Most Influential 2021: Elizabeth Warren

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) isn’t the only U.S. politician to look at the cryptocurrency industry with a critical eye, but she may be the most sharp tongued. “Instead of leaving our financial system at the whims of giant banks, crypto puts the system at the whims of some shadowy faceless group of super coders and miners, which doesn’t sound better to me,” she said at a U.S. Senate Banking Committee meeting in July.

The progressive lawmaker, founder of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), has raised concerns about retail investors’ ability to access crypto trading platforms as well as the industry’s environmental footprint. Warren isn’t taken by the idea that bitcoin could be a powerful tool in making the U.S. banking system more transparent, resilient and fairer – one of her supposed policy goals. But her influence over the future of crypto, for better or worse, is clear.

The Complete List: CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2021