The top ten most influential people in Bitcoin in 2023: Will they have the final say in 2024?

The entire crypto industry will be ups and downs in 2023. The Silicon Valley Bank crisis at the beginning of the year caused the market that had just been heavily exposed to FTX to continue to fluctuate, and then began to usher in various regulatory storms. Industry giants People are in danger.

However, "danger" and "opportunity" always go hand in hand. As the Bitcoin halving approaches, the expectation of the adoption of the Bitcoin spot ETF, coupled with the rise of the BRC20 narrative, has triggered a craze for inscriptions on various public chains. The superposition of various narratives has brought about an upsurge in market enthusiasm at the end of the year. Bitcoin once exceeded $45,000. , with an annual increase of more than 150%, the market has entered the early stages of a bull market.

So among these treacherous waves, who are the influential figures? The direction of the entire market in 2024 still depends on them?

Retreat bravely from the rapids - CZ

On November 23, 2023, CZ announced his resignation as BN CEO, stating that he would not hold executive positions, but would still retain a majority stake in Binance, and also stated that he would step back behind the scenes and become an investor. As soon as the news came out, it shocked the entire industry.

Why did CZ suddenly resign? The reason is that on November 22, 2023, BN and its CEO Changpeng Zhao (CZ) pleaded guilty to US federal charges. BN was charged with three counts, including anti-money laundering, operating an unlicensed remittance business, and violating U.S. sanctions. For subsequent development, BN reached a settlement with the SEC at the cost of a huge fine of US$4.368 billion, allowing it to continue operating, while CZ Resign.

In fact, this lawsuit has been going on for five years. As early as 2018, the U.S. Department of Justice sued BN for suspected unlicensed remittances, money laundering and violation of U.S. sanctions. The crime was investigated, only to be finally settled this year.
However, looking back at BN’s growth from a small transparent company founded in 2017 to today’s industry leader, CZ has contributed a lot in the past six years. It can be said that it has built a diversified business system for the industry from scratch. Including spot, futures, options, mining pools, cloud services, public chains and other fields. At the same time, it will also develop the original single CEX into a comprehensive Web3 group, and integrate its products, services and brand influence. Spread globally.
In the past 6 years, under the leadership of CZ, BN has achieved leading positions in trading platforms, public chains, wallets, investments and other fields. But as BN becomes an industry giant, CZ may have realized that as an industry leader, the biggest challenge at this time may no longer be competition, but to assume the responsibility of leading the encryption industry toward compliance.
Therefore, after CZ left office, some people said that it was an act of "burning oneself for light and illuminating the path of compliance innovation for latecomers", and even paved the way for the "advancing ETF".

A slap in the face - SEC Chairman

Self-appointed Since becoming SEC Chairman, especially in 2023, Gary Gensler has launched a strict crackdown on encryption regulation, which has also attracted him much attention in the encryption field. Most notably, he led the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple, levying multi-million dollar fines against crypto trading platforms such as Kraken. This has triggered a wave of fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) throughout the crypto industry, causing concern among other top platforms as well.

Speaking of his crackdown on encryption, what made him famous was the SEC lawsuit he led against the digital payment protocol Ripple in December 2020. In the name of protecting consumers, this case severely cracked down on the staking services of encryption platforms and attempted to turn all Tokens into securities.
The recent victory in the prosecution of CZ and BN is another regulatory milestone won by the SEC under Gensler. In addition to these two encryption lawsuits, according to incomplete statistics, the encryption cases designed by the SEC include:
1) Bittrex and its former CEO were accused of operating unregistered exchanges, brokers and clearing houses mechanism.
2) Two people involved in Ormeus Coin fraud were fined more than $23 million.
3) Tron founder Justin Sun and his company were accused of illegally selling unregistered securities, fraud and market manipulation.
4) Terraform Labs and Do Kwon are accused of orchestrating a multi-billion dollar crypto asset securities fraud.
5) Trade Coin Club was accused of running a $295 million crypto Ponzi scheme.
6) The SEC filed a lawsuit against Dragonchain, alleging unregistered crypto-asset securities offerings.
7) The SEC charged 11 people suspected of creating and promoting Forsage, a $300 million fraudulent Ponzi scheme.
8) The U.S. Second Circuit Court orders Terraform Labs and Do Kwon to comply with SEC subpoenas.
9) The SEC urgently halted the Token distribution of the Telegram cryptocurrency project TON, saying it was suspected of selling unregistered securities.
10) The SEC filed charges against Block.one and settled by paying a $24 million civil penalty involving the issuance of the unregistered digital token EOS.
In short, it can be said that as the encryption world develops and grows, the SEC’s regulatory hammer under Gensler follows closely.

