Top 10 Influential Figures in the Crypto Industry in 2019

Despite the bearish outlook on cryptocurrency value in 2019, blockchain project developers and cryptocurrency influencers seem to view the technology with optimism, citing significant advancements and positive prospects for the future.

Despite the bearish outlook on the value of cryptocurrencies in 2019, blockchain project parties and cryptocurrency influencers seem to view the technology with significant progress and optimism for the future.

However, the past year has shown poor results in blockchain financing. In the first quarter of 2018, cryptocurrency funding reached $15 million, but in the same period of 2019, it was only $3 million.

For blockchain startups, blockchain funding is harder to come by than before, but the top ten influencers of 2019 indicate that the focus of the crypto industry this year is more on driving mass adoption and integrating blockchain into existing enterprise infrastructure.

In addition, experts from various fields, investors, and policymakers have entered the cryptocurrency industry. With these key influencers spread globally, 2020 is expected to be an exciting year for the widespread adoption of blockchain.

Crypto research institution CryptoWeekly recently listed the top 100 influential figures in the crypto industry, and ABM has extracted the top ten prominent figures as follows:

1. Changpeng Zhao

Changpeng Zhao, also known as "CZ," is the founder and CEO of Binance, the world's largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume. Binance has been very active this year, starting with the IEOs (Initial Exchange Offerings) at the beginning of the year, and later developing decentralized exchanges, Binance US, and a futures exchange.

2. Jihan Wu

Jihan Wu is the CEO and co-founder of Bitmain, the world's largest Bitcoin mining machine manufacturer. In October this year, Bitmain announced plans to build the world's largest Bitcoin mining facility in Texas, USA. Before joining Bitmain, Jihan Wu worked as a financial analyst at a securities firm and was an angel investor for the Bitcoin mining startup Kaomao.

3. Jack Dorsey

Jack Dorsey is the co-founder and CEO of Twitter, who has been advocating for Bitcoin since the early days. Dorsey established the crypto division of his payment platform Square earlier this year (named Cash App to help newcomers buy Bitcoin) and is currently planning to lead a project for mass adoption of Bitcoin in Africa.

4. David Marcus

David Marcus is the head of Facebook's Libra project, which, if successful, will introduce cryptocurrency to billions of active users of Facebook. Marcus was previously the president of PayPal, has been a board member of Coinbase since 2017, and served as the Vice President of Product at Facebook Messenger.

5. Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of the U.S.-based exchange Coinbase. It is reported that Coinbase holds up to 966,000 Bitcoins in its cold wallet, making it the industry leader. Before Coinbase, Armstrong worked as an enterprise risk management consultant at the international firm Deloitte and Touche.

6. Vitalik Buterin

Vitalik Buterin, also known as "V God," is the co-founder of Ethereum, a mainstream smart contract platform that allows developers to build decentralized applications. Its cryptocurrency ETH ranks second by market value and is actively transitioning to a proof-of-stake mechanism. Before developing Ethereum, Buterin co-founded Bitcoin Magazine.

7. Brad Garlinghouse

Brad Garlinghouse is the CEO of Ripple Labs. This year, Ripple expanded to over 300 partners, including 115 global banks. Since launching the On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) concept platform for cross-border payments, there are now over 20 partners using XRP for ODL, including MoneyGram, Western Union, and American Express.

8. Charlie Lee

Charlie Lee is the founder of Litecoin. Previously a Google engineer and director of engineering at Coinbase, he now focuses on the ecological development of Litecoin. To enhance Litecoin's fungibility and privacy, Charlie Lee will introduce the MimbleWimble MW protocol and recently launched a crowdfunding campaign to support the development.

9. Kelly Loeffler

Kelly Loeffler is the CEO of Bakkt, a subsidiary of Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), dedicated to increasing institutional interest in crypto assets. After Bakkt launched Bitcoin futures in September this year, its trading volume continued to set new records, with 5,671 Bitcoin futures contracts traded in a single day in November. Before ICE, Loeffler served on the board of directors of Georgia Power Company.

10. Roger Ver

Roger Ver is an early investor in Bitcoin. Although he was one of the five founders of the Bitcoin Foundation, he later believed that Bitcoin's transaction speed was too slow, and fees were too high, losing its original intention for everyday payments. Since 2017, he has supported Bitcoin Cash and also launched the Exchange.Bitcoin.com exchange this year.

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