Fortune’s “40 Under 40” includes business executives, political figures, sportsmen, fashion designers and artists who are under forty years old. The tech field historically pervades the list, and this year’s highlights seven individuals that are working with cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.
The list began in 1993 and was focused entirely as a numeric ranking of wealth through 2003. Coincidently, this timeframe captured the first dot com boom, which many people draw similarities to with the boom of Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies. By 2009 the list had become more explicitly a diversified ranking of power and influence.
Cryptocurrency and Blockchain Influencers in 2018
#13 – Sumaiya Balbale VP of E-Commerce, Mobile and Digital Marketing, and Andy Dunn SVP, Digital Consumer Brands, Walmart
Fortune attributes Balbale and Dunn for “transforming” Walmart, especially the e-commerce business. The company has filed numerous patents for blockchain technology, with a handful applying to e-commerce, and others for things such as medical records and their fresh food supply chain.
#20 – Brian Armstrong founder of Coinbase
The list points to Coinbase as looking to be the “Google of Crypto.” It is the biggest exchange in the U.S., and facilities the Fiat to Crypto transition. The company has been full of announcements this year of things like adding several new coins, an institutional suite, a venture capital fund, a Cryptocurrency Index Fund, and even a philanthropy platform.
#22 – Vitalik Buterin co-founder of Ethereum
Vitalik Buterin tops the list with youth at only 24 years old. The next youngest on the list is 27, and only seven total are in their 20’s. Google expressed interest in hiring him earlier this year, but Buterin holds true to the deepest cryptocurrency ideals of decentralization and completely community run projects.
#24 – Vlad Tenev and Baiju Bhatt founders of Robinhood
At age 31 and 33, the pair air just outside of the “Millennial” range, but they are obviously in touch with the culture. They have created an investment platform to onboard that generation to the investment world in radically different ways than the traditional sense. Their no-fee trading platform began adding cryptocurrencies this year.
#25 – Pavel Durov founder of Telegram
Pavel is known for supporting privacy rights. The Telegram app, which is especially popular in the blockchain community has at least 200,000 million users as of March 2018. The ICO for a Telegram cryptocurrency raised $1.7 billion from just 200 private investors before it ever went to public sale.
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