Bear Market Pillar - Vitalik Buterin

Ethereum has also entered its tenth year since its creation in 2014. Under the leadership of Vitalik, Ethereum has made breakthrough contributions to the development of encryption, from an initial platform that can only support digital assets to It can support various decentralized applications and is known as the "World Computer". If Satoshi Nakamoto is the creator of the blockchain, then Vitalik Buterin  is another key encryption leader of the blockchain.

Vitalik determined the earliest Ethereum roadmap: PoW to PoS (Phase 0) → Data sharding (Phase 1) → Execution sharding (Phase 2). Subsequently, it was continuously revised and debugged during the development process, and expanded to the Ethereum roadmap centered on Rollup: The Merge, The Surge, The Scourge, The Verge, The Purge and The Splurge.

Even if the overall development of Ethereum in 2023 is relatively flat, the most important one is the Shanghai upgrade completed in April, and the resulting upgrade Complete the rise of the pledge track.
Under the unsatisfactory market conditions in 2022, only Ethereum layer2 experienced an explosive growth stage at the end of the year, becoming the main attraction that will continue into the first half of 2023, especially the leading development of the leader Arbitrum. According to L2beat data, the total value locked (TVL) of Layer 2 has currently reached 20.1 billion US dollars (as shown in the figure below), leaving room for development for Builders in this stage of the bear market.

Vitalik is more optimistic about Rollup, so it will be developed in combination with privacy protection and zero-knowledge proofs (ZK) technology. Although the current Layer 2 ecosystem is still dominated by OP-Rollup, with the advancement of zero-knowledge proof technology, ZK Rollup is likely to become the final Layer 2 solution.

In addition, I have to mention the next upgrade of Ethereum-the Cancun upgrade. It has been revealed thatif there are no unexpected circumstances, it will be launched in Cancun. The test will be officially launched on January 17, 2024. If successful, this will significantly increase the transaction volume per second of the Ethereum network. It will also open a new stage of development of Ethereum's data storage and retrieval capabilities, providing a foundation for Ethereum Layer 2. further pave the way for development.

The founder of the inscription craze - the founder of Ordinals

The recent carnival in the inscription market has exceeded many people's expectations, and the founder of this event needs to be traced back to Casey Rodarmor, the founder of Ordinals.

Rodarmor has been engaged in technical work since 2010. He has worked at Google and Chaincode Labs, and has also done related work for the main code implementation of the Bitcoin core protocol. Last year, he also served as co-host of Bitcoin BitDevs in San Francisco. Bitcoin BitDevs started in New York City as a community that holds monthly meetups to discuss some of the more technical aspects of Bitcoin. Bitcoin BitDevs is an important part of Bitcoin's grassroots culture. .
At the beginning of this year, the Ordinal protocol developed by Rodarmor enabled Ordinal NFT and inscriptions to be implemented on Bitcoin. This is Bitcoin’s second development in Bitcoin since the colored coins that appeared in 2012 and the derivative Counterparty in 2014. Try NFT on the currency.
The Ordinal protocol outlines a method of sequentially numbering Satoshis (the smallest unit of Bitcoin, representing one hundred millionth of a Bitcoin). Once a Sat's serial number is obtained, users can burn data onto those Sats to create digital artifacts, which was the original description of Rodarmor vis-à-vis NFTs. As of December 27, 2023, the cumulative Ordinals minting fee reached 5028 BTC.

Source: dune.com

Rodarmor said Ordinals was inspired by Satoshi Nakamoto, the pseudonymous founder of Bitcoin. Satoshi Nakamoto mentioned something called "atoms" in the original Bitcoin codebase.
Currently Rodarmor is working full-time on Ordinals. In September this year, Rodarmor proposed a new Bitcoin FT protocol design concept called "Rune", also known as the "Rune" protocol, but it is not yet online.
However, regardless of the subsequent development of runes, Ordinals proposed by Rodarmor inspired the development of BRC20 Token. In addition to starting the inscription craze, it also triggered the further development of the Bitcoin ecosystem.

The financial giant waiting to open the door - BlackRock CEO

BlackRock applied for a spot Bitcoin ETF on June 15, 2023. This news caused a sensation in the encryption industry. The SEC has rejected dozens of applications for similar funds over the past decade, but why has BlackRock’s application caused such a stir in the industry?
On the one hand, the SEC has previously rejected applications for spot Bitcoin ETFs on the grounds that it is worried about fraud and market manipulation and wants to protect investors, including the previous collapse of FTX, which led to further tightening of cryptocurrencies this year. Regulation of the company.
As the world's largest asset management company, BlackRock in particular manages assets that are approximately 10 times the market capitalization of the entire cryptocurrency industry. If the ETF application is successfully approved, its large amount of funds will It will have a major impact on the cryptocurrency industry and drive up the price of crypto assets. If the application is approved, it may trigger the next round of bull market.

