10 of the Most Influential People in Cryptocurrency: 2018 Edition

This year has been a tumultuous year for Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies thus far — but a great year, overall. Looking ahead, here are 10 people to follow for market-impacting crypto news in 2018.

As cryptocurrency continues to move into the mainstream and dominate the minds of many people eager to start crypto trading, everyone is looking for the best sources of cryptocurrency trading information, tips and advice.

We decided to get a jump on the best sources of crypto news in 2018 based on the people we followed religiously this past year.

10 People to Follow for Market-Impacting Cryptocurrency News in 2018

In addition to our own Invest in Blockchain (follow us on Twitter!), we’ve compiled a list of influencers we often go to for up-to-date crypto news.

Everyone on this list has shared accurate, helpful crypto insights on a pretty regular basis; a pretty impressive feat considering how unpredictable these markets are.

These top crypto influencers helped us make crypto trading decisions, taught us something new, and we’ve watched their observations and predictions shape market activity.

There’s no way we could possibly rank each of these individuals, so we’re aren’t going to list them in any particular order.

If you’ve got any names you think deserve to be on this list, we’d love to hear from you in the comments at the end of the article below.

Nick Szabo

Twitter, Website

Nick Szabo is a computer scientist and cryptographer who is best known for his research surrounding digital contracts — today we know them as smart contracts. He’s been such an influence on the Ethereum team that they labelled a sub-unit of value token as a Szabo –just as Bitcoin has labelled a sub-unit of its cryptocurrency a Satoshi.

Some speculate that Nick is Satoshi Nakamoto, a claim that he’s repeatedly denied. But he has been, and continues to be, a strong influence in the cryptocurrency space.

Vitalik Buterin

Twitter, Website 

Vitalik is the Russian-Canadian co-founder and the main frontman for Ethereum, which is both a platform and a cryptocurrency (ether). Ethereum is special because it’s one of the first blockchain protocols to gain heavy investment and adoption from companies like JP Morgan, Scotiabank, and Microsoft.

Andreas Antonopoulos

Twitter, Website

Andreas Antonopoulos is one of the most well known authorities on Bitcoin and he’s written at length on the subject. Check out Mastering Bitcoin and The Internet of Money –two very important reads for Bitcoin beginners.

If you search YouTube for him, the man is everywhere and his talks are a great place to start gaining a deeper understanding of the context that surrounds cryptocurrency. You can also find him on the Let’s Talk Bitcoin podcast.

Marc Andreessen

Twitter, Website

Marc Andreessen is an internet staple; he had a hand in bringing the world’s first 2 mainstream browsers into this world (Mosaic, Netscape), along with a range of startups including Ning and Opsware. He sits on the board of several reputable companies and organisations, such as Facebook, eBay, and HP Enterprise. The man is legend, and his reputation extends into cryptocurrency.

As of 2015, it’s been reported that he’s invested over $227 million USD into Bitcoin; he’s got serious skin in the game and his word comes with market-impacting influence.

Erik Voorhees

Twitter, Website

Erik Voorhees is the CEO of Shapeshift, a really handy tool that allows you to convert cryptocurrencies from one to another that’s built into crypto wallets like Exodus.

Erik is very vocal on Twitter and shares a wealth of information for both crypto beginners and experts or professionals.

Charlie Lee

Twitter, Website

Charlie Lee is the creator of Litecoin and former Director of Engineering over at Coinbase and ex-Google employee. He’s frequently a guest on leading blogs and news organizations around the globe.

Winklevoss Twins

Twitter, Twitter, Website

Yep, those Winklevoss twins. Tyler and Cameron have moved on from their failed social network dreams and caught up to the next big thing: running a cryptocurrency exchange.

Gemini crypto exchange successfully became the first regulated exchange on the market, and it trades both Bitcoin and Ether.

Adam Ludwin

Twitter, Website

Adam Ludwin is the cofounder and CEO of Chain, an “enterprise-grade blockchain infrastructure that enables organizations to build better financial services from the ground up”.

Adam provides plenty of insight into the inner workings of crypto both via Twitter, and on the Chain blog — and occasionally mitigates crypto trollings from bank CEOs.

Jon Matonis

Twitter, Website

Jon Matonis has his fingers in a lot of different crypto pies. He is currently the Founding Director of the Bitcoin Foundation, Chairman of Globitex (institutional-grade Bitcoin/derivatives exchange), Board Director of First Global Credit, and an Editorial Board member at Coindesk.

Oh, there’s more; he’s also the CEO of Hushmail and works with the startup team at RSA’s Verisign –the latter not being listed on his LinkedIn profile.

Jon is a very knowledgeable (and vocal) proponent of the cryptocurrency space — he’s got all the hallmarks of a seasoned crypto expert.

In Summary

There’s a whole lot of great and influential people working hard to ensure that blockchain technology meets its full potential. Whenever you get concerned about the future of the blockchain, rest easy; think of the countless venture capitalists, CEOs, software developers, cryptographers and internet pioneers that stand behind it.

 

Anyone to add to this list? We’d love to hear from you in the comments.