Santa’s Crypto Nice List 2024

Santa made his listing and he checked it twice, and Decrypt has all of the tea on who’s been naughty or good within the crypto trade over the previous 12 months.

From crypto CEOs who advocate for the trade to NFT mission founders who use their luck to assist others, a number of Web3 workhorses made their approach onto Saint Nick’s “good listing” this 12 months. This is who can count on presents underneath the tree when Santa involves city. 

Brian Armstrong

Brian Armstrong is the face of the digital belongings trade’s battle for extra favorable rules within the U.S.

The soft-spoken CEO of Coinbase spent ample time in Washington this 12 months, collaborating in discussions with Republican and Democratic lawmakers alike on the way forward for crypto within the U.S. In the meantime, Armstrong’s workforce led initiatives to heart digital assets-related points within the 2024 U.S. elections, sponsoring research on crypto holders’ political leanings and facilitating Republican candidate Donald Trump’s push to simply accept marketing campaign donations in crypto.

Armstrong and his workforce had been instrumental in increase pro-crypto tremendous PAC Fairshake’s $200 million battle chest. Coinbase donated roughly $50 million every to Fairshake between 2023 and 2024, serving to safe the election of the most pro-crypto U.S. Congress ever.

Carlos Domingo

Securitize CEO Carlos Domingo is the face of the crypto trade’s tokenization craze—a development that has helped catapult digital asset costs to new heights in 2024. In June, the manager delivered testimony on Capitol Hill concerning the significance of real-world asset tokenization and its implications for the way forward for finance.

Domingo can be an vital ally to institutional traders seeking to pour funds into crypto. Earlier this 12 months, the Spanish founder’s tokenization platform partnered with BlackRock to launch the funding titan’s USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund (BUIDL).

Michael Saylor 

MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor has continued to be a fierce advocate for Bitcoin, including greater than $15 billion price of the world’s oldest cryptocurrency to his firm’s steadiness sheet in the previous few weeks, in accordance with the company’s submitting with U.S. regulators.

Saylor’s agency holds 423,650 Bitcoin (price $41.5 billion) as of publication time, the corporate’s monetary statements present.  

Regardless of HODLing roughly 2% of all of the Bitcoin that may ever be mined, Saylor has contributed to the way forward for the  cryptocurrency in one other large approach—by encouraging different tech giants to carry the asset.

Earlier this month, Saylor pitched Microsoft’s administrators on a proposal so as to add Bitcoin to the corporate’s steadiness sheet—a proposal its shareholders in the end rejected. As well as, he urged Amazon shareholders to additionally nudge the supply firm towards investing within the digital forex. Many different smaller firms have additionally adopted MicroStrategy’s playbook.

Maggie Love 

Maggie Love is the founding father of SheFi, a neighborhood for girls within the cryptocurrency trade.

SheFi presents devoted job boards, programs and networking alternatives for girls, a demographic group that is still largely underrepresented in Web3 and the broader expertise sector. 

Lower than 15% of startups throughout the Web3 ecosystem have a minimum of one feminine founder, whereas simply 3% have an all-female founding workforce, in accordance with a Boston Consulting Group evaluation of Crunchbase knowledge.

SheFi is difficult that lack of illustration, nevertheless.

Since its inception, SheFi has amassed greater than 3,000 members, making it one of many largest women-led communities in crypto. 

Edward Snowden 

NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has continued to advocate for privateness rights at a time when cryptocurrency and blockchain community adoption is accelerating.

On the annual Bitcoin convention in Nashville, TN, this summer time, Snowden warned the convention’s attendees to vote independently within the upcoming U.S. presidential elections, which posed main penalties for the way forward for the crypto trade. He additionally flagged that governments might use synthetic intelligence-powered instruments to mine individuals’s metadata—a much-needed warning at a time when the usage of AI instruments is gaining traction. 

Luca Netz

Pudgy Penguins CEO and IP proprietor Luca Netz has constructed an NFT empire of cute avian creatures regardless of a deep downturn out there for crypto collectibles.

Pudgy Penguins’ exceptional development kicked into excessive gear with the launch of Webkinz-like Pudgy World in 2024, and it was later helped by the hype round its upcoming Solana-based PENGU token launch. 

Pudgy Penguins’ ground worth—which means the value of a given assortment’s least useful token—surged to an all-time excessive of about $134,000 price of Ethereum in mid-December, greater than tripling in worth for the reason that begin of the 12 months, CoinGecko knowledge reveals. It’s the second most precious profile image (PFP) mission in the marketplace as of this writing, behind solely the influential CryptoPunks.

Pudgy Penguins additionally continued to waddle its approach into the hearts of mainstream shoppers in 2024, as its real-world toy assortment expanded into Walmart, Goal, and Walgreens cabinets throughout the U.S. and Canada. 

Along with his work on Pudgy Penguins, Netz can be a loyal angel investor to a number of Web3 initiatives, together with women-led firms similar to Chipped.

Gracy Chen

Bitget CEO Gracy Chen has led the world’s Eleventh-largest change by day by day buying and selling quantity since Might 2024. And regardless of the novelty of her tenure, Chen is already making her mark. 

Chen helped the buying and selling platform strike a significant take care of Spanish soccer league La Liga, elevating the change’s profile in Europe and Latin America. And underneath her management, Bitget additionally expanded its presence in Europe, establishing its first regional hub in Lithuania. 

The strikes are a part of the platform’s broader technique to court docket new customers in markets all through the world. In the meantime, Chen’s Bitget has promoted the event of the crypto trade by way of its $100 million “Web3 Fund.” 

Along with her work at Bitget, the manager has additionally spearheaded charitable packages similar to Blockchain4Her, an initiative that goals to advertise gender inclusivity and variety within the crypto trade. Chen can be a delegate to the United Nations’ Convention on the Standing of Ladies.