On the other hand, BlackRock's move encouraged eight financial companies including Fidelity, Invesco, VanEck, Cathie Wood's Ark Investment Management, and WisdomTree Following suit, these companies submitted corresponding applications, which greatly promoted the development of Bitcoin ETFs.
BlackRock CEO Larry Fink also has a long history with Bitcoin. Back in 2017, Fink said he was a “big believer” in cryptocurrencies but was concerned about market speculation at the time. On July 16, 2018, he stated that BlackRock clients were not interested in cryptocurrencies and slowed down BlackRock’s propensity to invest in the field. In 2019, as the market improved, BlackRock hired Robbie Mitchnick, Ripple's former marketing director, and began to continue exploring the feasibility of cryptocurrency. In 2020, attitudes toward cryptocurrencies began to change, believing that cryptocurrencies will be necessary to exist and may replace gold. In 2021, Fink said that he is studying Bitcoin again, but has not yet made a conclusive conclusion. In 2023, BlackRock submitted an application for a Bitcoin ETF, and Fink said that cryptocurrencies are expected to surpass global currencies.

Life imprisonment - SBF

In November 2023, on the first anniversary of FTX’s thunder, its founder SBF was convicted of seven charges, including fraud and money laundering Etc., prosecutors called this "one of the largest financial frauds in U.S. history."
What happened?
SBF, formerly known as Sam Bankman-Fried, is the co-founder and former CEO (CEO) of the bankrupt CEX FTX and encryption company Alameda Research, FTX It emerged in the bull market in 2020 and became the third largest CEX in the world, attracting the favor of more than one million users and many well-known investment institutions, with its peak valuation reaching US$32 billion.
In November 2022, CoinDesk disclosed a financial document, revealing the potential debt problems of FTX and Alameda Research. This information caused panic among users and led to a run on funds. Within a few days, the FTX Group declared bankruptcy , SBF resigned. In 2021, the 28-year-old SBF was already on the Forbes 30 Under 30 list, but in just two years, his real-time net worth is now $0.
After FTX went bankrupt, more than $370 million in assets were stolen, triggering an investigation by U.S. prosecutors. To cope with the chaos, FTX asked former regulatory officials for help, but the company's collapse raised questions about regulation. In court documents, FTX revealed that more than $2 billion was transferred to SBF. FTX accused SBF and other former executives of embezzling US$1 billion in company funds. The trial involved 20 witnesses, including the former CEO, SBF's ex-girlfriend and other executives.
The trial of this case began in early October 2023 and lasted for one month. The sentencing date is set for March 28, 2024. If SBF is sentenced to the maximum penalty for all charges by then, he will face 115 years in prison.

However, according to relevant news on December 30, 2023, the US government dropped six charges against SBF, including campaign finance violations and conspiracy to commit bribery. charges, meaning SBF will not need to face a second trial.

Meme leader - Musk

Musk and The most famous relationship with encryption is his story with Dogecoin, but Musk’s relationship with encryption has a long history. As early as 2021, Musk’s companies Tesla and SpaceX both purchased large amounts of Bitcoin.

Due to his acquisition of Twitter in October 2022, Musk changed the Twitter logo to a dog head on April 5 this year. This move caused the price of Dogecoin to rise by more than 100% in an instant. 20%, please refer to the article Musk changed the Twitter logo to a Dogecoin emoticon. What is his intention?
Subsequently on July 30, Twitter changed its classic bluebird logo to "X", but this move was hailed as having a major impact on cryptocurrency. Because in 1999, Musk co-founded X.com, an online financial services and email payment company, which is now PayPal, becoming one of the world's earliest and most successful online payment processing companies.

And now Musk is reinventing Twitter into a broader new service called X, which is likely intentional Turn the iconic social media app into a payments platform. There is speculation that he will integrate other crypto assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum, as well as stablecoins such as USDC and especially Dogecoin, a favorite among billionaires.
Therefore, Musk is likely to continue to bring big changes to the encryption industry.

Move forward with pressure - Coinbase CEO

Follow With CZ leaving BN and SBF going to jail, Brian Armstrong became the biggest figure still in trouble. Brian Armstrong is the co-founder and CEO of Coinbase, and he also has considerable influence on the encryption industry.

