Getting down to the 2023 finals

In early February, Cointelegraph started unveiling its 2023 Top 100 list of the finest heroes and worst villains expected to impact the crypto and blockchain space in the year ahead. The list compiles the votes of Cointelegraph readers and staff who decided which players had the most significant impact on the sector in 2022 and who will likely make the biggest splash in 2023. Profiles have been released in batches of 10, starting from No. 100.

Profiles 21–30 dropped on Feb. 17, with Sebastian Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, at No. 30; Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal at No. 24; and United States Representative Tom Emmer at No. 23. Rankings 11–20 are the latest batch of profiles published.

DISCOVER COINTELEGRAPH’S TOP 100 IN CRYPTO AND BLOCKCHAIN 2023

Just outside the top 10 sits Gary Gensler, Chair of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Gensler has significant knowledge about cryptocurrencies and blockchain, and previously taught a Massachusetts Institute of Technology class on the sector. Touting a view that most digital assets fall under the classification of securities, Gensler arguably wielded a heavy hand in terms of crypto sector regulation in 2022.

Gensler sat at No. 29 on Cointelegraph’s 2022 Top 100 selections, earning a higher place on the 2023 list. As noted above, Emmer, another top 30 player, criticized Gensler in 2022 for his approach to regulating the crypto industry. Other names in the 11–20 batch include ConsenSys CEO Joseph Lubin and ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees — among others.

Cointelegraph’s 2023 Top 100 has been a publishing journey, unveiling profiles of people, concepts and entities. The list includes picks that positively and negatively impacted the crypto space — heroes and villains.

Artificial Intelligence came in at No. 93 on the list, with its profile written by ChatGPT, a chatbot from artificial intelligence firm OpenAI. The Central Bank of Nigeria came in at No. 67; Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, at No. 55; and CoinShares chief strategy officer Meltem Demirors took No. 50.

Next up, Cointelegraph will begin revealing profiles in the top 10! Stay tuned.