Influencers, celebrities and industry investors have given popularity and impact to Bitcoin and different altcoins. There are many notable personalities that have played and continue to play a key role in spreading their word of their favorite cryptocurrencies in their community of followers.
But who are the biggest crypto influencers?
- Elon Musk is probably the alpha influencer in the crypto world. Musk’s tweets and speeches caused big ‘’tsunamis’’ in 2021.The first tsunami was in April , when Musk and Tesla sold 10% of their BTC holdings, causing panic among investors. Soon after this, Musk tweeted that Tesla will no longer be accepting payments in Bitcoin owing to the high energy consumption of BTC in the mining process. This decision made BTC fall to 30,000$. Musk also affected a lot the ‘’Memecoins’’ Dogecoin and Shiba Inu Coin.
- Vitalik Buterin: Valik Buterin is Ethereum’s co-founder and one of the world’s youngest crypto billionaires. Known for his work in Ethereum, Buterin has also been involved in the Bitcoin community as a writer and developer. Buterin has been named the most influential person in crypto for 2021, according to Time magazine. He currently has around 1.9 million followers on Twitter where he is active. On Twitter, you can find him sharing insightful commentaries about crypto and blockchain.
- Changpeng Zhao: Changpeng Zhao is CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by volume, launched in 2015. He was number three on the Forbes 2018 list of The Richest People in Cryptocurrency. Prior to this, he was Head of Development at Blockchain and Chief Technology Officer of OK Coin. He also developed trading software at Bloomberg and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. On Twitter, he has 5M followers and he speaks about everything that is happening in the fast-changing crypto world.
- Sam Bankman-Fried; with a net worth of US$8.7 billion, the 29-year-old MIT graduate is the founder of Alameda Research and FTX exchange. He is the wealthiest crypto billionaire to date. In 2020, he donated US$5 million to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign and made headlines.
- Barry Silbert: Barry Silbert is the Founder and CEO of the pivotal blockchain company Digital Currency Group, parent company of CoinDesk, Grayscale, Genesis, Foundry, and Luno. Prior to this, he was the founder and CEO of SecondMarket (acquired by NASDAQ). He was Crain’s and Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year and appeared on Fortune’s 40 Under 40 list. In 2021, Silbert continues to drive crypto adoption as institutions increasingly join the now $1 trillion cryptocurrency market.