Most Influential 2021: Paolo Ardoino

U.S. lawmakers signaled this year that stablecoins may be a threat to financial stability and could prove to be systemically important beyond crypto. Often unnamed in official reports, tether is never far from mind. The largest stablecoin, by far, USDT has ballooned this year along with the crypto market (it’s worth $76 billion at the time of writing). Paolo Ardoino is the company’s chief technology officer, tasked with coding the stablecoin project that lives on multiple blockchains. He’s also the project’s unofficial hype man, willing to argue online with critics of the stablecoin, who raise concerns about the stablecoin’s backing.

The Complete List: CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2021