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According to CoinMarketCap.com, just a year ago, the total market capitalization of all cryptocurrencies reached $2.9 trillion. Last year there was a hemorrhaging in the market and nearly $2 trillion was destroyed. Bitcoin, the largest cryptocurrency, decreased almost 70%, but the market showed remarkable resistance in the region of $20,000.
Five crypto-players have been rated as the most influential in the current cryptocurrency market landscape in this amazing year of cryptocurrencies, and have been included in MarketWatch's 50 Most Influential Market Players list. Two of them, FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried and Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao, clashed on Monday. On Sunday, Zhao FTX said that Binance would sell the remaining FTT tokens, and Bankman-Fried responded that "competitors are trying to catch us with false rumors." It continues to be an important year for cryptocurrencies, and here are the five most influential crypto players in the digital currency landscape.
Sam Bankman Fry
Three years later, Sam Bankman-Fried or SBF appeared out of nowhere and became the closest cryptocurrency to the central bank. He founded FTX, the world's second largest centralized cryptocurrency exchange, and oversees the trading firm Alameda Research. In the year By 2022, the 30-year-old Bankman-Fried will attempt to grow the digital currency market by giving it nearly $1 trillion at risk. Anthony Scaramucci called him "the new John Pierpont Morgan," and Bankman-Fried later bought stock in Scaramucci's financial firm. It provided $400 million in loans and $485 million in loans to cryptocurrency brokerage Voyager Digital, which ultimately filed for bankruptcy. FTX buys Voyager assets. Bankman-Fried bought a 7.6 percent stake in Robin Hood Markets. Much of FTX's revenue comes from off-the-shelf deals, which are not limited to the U.S., but Bankman-Fried is pushing for industry-friendly crypto regulation in the U.S. and around the world. In April, he hosted his own panel discussion, sitting down with Bill Clinton and Tony Blair.
Changpeng Zhao
Changpeng Zhao oversees the world's largest currency exchange, with more than 500 cryptocurrencies and related products listed in daily trading, facilitating $70 trillion this year. Binance hosts two-thirds of global cryptocurrency exchanges as a central exchange. In many ways, the crypto market today is made up of guys called CZ crypto enthusiasts. A coder with experience in market making and high-frequency trading, he moved from China to Japan to Dubai after founding Binance in 2017. The company has no official headquarters and offers access to derivative leverage, which is illegal in many countries. This year, however, CZ implemented a regulatory strategy that resulted in Binance gaining regulatory approval in France. Elon Musk also invested $500 million to own Binance's Twitter account.
Alex Mashinsky
Alex Mashinsky built a crypto lender with 1.7 million customers and $20 billion in assets by paying 17% API interest on crypto deposits and lending digital assets to other businesses. Celsius Network is established alongside other lightly regulated cryptocurrency companies that provide traditional banking services. But since June, Selsey and at least four other companies have stopped payments, trades and transfers between accounts. Celsius filed for bankruptcy protection in July, and the bankruptcy put additional pressure on cryptocurrency prices. As Celsius became clear, Bitcoin fell from $30,000 to $20,000 and the digital currency's total market capitalization fell below $1 trillion for the first time since January 2021. Mashinsky took over as CEO in September and the risk was looming. .
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Born in South Korea and educated at Stanford University, Do Kwon founded Terraform Labs, the company behind Terra, one of the most popular blockchains of its time. Terra's stablecoin, TerraUSD (now TerraClassicUSD), was once traded against the US dollar, but in May it crashed to near zero. Luna, another cryptocurrency backing TerraUSD also failed. Almost $50 trillion in market capitalization of both coins was lost within a week. To protect TerraUSD shares, a custodian of the Luna Foundation sold more than 80,000 bitcoins from its reserves, resulting in the largest cryptocurrency sale of the year. The collapse of Terra also affected several cryptocurrency companies and funds. For example, crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital lost more than $200 million on its investment in Luna and defaulted on a loan from a major crypto lender, triggering an industry-wide credit crunch. The British Virgin Islands court decided to settle the "Three Arrows". Kwon is being investigated in South Korea and Interpol has issued a "red notice" for his arrest.
Su-Zu
Su Zhou, co-founder and former CEO of Three Arrows Capital, has been at the center of credit cryptocurrencies this year, helping to drive down the digital currency's value. Singaporean hedge funds have made big bets on digital currencies such as Luna, which is worth about $10 trillion at its peak and which Zoo has promoted on social media. As Luna and other stocks fell, Three Arrows couldn't meet its margin call and filed for bankruptcy in June. Voyager Digital Three Arrows is a crypto platform that owes nearly $650 million and eventually filed for bankruptcy. When crypto broker Genesis Digital Currency Group failed, Three Arrows owed $1.2 billion. Zhou has recently been tight-lipped about his condition, but friends say he has been sleeping in Dubai.