First of all, Coinbase launched its own Layer 2 blockchain Base and derivatives exchange Blade this year, and is expected to launch a Bitcoin ETF in 2024. This is undoubtedly a positive move for the next wave of the crypto market. prepare for.
At the same time, like BN, Coinbase also faces regulatory challenges and has been accused of illegal trading. Previously, the SEC regarded all tokens as securities, which had an impact on the entire cryptocurrency industry. Armstrong also moved forward vigorously, likening Coinbase to the local sheriff and calling for action to solve the regulatory problems led by American institutions. Armstrong once posted on social media platform Choosing to do the hard thing is the right decision.”
In fact, as early as January of the beginning of the year, Coinbase acquired FairX, a derivatives exchange regulated by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The acquisition is a key step for Coinbase to offer crypto derivatives to U.S. retail and institutional customers. He also founded the organization "Stand With Crypto" in hopes of protecting the industry from government criticism.
From a macro level, with BN receiving regulatory suppression and another competitor Kraken also facing similar accusations, it is a positive factor for Coinbase’s individual development, causing Coinbase’s price to rise by 200% this year, and its market value to exceed 25 billion. Dollar. However, the development of Coinbase has not entered a smooth road from now on. What it has to face next is the poor development of the overall encryption market. Although some settlement agreements have resolved some major problems in encryption this year, greater efforts are still needed to boost the overall market. catalyst.
At present, the next important catalyst is the possibility of regulatory approval of a Bitcoin ETF.The aforementioned BlackRock announced its application to launch a Bitcoin ETF, which happens to be hosted by Coinbase. Hopes for ETF approval have driven the rise of Bitcoin and Coinbase, and the specific subsequent developments are worthy of attention.

AI Cheating——OpenAI CEO

Since ChatGPT was released on November 30, 2022, it quickly became one of the fastest-growing consumer applications in history just two months after its release, with the number of monthly active users reaching 100 million. Sam, CEO of its production company OpenAI Altman also attracted much attention.
However, in addition to the explosion of ChatGPT at the beginning of the year, last month several researchers sent a letter to the board of directors stating that OpenAI had made a major AI discovery and may threaten humanity, leading to the removal of the board of directors. Altman caused a stir.
On November 18, 2023, OpenAI announced through its official website that Sam Altman, the current CEO and known as the "Father of ChatGPT", would resign as CEO and leave the board of directors As soon as the news came out, Subsequently, a large number of employees announced that they would advance and retreat with him, and also chose to leave. The news came suddenly, and then he announced the shocking news that he would join Microsoft with his assistant. However, in another reversal, five days after being fired, Sam Altman once again became the CEO of OpenAI.
Altman said on X that his decisions in the past few days, including choosing to join Microsoft, were all to preserve the OpenAI team and mission. Now that OpenAI has a new board of directors and has gained the support of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Altman looks forward to returning to OpenAI and maintaining an excellent partnership with Microsoft.

Translation: I love OpenAI, and everything I've done over the past few days has been to keep this team and its mission intact. When I decided to join Microsoft last Sunday, it was clear that it was the best choice for me and the team. With the support of the new board of directors and Satya, I...

In addition, in July this year, Altman created and launched the Worldcoin project and Token , a project that addresses global online identity authentication and income inequality issues. Since most people in the world currently cannot verify their identity through digital means, Worldcoin hopes to build the world's largest and fair digital identity and currency system to help everyone enter the global financial system. However, The project is currently facing some regulatory pushback.
As one of the directions worthy of attention in the encryption field in 2024, AI has to be mentioned by Sam Altman.

The pie is finally profitable - President of El Salvador

It is reported that as of December 4, 2023, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said that according to the current market price of Bitcoin, if it is sold, not only can 100% of the investment be recovered, but also more than $3.6 million can be obtained profit. And all this is inseparable from the promotion of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele.

As a small Central American country, El Salvador does not have its own legal currency and chooses to use the US dollar. This has had some impact on the economy. People working outside need to pay expensive remittance fees, which is not conducive to increasing GDP. About 70% of people in El Salvador do not have bank accounts or credit cards. In addition, for the government, the economy is stable but there is constant turmoil. Not a good situation, and in order to repair the economy to some extent, El Salvador needs to attract new financial investors.
External factors aside, Bukele is also a true lover of Bitcoin. So, driven by Bukele, on June 9, 2021, El Salvador voted with an "absolute majority" in favor of officially passing the bill, making Bitcoin a legal tender in the country. El Salvador became the first country to announce that it would use Bitcoin as a legal currency. A country that is legal tender. The decision attracted widespread attention around the world. Since the implementation of this policy, El Salvador has begun to actively promote digital payments and financial inclusion, hoping to provide residents with wider financial services and convenience through the adoption of Bitcoin. In addition, according to sources, since the policy was announced, the country will Buy one Bitcoin.
In addition, this move is seen as an innovative attempt at the financial system and may influence the legal monetary policy choices of other countries in the future. Over time, El Salvador’s relationship with Bitcoin will become an important example of global digital currency experimentation.

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Faithful Believer - Michael Saylor