who made an outsized impact, and 40 more people who were only a little less influential. For 10 of the entrees, we asked select digital artists to create NFTs of the honorees.
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The auction will begin on Monday, Dec. 4, at 12 p.m. ET (17:00 UTC) and ends 24 hours after the first bid is placed. Holders of a Most Influential NFT will receive a Pro Pass ticket to Consensus 2024 in Austin, Texas.
CoinDesk's Most Influential 2023: Top 10
The following ten names are recognized for their exceptional impact on the world of crypto in 2023.
Casey Rodarmor
His "Ordinals Theory," allowing data inscription on Bitcoin, generated a backlash from Bit...
Ryan Selkis
The Messari CEO built a political fundraising machine for crypto that's ready to sway elec...
Jenny Johnson
The $1.33 trillion asset manager was viewed as old-fashioned, but its CEO is at the forefr...
Lido DAO
Lido has become a victim of its own success, attracting criticism as its share of staked e...
Paolo Ardoino
The newly promoted CEO of Tether is looking to diversify the firm's investments after a ba...
Jose Fernandez da Ponte
PayPal debuted its own Ethereum-based USD stablecoin this year, offering serious competiti...
Gary Gensler
No regulator or law enforcement official had as much influence on crypto this year. But is...
Brian Armstrong
With CZ gone at Binance, and SBF set for prison, Brian Armstrong is the biggest big gun st...
Sam Altman
From ChatGPT to Worldcoin, Sam Altman changed everything in 2023.
Brad Garlinghouse
Ripple's CEO emerged triumphant this year in legal cases with big implications for crypto'...
Portrait of Brad Garlinghouse in the 2023 Crypto Winter
NFT by La Vaun
View SaleAuction begins Dec. 4, 12:00pm ET (17:00 UTC)CoinDesk's Most Influential 2023: Honorable 40
The “honorable 40″ (listed below the top 10) are recognized for their ongoing work. We’ll roll out more profiles and interviews over the course of this week.
Refik AnadolDigital artist Refik Anadol’s creatively sculpted imaginations generated wonder and discus...
Rune ChristensenThe co-founder of MakerDAO says his biggest achievement this year was bringing real-world...
Larry FinkBlackRock reignited interest in bitcoin ETFs this year, in part driven by CEO Fink’s stron...
Jordi BaylinaOne of Ethereum’s biggest scalability layers, Polygon, is at the forefront of a new tech t...
Avery ChingWith hundreds of millions at stake, Avery Ching, co-founder of one of the year's most-talk...
Stefan BergerStefan Berger steered through the European Union’s world-leading Markets in Crypto Assets...
Cuy SheffieldPerhaps more than at any other TradFi firm, Visa’s crypto unit under Sheffield has been ru...
Jesse PollakCoinbase’s Layer 2 blockchain, which launched this year, helps the exchange to scale and r...
No finer place for sure, everything’s waiting for you.
NFT by Rebecca Rose
View SaleAuction begins Dec. 4, 12:00pm ET (17:00 UTC)
Karl FloerschThe CEO of OP Labs helped create a set of tools that let developers build their own layer-...
Lisa NeigutThe Blockstream developer has been working on what she calls “Lightning v2” since 2019, an...
Sergey NazarovChainlink is where digital assets meet the real world, and Nazarov is predicting TradFi an...
Jeremy AllaireCircle continued to build out the USDC stablecoin network, spreading access and inclusion...
Mike BelsheBitGo was one of the few crypto companies to raise capital in a depressed market, and even...
Ria BhutoriaA partner at Castle Island Ventures, Bhutoria has produced some of the smartest analysis i...
Balaji SrinivasanSrinivasan bet $1 million the U.S. dollar would collapse (and lost), and evangelized his i...
Yat SiuWeb3 gaming powerhouse Animoca Brands isn’t playing around; it takes its work with governm...
