There are a lot of figures in crypto who hold a lot of influences. People who have built something, or are just controversial in general. In this post we will take a look at 10 names in crypto who are amongst the most famous. When you are new in crypto these are the names you should be familiar with.

The list is in random order.

1. Satoshi Nakamoto: The Creator of Bitcoin

The 2008 whitepaper introduced the world to the concept of decentralized digital currency. It has sparked everything in crypto as we know it.
Satoshi Nakamoto is the pseudonym used by the person or persons who developed Bitcoin and authored the Bitcoin white paper. Nakamoto’s identity has never been publicly revealed, and their whereabouts are unknown.

Nakamoto first appeared in public in 2009, when they published the Bitcoin white paper on a cryptography mailing list. The white paper described a new electronic cash system that was decentralized, peer-to-peer, and secure. Nakamoto released the first version of the Bitcoin software in January 2009. They continued to contribute to the Bitcoin project until 2010, when they disappeared from public view.

Nakamoto’s identity has been the subject of much speculation. Over the years, a number of people have been accused of  being Nakamoto, but none of these claims have been verified. The picture is of Dorian Nakamoto, a man who was rumored to be Satoshi Nakamoto. That story is worth a post of its own as well.

2. Vitalik Buterin: Founder of Ethereum

Vitalik Buterin is a Russian-Canadian programmer and writer who is best known as the co-founder of Ethereum.

In 2013, Buterin published a white paper for a new cryptocurrency platform called Ethereum. Ethereum was designed to be a more flexible and powerful platform than Bitcoin. It was designed to support smart contracts and a wide range of other decentralized applications.

Ethereum is the nr.2 crypto and probbaly the one that sees the most usecases as the moment.

Vitalik is seen as a bit socially akward, resulting in plenty of memes and videos. He is held in very high regard and is respected by pretty much everyone. He posts on his blog and Twitter regulary, though the complexity of his writing may be difficult to understand.

Changpeng Zhao, known as CZ, heads Binance, The largest cryptocurrency exchanges globally. Under his leadership, Binance has become a powerhouse, offering a vast range of services and products to the crypto community. His exchange is the golden standard, both in innovativity and quality.

He is held in very high regard, and regulary posts on Twitter, adressing multiple subjects and showing altruism towards the crypto industry. He is know for being friendly, humble, hard working and intelligent.
Binance is under heavy attack by regulatory organisations, which affects the entire crypto industry.


4. Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF): The FTX Founder

Sam Bankman-Fried founded FTX. Well known for derivatives trading. At which SBF was very good as well.
The exchange grew very fast. However it all turned sour in 2022, after which it was exposed that they were using customer funds for their own activities. The entire story coming out had everyone’s attention and caused a “bankrun” on the exchange.
They spended customer funds for themselves and through a different organisation (Alameda Research, which was a investment fund), and couldn’t back the bankrun, so the exchange collapsed. Resulting in regulatory scrutiny and a lot of attention. SBF was arrested (alongside other high-ranked individuals).

5. Justin Sun: The TRON Founder

Justin Sun is the founder of TRON, a L1 blockchain, like Ethereum. He recently also acquired Huobi, one of the largest exchanges.

In 2017, Sun founded Tron, and the platform’s native token, TRX, quickly became one of the most valuable cryptocurrencies in the world. Sun has been praised for his marketing skills and his ability to attract investors. 
He is known to be very rich and like CZ displays a heavy commitment to the general crypto industry, often adressing current events and showing altruism.
Though Sun is also a controversial figure and he has been accused of fraud, and market manipulation.

 

Brian Armstrong leads Coinbase, a cryptocurrency exchange that has played a pivotal role in bringing crypto to the masses.

Coinbase’s user-friendly platform has made it a gateway for millions to enter the crypto world.
Often being used as an on-ramp. It has a tradable stock in America. 
Alongside Binance, they are working towards a regulated exchange and setting a high-standard.

André Cronje is a DeFi (Decentralized Finance) pioneer known for his contributions to various DeFi projects, and being part of Fantom,
His work has pushed the boundaries of decentralized finance, creating new possibilities for the future of banking.
Also known for being intelligent, he has a lot of influence on the De-fi market.

Roger Ver is an early adopter and advocate for Bitcoin. His efforts have played a significant role in the adoption and promotion of Bitcoin as a digital currency.

Ver is a strong advocate for the use of Bitcoin as a currency. He believes that Bitcoin can revolutionize the global financial system and make it more efficient and inclusive.

Ver has also been a vocal critic of Bitcoin Core, a group of developers who work on the Bitcoin software. Ver believes that Bitcoin Core is too focused on security and that it is stifling innovation.

In 2017, Ver supported a hard fork of the Bitcoin blockchain that created Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash is a cryptocurrency that is designed to have faster transaction times and lower fees than Bitcoin.

Craig Wright is an Australian computer scientist and businessman who claims to be Satoshi Nakamoto, a statement met with skepticism by much of the crypto community.

In 2015, Wright published a blog post in which he claimed to be Satoshi Nakamoto. He provided some evidence to support his claim, such as early Bitcoin code that he said he had written. However, many people in the cryptocurrency community remained skeptical of his claim.

He’s a polarizing figure known for his legal battles and controversies in the crypto world.

He is the founder of Bitcoin Satoshi Vision (BSV), a cryptocurrency that he claims is the true vision of Bitcoin. BSV was created in 2018 after a hard fork of the Bitcoin Cash blockchain.

Wright believes that BSV is the only cryptocurrency that is truly scalable and secure. He has also been a vocal critic of other cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, which he believes are not faithful to the original vision of Bitcoin.

 

Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, made headlines by converting a substantial portion of the company’s treasury reserves into Bitcoin.
His bullish stance on Bitcoin has influenced other institutions to consider crypto as a hedge against inflation.

His company is one of the largest Bitcoin holders, and he is known for buying massive amounts of Bitcoin.