Crypto personalities of the year 2024

Larry Fink (BlackRock)

Larry Fink, the iconic CEO of BlackRock, has established himself as a key figure in the crypto ecosystem, redefining institutional investment around Bitcoin. Under his leadership, BlackRock paved the way for ETF Bitcoin Spot, establishing a rational framework for integrating this previously marginalised asset into traditional portfolios. With Bitcoin topping $100,000, Larry Fink embodied the balance between innovation and prudence, recommending a strategic weighting of 1-2% Bitcoin in portfolios, on a par with tech giants' equities. This positioning has given Bitcoin unprecedented legitimacy while keeping its volatility under control, propelling BlackRock's Bitcoin ETF to $56 billion at the end of the year, or nearly 3% of Bitcoins in circulation! The success of BlackRock's ETFs and the launch of the BUIDL tokenised money fund reflect growing institutional adoption. Much more than a financial strategist, Larry Fink has established himself as a true architect of the crypto future.

Sreeram Kannan (EigenLayer)

In 2024, Sreeram Kannan established himself as a key figure in the crypto ecosystem, combining intellectual innovation and entrepreneurial pragmatism (read his interview). EigenLayer, its protocol enabling emerging blockchain applications to "borrow back" the security of Ethereum, has reinvigorated a sector. With more than $160 million raised from prestigious investors such as Andreessen Horowitz and hundreds of millions in deposits even before its full launch, EigenLayer has established itself as a pillar of the Ethereum ecosystem (read its fundamental analysis). A former academic in computational biology, he sees blockchains as "the greatest civilisational advance since the American Constitution," going beyond technical issues to explore how to build a global digital trust system. This move from academic objectivity to the crypto world has not been without challenges: he has had to deal with community expectations and financial constraints, turning criticism into opportunity.

Jesse Pollak (Coinbase)

Jesse Pollak, creator of Base, Coinbase's Layer 2 solution, has established himself as a key figure in the crypto ecosystem. An engineer who joined Coinbase in 2017 and is now a member of the executive team, he heads up the wallet and Base departments with a titanic ambition: to attract billions of users to the on-chain universe. Since Base's launch in August 2023 (read our fundamental analysis), he has transformed the second-layer blockchain landscape by creating a decentralised, accessible platform based on Ethereum. With 21 million active addresses over 30 days and $13 billion locked up according to L2BEAT, Base has become a major lever for democratising access to decentralised tools. This marriage of engineering and strategic vision makes Jesse Pollak a pillar of the industry, representing a new generation of entrepreneurs (watch his interview).

Sandy Peng (Scroll)

Sandy Peng, co-founder of Scroll, has established herself as one of the singular personalities in the crypto ecosystem. With a unique background ranging from the United Nations to the Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission, via her role as a partner at Fission Capital, Sandy Peng has combined technical expertise and global strategy to redefine blockchain standards. In less than a year, Scroll, his Layer 2 solution based on ZK-Rollup technology, has become one of the most high-profile ZK Layer 2s, with more than 100 active projects and over $700 million in total value locked up. Notably, L2 has the best compatibility with the Ethereum virtual machine, making it easier to develop applications. In September 2024, Sandy Peng broadened her influence by joining World Liberty Financial (WLFI) as a strategic advisor. Backed by Donald Trump's family, WLFI embodies an ambition: to reinvent decentralised financial protocols on a global scale. It will leverage its understanding of blockchain scalability to guide this project.

Justin Drake (Ethereum)

In 2024, Ethereum key researcher Justin Drake made his mark at Devcon Bangkok with the presentation of the Beam Chain, a bold proposal to modernise the network's consensus layer. This project aims to replace the current Beacon Chain with an advanced technology incorporating four-second blocks for accelerated finality, staking accessible from 1 ETH to increase decentralisation (compared with 32 at present), and post-quantum signatures based on SNARK proofs. By taking advantage of the latest cryptographic advances, the Beam Chain promises to overcome current inefficiencies while guaranteeing security and modularity. With zkVMs and off-chain 'SNARK-ification', it could offer unique flexibility to integrate new technologies without compromising Ethereum's stability. However, this project, scheduled to run until 2029, has not escaped criticism. Figures such as Martin Köppelmann (Gnosis) and Eric Wall (Taproot Wizards) believe that this timetable is too slow in the face of competition from fast blockchains such as Solana. But Justin Drake defends a cautious approach, pointing out that securing $400 billion in assets requires a rigorous social and technical consensus.