# 2020 Crypto's Most Influential people

**Authors:** Just a Girl into Crypto

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So...CoinDesk published a list of the Most Influential people in Crypto for 2020
and ask readers to choose their top 5.

![Image](https://storage.googleapis.com/holdex-posts/0633d485-0df6-4608-b906-19a61fc1e454/5cff44c4-5513-415b-8c0e-7755d0700020-2020-crypto.png)

I think it's be interesting to bring this to Holdex
and find out **what the Holdex community thinks**!

Here is how this works:

1. Pick your top 5
1. Think if there is someone missing in the list
1. Reply to this post with your top 5 from the list
   (kindly just mention the number associated with the name)
   + anyone who's missing.
   A sample reply would look like this
   *"Here are my picks: 3, 8, 10, 12, 15 and Vitalik Buterin"*.
   Got it?
1. At the beginning of November I'll publish the results.

**READY?**

1 **Robert Leshner, Compound founder**:
For leading the first DeFi project to overtake MakerDAO.

2 **Wang Chun, F2Pool co-founder**: For encoding “History has repeated,
” on the Bitcoin halving block.

3 **Stani Kulechov, Aave CEO**: For changing the game of DeFi lending.

4 **Peter Szilagiy**: For leading Geth and providing healthy Eth 2.0 skepticism.

5 **Pieter Wuille, Blockstream co-founder**: For working on SegWit,
Taproot and Schnorr.

6 **John Wolpert, Baseline creator**:
For breathing life back into enterprise blockchain.

7 **People’s Bank of China**:
For leading the charge to national digital currencies.

8 **Bruce Fenton, managing director at Chainstone Lab**s:
For sounding off on coronavirus early.

9 **Olaoluwa "Laolu" Osuntokun, CTO of Lightning Labs**: Lightning went wumbo.

10 **SamCzSun, white hat hacker**: For being Ethereum’s top white hat hacker.

11 **Jesse Powell, Kraken CEO**: For pushing through the first crypto bank.

12 **Anthony Pompliano, Morgan Creek Digital co-founder**:
Relentless bitcoin optimist.

13 **Aubrey Strobel, Lolli communications director**: Because memes matter.

14 **Graham Ivan Clark, teenage Twitter hacker**:
For bringing attention to the flaws of centralized social media companies.

15 **The anon who called out Craig Wright by signing a Bitcoin address CSW
claimed to own.**

16 **Alex Mesmej, creator of $ALEX**: For riding the wave of self tokenization.

17 **Su Zhu, Three Arrows Capital CEO**: For insightful analysis.

18 **Brian Brooks, Acting Comptroller of the Currency**:
For taking charge at the OCC.

19 **Hayden Adams, Uniswap founder**:
For inventing one of DeFi’s critical protocols.

20 **Pavel Durov, Telegram CEO**: For battling the SEC

21 **Udi Wertheimer, Reckless VR**:
For bridging the gap between crypto and virtual reality.

22 **Danny Ryan**: For being Ethereum 2.0’s lead developer.

23 **Brendon Chez, CoinMarketCap founder**:
For selling CMC in one of crypto’s largest ever M&A deals.

24 **Chef Nomi, SushiSwap creator**: For forking Uniswap,
creating discussion around governance tokens and VC funding.

25 **Blue Kirby, Yearn cheerleader**:
For teaching us the importance of having “skin in the game.”

26 **Alan Silbert, INX CEO**: For leading the charge on blockchain-based IPOs.

27 **"Defi Degens”**: For seeking yield everywhere.

28 **Balaji S. Srinivasan**:
For being an early siren for the coronavirus pandemic.

29 **Brian Armstrong, Coinbase CEO**: For taking an “apolitical” stand.

30 **Patrick Byrne, former Overstock CEO**:
For continued support of tokenization.

31
**Hester “Crypto Mom” Peirce, Securities and Exchange Commission Commissioner**:
For being one of the most prominent crypto advocates among the U.S. regulators

32 **Christine Lagarde, European Central Bank president**:
For directing Europe towards a digital euro.

33 **Paolo Ardoino, Tether CTO**:
For being the face of the world's largest stablecoin.

34 **Jerome Powell, Federal Reserve chairman**:
For ushering in an unprecedented level of stimulus,
indirectly proving Bitcoin’s core thesis.

35 **Kristin Smith, executive director of the Blockchain Association**:
For being crypto’s advocate in Washington, D.C.

36 **Mike Belshe, BitGo CEO**:
For leading the top custodian for BTC on ETH and BitGo’s "Prime Broker" status.

37 **Juan Benet, Protocol Labs CEO**: For launching Filecoin.

38 **Gavin Wood, Polkadot founder**: For launching his second top 5 blockchain,
Polkadot, this year.

39 **Paul Tudor Jones, hedge fund billionaire**:
For giving institutional weight to BTC bag holding.

40 **Michael Saylor, MicroStrategy CEO**: Unabashed bitcoin bull,
leads the first non-crypto,
publicly traded companies to put bitcoin on its balance sheet.

41 **Sam Bankman-Fried, FTX CEO**:
For creating a cornerstone derivatives exchange.

42 **Hive, hardfork of Steem**:
For forking away from Justin Sun’s hostile takeover.

43 **Financial Action Task Force**: For pushing through the “Travel Rule.”

44 **Muneeb Ali, Blockstack CEO**: For building Bitcoin’s answer to Web 3.0.

45 **Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO**: For bringing charges against YouTube.

46 **Chris Giancarlo, former CFTC chief**:
For bringing the digital dollar to the halls of Congress.

47 **Alan Lane, Silvergate Bank CEO**: For running crypto’s bank.

48 **Dan Elitzer, Yam.Finance creator**:
For providing the rocket fuel for the vegetable coin bull market.

49 **Arthur Hayes, BitMEX CEO**: For remaining out of grasp.

50 **Cami Russo, Defiant creator**: For being the DeFi and Ethereum whisperer.

51 **Roham Gharegozlou, Dapper Labs CEO**: For breathing life back into NFTs.

52 **Ryan Selkis, Messari founder**:
For building one of crypto’s most reliable data aggregators.

53 **J.K.**
**Rowling, author**: For bringing crypto Twitter together and tearing us apart.

54 **Andre Cronje, Yearn.Finance creator**:
For pioneering DeFi “fair launches” and yield farming.

55 **None of the above.**