Crypto Leaders Claimed Nine Spots on Forbes' 30 Under 30 Finance

North America's crypto innovators claimed nearly a third of the spots in Forbes' 2025 "30 Under 30" finance category, showcasing 14 founders from nine blockchain-related companies.

These crypto leaders—10 men and 4 women—secured nine out of the 30 positions, with some sharing recognition.

Released on 4 December, the annual list highlights young trailblazers shaping industries like finance and tech.

Among the standout names is Shayne Coplan, the 26-year-old founder of Polymarket, a decentralised betting platform that gained prominence for its markets predicting the US presidential election.

Polymarket users accurately forecast Donald Trump's victory, even as traditional polls suggested a tight race with Kamala Harris.

Following the election, Coplan revealed he was raided by the FBI, which Polymarket described as "political retribution" from the outgoing Biden administration.

Many Crypto Founders Made the Cut, But Best-Showing was in 2021

Several decentralised exchange (DEX) founders secured spots on Forbes' 2025 "30 Under 30" finance list.

Among them were Ostium Labs co-founders Kaledora Kiernan-Linna and Marco Antonio Ribeiro, alongside Osmosis founders Sunny Aggarwal and Dev Ojha, who shared a position.

Drift Labs co-founder Cindy Leow also earned recognition, as did Soroush Ghodsi Boushehri, Stefan Stokic, and Jake Sylvestre—the trio behind Cortex Labs, which develops AI-capable blockchains.

Tux Pacific, founder of Entropy, known for creating on-chain AI agents, also made the list.

Other honorees included Omni Network co-founders Austin King and Tyler Tarsi, whose multichain decentralised app protocol is gaining traction, and Story co-founder Jason Zhao, whose platform focuses on IP tokenisation.

Uma Roy, co-founder of Succinct, was recognised for advancing tools that enable developers to use zero-knowledge proofs without deep cryptographic knowledge.

While crypto founders claimed the same number of spots as in 2024—when companies like Bitcoin Depot and Sei Labs were featured—their showing remains below the industry's peak in 2021, when Forbes recognised 21 "blockchain leaders and innovators.”

Could a future resurgence see crypto pioneers once again dominating the list?