Cryptocurrency is a multi-billion dollar industry. With a current market cap of $226 billion USD (at the time of writing), this once fledgling industry has grown into the massive market that it is today. Let’s take a look at some of the key players in the crypto industry: The teams behind the top 5 market caps, and how they got to where they are today.
Bitcoin (BTC)
Bitcoin is the OG blockchain and cryptocurrency. It was created as a response to the global financial crisis in 2008. On 31 September 2008, Satoshi Nakamoto released his whitepaper “Bitcoin: A Peer to Peer Electronic Cash System”. Since then, Bitcoin has grown into a $150 billion network (at the time of writing), with roughly 5.8 million active users, largely thanks to exchanges and trading platforms facilitating the trade of BTC, like eToro, Binance or Coinbase.
Bitcoin’s price peaked in December 2017, when it reached around $20,000 USD per coin. So, who are the teams behind Bitcoin’s rise to the top of the cryptocurrency empire?
- Satoshi Nakamoto: The mysterious founder and creator of Bitcoin – Nakamoto’s true identity remains a mystery to this day. Many so-called “Faketoshi’s” have been named in the media, including Craig Wright, but so far none have proven to be the real deal. Satoshi is undoubtedly amongst the key players in the crypto industry.
- Roger Ver: Roger Ver is the Executive Chairman (and former CEO) of Bitcoin.com, and leader of Bitcoin Cash.
Ripple (XRP)
Ripple was founded by Jeb McCaleb and Chris Larsen in 2012, although the concept was originally conceived by Ryan Fugger in 2004. Ripple was built by Arthur Britto and David Schwartz, and Ripple’s coin is XRP. It’s current market cap is $12.6 billion.
Ethereum (ETH)
Ethereum is another blockchain, built on the basis of smart contracts. Vitalik Buterin founded Ethereum in 2014, and it went live in 2015 – with 72 million coins “pre-mined”. Ethereum’s token is called ETH and it has a current market cap of $20 billion.
Other key players include Anthony Di Iorio, Charles Hoskinson, Mihai Alisie, and Amir Chetrit.
Bitcoin Cash (BCH)
Bitcoin Cash came about as a result of political disputes within the Bitcoin developer community. In 2017, Bitcoin underwent a hard fork – and separated into two systems: Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash. Bitcoin Cash has a current market cap of $4.12 billion, and its coin is BCH.
Key players in Bitcoin Cash include Roger Ver, who is also the Executive Chairman of Bitcoin.com. Bitcoin Cash experienced another hard fork in 2018, but we’ll touch on that at a later stage.
Litecoin (LTC)
Litecoin is another hard fork of Bitcoin, and was founded in 2011 by Charlie Lee – the CEO. Litecoin is developed by the Litecoin Core Development Team, and remains one of the top 10 cryptocurrencies to date. Franklyn Richards is the COO of Litecoin.
Litecoin has a current market cap of $3.5 billion.
Cryptocurrency: The future of global finances
Without a doubt, cryptocurrency has a huge role to play in the future of global finances. In just over a decade, it has grown into a $226 billion industry – and is only going to get bigger. When looking at the key players in the crypto industry, one thing is clear: the level of ingenuity and creativity is unparalleled. Cryptocurrency is only going to get bigger, so we’re due for an incredibly exciting future.
Hitesh Malviya is the Founder of ItsBlockchain. He is one of the most early adopters of blockchain & cryptocurrency enthusiast in India. After being into space for a few years, he started IBC in 2016 to help other early adopters learn about the technology.
Before IBC, Hitesh has founded 4 companies in the cyber security & IT space.
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