Santa made his list, checked it twice, and... Decryption He hasAll the tea is about who has been naughty or nice in the cryptocurrency industry over the past year.
From cryptocurrency CEOs championing the industry to NFT project founders using their good fortune to help others, many Web3 insiders made their way onto Saint Nick's "cool list" this year. Here's who can expect gifts under the tree when Santa comes to town.
The soft-spoken Coinbase CEO has spent a lot of time in Washington this year, participating in discussions with both Republican and Democratic lawmakers about the future of cryptocurrencies in the United States. Meanwhile, Armstrong's team has led initiatives to highlight issues related to digital assets in the 2024 US election. It has sponsored studies on the political leanings of cryptocurrency holders and facilitated Republican candidate Donald Trump's push to accept campaign donations in crypto.
He added that Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, continued to be a fierce advocate for Bitcoin. More than $15 billion of the world's oldest cryptocurrency is on his company's balance sheet In the last few weeksaccording to the companyy Deposit With regulators in the United States.
Saylor owns 423,650 bitcoins ($41.5 billion worth) as of press time, the company's financials show.
MicroStrategy co-founder and CEO Michael Saylor at Bitcoin 2023 in Miami. Source: Andrzej Pyjanski/Decrypt
Despite holding roughly 2% of the total Bitcoin that will ever be mined, Saylor has contributed to the future of the cryptocurrency in another big way — by encouraging other tech giants to hold assets.
Earlier this month, Saylor installed Microsoft executives On a proposal to add Bitcoin to the company's balance sheet, a proposal that was ultimately rejected by shareholders. In addition, it is Amazon shareholders urged To also push the delivery company towards investing in digital currency. Many other small businesses have also followed MicroStrategy's playbook.
Maggie love
Maggie Love is the founder of SheFi, a community for women in the cryptocurrency industry.
SheFi offers dedicated job boards, courses, and networking opportunities for women, a demographic that remains largely underrepresented in Web3 and the broader technology sector.
Less than 15% of startups within the Web3 ecosystem have at least one female founder, while only 3% have an all-female founding team, according to a Boston Consulting Group analysis of Crunchbase data.
A year ago, the SheFi Summit was an experiment.
Today it is a movement.
Grateful to all the 500+ people who attended the biggest SheFi Summit to date and made it incredibly clear:
However, SheFi challenges this lack of representation.
Since its inception, SheFi has amassed over 3,000 members, making it one of the largest female-led communities in the cryptocurrency space.
Edward Snowden
National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden has continued to advocate for privacy rights at a time when adoption of cryptocurrencies and blockchain networks is accelerating.
The evolutionary vector taken by the Internet and society is leading us away from extraordinary people who share unique beliefs, and toward the tyranny of mediocrity. It is a preference for the “ordinary” so strong that it extinguishes the distinctive; Unforgiving loyalty to mediocrity.
At the annual Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tennessee, this summer, Snowden He warned conference attendees against voting independently In the upcoming US presidential elections, which has serious consequences for the future of the cryptocurrency industry. He also noted that governments can use AI-powered tools to achieve this Mining people's metadata – a much-needed warning at a time when the use of AI tools is gaining momentum.
Luca Nitze
Luca Netz, Pudgy Penguins CEO and IP owner, has built an NFT empire of adorable bird creatures despite a deep downturn in the cryptocurrency collectibles market.
Pudgy Penguins' meteoric growth began with the launch of the Webkinz-like Pudgy World in 2024, and was later helped by the hype surrounding its upcoming game. Launch of Solana-based PENGU token.
The floor price of Pudgy Penguins—that is, the price of the lowest value token for a given block—rose to an all-time high with Ethereum worth around $134,000 in mid-December, more than tripling the price since the beginning of the year, CoinGecko Data He appears. It is the second most valuable PFP on the market as of this writing, behind only the influential CryptoPunks.
Pudgy Penguins also continued to make their way into the hearts of mainstream consumers in 2024, as their realistic toy lineup expanded to include Walmart, Target, and Walgreens shelves across the U.S. and Canada.
In addition to his work at Pudgy Penguins, Netz is also a loyal angel investor in several Web3 ventures, including women-led companies like Chipped.
Gracie Chen
Bitget CEO Gracie Chen has led the world's No. 11 exchange by daily trading volume since May 2024. Although her tenure is new, Chen has already made her mark.
Chen helped the trading platform close a major deal with the Spanish soccer league La Liga, raising the exchange's profile in Europe and Latin America. Under her leadership, Bitget has also expanded its presence in Europe, establishing its first regional center in Lithuania.
Bitget CEO Gracie Chen. Photo: Gracie Chen
These moves are part of the platform's broader strategy to attract new users in markets around the world. At the same time, Chen's Bitget has promoted the development of the cryptocurrency industry by $100 million “Web3 Fund.”
In addition to her work at Bitget, the CEO has also led philanthropic programs such as Blockchain4Her, an initiative aimed at promoting inclusivity and gender diversity in the cryptocurrency industry. Chen is also a delegate to the United Nations Conference on the Status of Women.
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