Big Names in the Crypto World
Cryptocurrency has been causing a massive shake up in the financial industry. Many believed that this trend would fade with time. Instead, the crypto market has become the third most popular and most successful trading market in the world, with only forex and the stock market outperforming it.
The success of the crypto market can be attributed to quite a few factors; it came out at just the right time, when internet culture was growing. That is one reason why the market soared. Another reason is that quite a few celebrities embraced crypto early.
Finally, we have all the big names in the industry to thank. In this article, we’d like to take a look at some of the most important people, whose contributions to the crypto market ensured that it would become a huge success.
Satoshi Nakamoto
Without Satoshi Nakamoto, there would be no cryptocurrency. It really is as simple as that. Since the late 90s and early 2000s, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto was working on a digital, decentralized currency. His primary inspiration was Nick Szabo and his writing on Bit Gold.
In 2008, Nakamoto released his paper Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. In the paper, they espouse the benefits of decentralized currency, and how the internet could be used to achieve this goal. It was also the first, public mention of Bitcoin.
A year later, Bitcoin released, with Nakamoto mining the first block themselves. The first Bitcoin was awarded to Hal Finney, a lifelong friend and colleague of Nakamoto’s. Today, Bitcoin remains the most popular and successful cryptocurrency, with a single token being worth tens of thousands of US dollars.
Without Nakamoto, the crypto industry of today would not have existed. We wouldn’t be able to use crypto to gamble at Bitcoin or Ethereum casinos (we will discuss Ethereum further in this article), pay for coffee at Starbucks, or even trade investments. Even the original crypto casino bore Nakamoto’s name, being called SatoshiDice.
In the early stages of Bitcoin, Nakamoto was quite active on the Bitcoin forums, and would answer any questions that users might have. However, over time, they’ve begun to withdraw, and today they are pretty much completely inactive.
Theories range from Nakamoto’s identity being discovered, to their untimely passing. Whatever the case may be, the name Satoshi Nakamoto will forever be remembered in association with cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and finances in general.
Vitalik Buterin
If Bitcoin is the gold standard for cryptocurrency, Ethereum is the silver medal. The second most popular, most valuable, and most successful crypto of all time was conceptualized by Vitalik Buterin in 2013. Buterin claims that he came up with the name while browsing an old science fiction novel.
While most associate Ethereum’s creation with Buterin, the truth is that it was a group effort, to which close to a dozen programmers contributed. In 2015, the Ethereum blockchain was finally ready to launch, and it quickly became Bitcoin’s biggest rival.
What boosted Ethereum’s success was its early adoption of non-fungible tokens. NFTs are often associated with cryptocurrency. However, unlike crypto, NFTs have lost quite a bit of traction recently. However, in 2015, they were the hot new thing.
Though Ethereum is, by far, Buterin’s biggest contribution to the crypto market, it is not the only one. In fact, Vitalik was involved with cryptocurrency from an early age. At 17-years-old, he founded Bitcoin Magazine, where he and his friends would write articles about this new and exciting frontier.
Buterin is now one of the richest people in cryptocurrency, and he uses his wealth quite responsibly. He has contributed to a lot of charities and has organized philanthropic efforts himself. Over all, Vitalik Buterin’s contribution to cryptocurrency is second only to Satoshi Nakamoto’s himself.
Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao, more commonly known as CZ, is the co-founder of Binance, and the company’s former CEO. Raised in Canada, CZ has had a huge influence on the Canadian crypto market, and put the country on the map with Binance – the largest cryptocurrency exchange today, at least by trading volume. His position has made Zhao the richest person in cryptocurrency today.
Binance launched in 2017, and managed to raise $15 million in initial coin offering. A week and a half later, and the company had already begun crypto exchanges. Only a year after launching Binance, CZ was met with incredible success, and by 2018, he had already been featured on Forbes’ The Richest People in Cryptocurrency.
Unfortunately, Changpeng Zhao has recently faced some civil lawsuits, as well as criminal charges. In November 2023, Zhao resigned as CEO of Binance, agreed to pay a $50 million fine, and was sentenced to 18 months of prison time.
The charges involved Changpeng Zhao’s violation of the American Bank Secrecy Act, by putting a greater emphasis on Binance’s growth, than on preventing money laundering within the company. Zhao plead guilty, and is currently facing the consequences.
Celebrity Endorsements
While the personalities that contributed to the crypto market are, without a doubt, important, just as important are the celebrities who’ve endorsed and supported cryptocurrency from its early inception. Some of you may be surprised to see the names featured on this list.
Snoop Dogg
The rapper Snoop Dogg has been an early supporter of all forms of cryptocurrency. In multiple interviews, he has stated proudly that he owns Bitcoin, Ether, and Dogecoin, as well as a few other cryptocurrencies. On a few occasions he has even stated that he is interested in launching his own brand of crypto, but he is looking for people who know their stuff to help him out.
Tyson Fury
Heavyweight boxing champion, Tyson Fury has stated on numerous occasions that he is a hardcore crypto supporter. He has promoted some cryptos himself, and at one point was interested in launching a boxing-related NFT series. However, it never materialized.
Elon Musk
The CEO of Tesla and current head of X.com (formerly Twitter) has had a long history with crypto endorsements. On several occasions, Musk has said that crypto seems like a fascinating industry. However, he has not made any official endorsement, because of the environmental side effects that crypto mining has. Musk has said on several occasions that, if these problems are fixed, Tesla would invest in Bitcoin.
