2019 has been a crazy ride, from Facebook announcing plans to launch its cryptocurrency Libra and digital wallet Calibra, to United States Congress on the project, to , to Craig Wright attempting to register . enforcing a moratorium China “seizing the opportunity” US copyright of the bitcoin white paper and the code for Bitcoin 0.1 This list of Crypto Top 20 Most Influential People is as diverse as ever, with crypto innovation seeping in from all corners of the world. 2019 has seen technologists, investors, policymakers and visionaries from all walks of life entering the crypto space, making for an interesting year in terms of cryptocurrency endorsement and regulation. The end of 2019 brings down the curtain on an all-important decade for cryptocurrencies and blockchain. In the space of ten years, Bitcoin has led the way for a wide variety of projects that have continued to shake up the space, with crypto innovation seeping in from all corners of the world - This list of Crypto Top 20 Most Influential People is as diverse as ever. As the past 12 months have shown, some of the world’s biggest institutions and businesses are actively looking to employ blockchain technology to improve the services they’re offering to users around the world. As these key influencers spread out and propagate around the world, 2020 is predicted to be an exciting year in terms of mass blockchain adoption. a.k.a. CZ, is the founder and CEO of Binance - the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Binance has been very active this year from developing new products and services, such as DEX, country-specific exchanges to company acquisitions and even supporting governments with crypto adoption. 1) Changpeng Zhao 2) , is the CEO and co-founder of Bitmain, which is the world's largest computer chip company for bitcoin mining. In October, Bitmain announced it will start building the world's largest bitcoin mining plant. Jihan Wu 3) , is Co-founder and CEO of Twitter and Square, Dorsey has been an advocate for Bitcoin since the early days. Jack Dorsey 4) , is the head of Facebook’s Libra team - which could potentially introduce digital currencies to Facebook's billions of active users. David was formerly the president of PayPal, Marcus has sat in Coinbase’s Board of Directors since 2017. David Marcus 5) is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, the world’s leading digital currency exchange. His vision is heavily contributing to making cryptocurrency more mainstream. Brian Armstrong 6) is the founder of Ethereum and an internationally recognized programmer. Vitalik Buterin 7) Winklevoss brothers - and , the co-founders of leading cryptocurrency exchange Gemini, and Winklevoss Capital. Tyler Cameron 8) a.k.a. Bitcoin Jesus, is an early investor in bitcoin, bitcoin-related startups and an early promoter of bitcoin. He is the owner of Bitcoin.com and Blockchain.com. Roger Ver 9) , founder and CEO of TRON, and also owner of BitTorrent and UTorrent. Earlier in 2019, Justin also was the winner of auction for a lunch with Warren Buffett. Justin Sun 10) has already made an important and lasting impact on the Blockchain industry. He is the founder of Litecoin and an internationally recognized expert. Charlie Lee 11) recently sworn in as Georgia's newest senator, was the former CEO of Bakkt, a subsidiary of ICE, focused on increasing institution and merchant access to digital assets. Having launched its Bitcoin Futures in Sep 2019, Bakkt reached an all-time monthly high of $37M within the first month. Kelly Loeffler Prior to her 15 years as CMO of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), Loeffler served on the Board of Directors for Georgia Power Company. 12) created what we know as smart contracts, which essentially make cryptocurrencies possible. He has used his education in law and computer sciences to create the bones of what we know as the cryptoworld today in the form of the earliest cryptocurrency, Bit Gold. Nick Szabo 13) is a British cryptographer, cypherpunk, and crypto-hacker. He is the CEO of Blockstream and the inventor of hascash, the proof-of-work system used by Bitcoin. Adam Back 14 is one of the most influential and popular people in Blockchain. He is the co-founder of Ethereum and the founder of Consensys. ) Joseph Lubin 15) is a preeminent Blockchain thinker and developer. He is the CEO of IOHK and the creator of Cardano. Many consider his work a pillar of Blockchain tech. Charles Hoskinson 16) Leon Li is the Founder and Group CEO of , the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world from 2013 to 2017. Huobi Global 17) , Co-founder and CEO of BitMEX, the platform for traders to trade Bitcoin derivatives. Arthur Hayes 18) is one of the leading thinkers and speakers in the cryptocurrency space. He is an internationally recognized author, speaker, and crypto expert. Andreas M. Antonopoulos 19) is the co-founder of Paradigm, the crypto asset investment firm. Prior to Paradigm, Ehrsam was the co-founder of Coinbase and was previously a foreign exchange trader at Goldman Sachs in New York where he traded and managed Goldman’s electronic market-making platform. Fred Ehrsam 20) a.k.a. The Bitcoin Man, iconic with his Bitcoin Chain, is the founder of Crypto Chain University - the world's first repository for blockchain and crypto research papers, established in 2010. Herbert Sim Herbert is also an angel investor of multiple blockchain projects — FortuneZ, Future1Exchange, TaoDust, Karuschain, GLBrain, TEVEL. He was formerly Global Operations Director at Huobi, Chief Marketing Officer at Cryptology, and contributor to Forbes and Huffington Post.
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