Paul SztorcThe developer’s proposal (BIP 300) for “Drive Chains” (sidechains) on Bitcoin – meant to a...
Miguel MorelArkham’s Intel Exchange, which pays people to help identify wallets, caused an uproar over...
OgleHacks happen a lot in crypto. So, Ogle has professionalized asset recovery for the victims...
Caroline EllisonThe former Alameda Research CEO gave damning testimony in the fraud trial of her former bo...
Pascal GauthierCrypto wallet company Ledger created a controversial seed recovery service, something newb...
Anatoly YakovenkoWith a rocketing token and tech improvements on the horizon, the Solana community – rallie...
Judge Analisa TorresThe U.S. District judge's partial ruling in favor of Ripple regarding XRP could create a p...
Patrick McHenryThe bowtied chairman of the House Financial Services Committee has shown persistence in th...
Richard TengWith big shoes to fill, Teng, the new CEO of Binance is tasked with cleaning up the reputa...
Hayden AdamsUniswap, the first decentralized crypto exchange of its kind, was Adams’ first and greates...
Ravi Menon"DigiFT is the first exchange with an automatic market making mechanism to have been admit...
Luca SchnetzlerWhile much of the NFT market was taking beatings, the Pudgy Penguins CEO drove his brand f...
Shytoshi Kusama and the SHIB Community'Description' For tackling climate change by giving every homeowner the opportunity to ele...
Antonio JulianoJuliano’s dYdX switched from Ethereum to Cosmos in one of the year’s biggest blockchain de...
Stani KulechovWith upgrades to the Aave lending/borrowing protocol and Lens, an open-source social media...
Caroline PhamThe CFTC commissioner, in a year marked by an aggressive, sometimes arbitrary regulatory e...
Ron FarisAs many corporations shied away from blockchain-powered initiatives this year, Nike has be...
Barry SilbertThe former owner of CoinDesk faced a slew of lawsuits and complications in 2023, but by ye...
Elizabeth WarrenThe U.S. Senator from Massachusetts is skeptical of crypto. It's a position she leaned int...
Martin KöppelmanIn addition to building some of the biggest blockchain tools on Ethereum, Köppelmann is al...
Julie LeungA former journalist, Leung is the world’s most powerful female financial regulator in an i...
Ian AllisonThe CoinDesk reporter belongs in the journalism hall of fame since there's little, if any,...
Meet the NFT Artists
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Shavonne Wong: Not Even Sam Altman 'Is Exempt From Surveillance'
The artist made an NFT of the Worldcoin co-founder and OpenAI CEO for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:44 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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La Vaun: Envisioning Brad Garlinghouse as 'This Strategic Commander'
The artist made an NFT of the Ripple Labs CEO for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:44 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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P1A: Refik Anadol Explores 'Boundaries of Creativity'
The artist made an NFT of Refik Anadol, another artist, for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:44 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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Rebecca Rose: 'What Goes on Inside That Brain' of Jesse Pollak's?
The artist made an NFT of the Base leader for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:45 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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Efdot: Racer 'Likes to Move Fast and Innovate'
The artist made an NFT of the Friend.tech co-founder for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:45 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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Michael Kutsche: Caroline Ellison Had Her Mind 'Hijacked'
The artist made an NFT of the former Alameda Research executive for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:45 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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LOGIK: Tieshun 'Pacman' Roquerre 'Knows His S--t'
The artist made an NFT of the Blur and Blast founder for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:45 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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Die With the Most Likes: Elizabeth Warren in the Style of 'Relentless. Ground. Beef'
The artist made an NFT of the U.S. senator, lead of an "anti-crypto army," for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:46 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023
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Coldie: Pascal Gauthier Has 'Strong Features' in Personality and Facial Makeup
The artist made an NFT of the crypto hardware wallet executive for our Most Influential package.
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Dec 4, 2023 at 1:46 p.m. UTC
Dec 4, 2023