15 crypto leaders make the cut for Forbes 30 Under 30

Forbes has named 15 youthful crypto business leaders on the 2022 edition of its 30 under 30 list.

Despite its misleading name, the annual Forbes 30 under 30 list is actually comprised of 600 people aged 30 and under from a total of 20 categories such as finance, gaming and music. Notable alumni from last year’s edition include FTX and Alameda Research founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and Brian Tubergen, the co-founder of U.S.-based initial token offering and exchange platform CoinList.

In the latest edition published on Dec. 1, Forbes noted that the latest batch of under 30s raised more than $1 billion combined. The publication named around 15 crypto people on the list including Alamada Research co-CEOs Caroline Ellison and Sam Trabucco, OpenSea co-founder Alex Atallah and PleasrDAO founder Emily Yang.

this is kinda funhttps://t.co/TOJofAnODf https://t.co/c4bYkfwEfP

— Sam Trabucco (@AlamedaTrabucco) December 1, 2021

The category featuring the most crypto leaders (11) was finance with names such as Clinton Bembry the founder of decentralized finance (DeFi) based trading platform Slingshot, Tegan Kline the founder of blockchain data indexing protocol Edge & Node, and Roneil Rumburg, the co-founder of blockchain-based streaming service Audius making the cut.

Related: Chamath Palihapitiya sells 15% of his stake in SoFi

Outside of Finance, PleasrDao’s Yang was named under the art category for her work in acquiring impressive NFT collections such as Edward Snowden’s first drop for 2,224 Ether (ETH) in April ($10.1 million at current prices). Blockworks co-founders Michael Ippolito and Jason Yanowitz were also included in the media category for their efforts in crypto journalism.

since college I’ve always daydreamed about being on @Forbes 30 under 30 but being a small vfx artist I never even fathomed it was possible… NFTs changed my life once again thank you @sabrinahahn for nominating me wgmi pic.twitter.com/FQvBW9R9lx

— pplpleasr (pls,pls) (@pplpleasr1) December 1, 2021

This year’s crypto contingent is a 50% increase on the 10 young crypto leaders named in the previous edition, and reflects a growing trend of crypto acceptance in mainstream media. This may be in part due to the growing number of crypto entrepreneurs who have made the list of the most wealthy figures over the past 12 months.

Last month, seven crypto founders made the Australian Financial Review’s annual list of richest entrepreneurs aged 40 and under. Forbes richest billionaires list of 2021 from April also featured 13 crypto leaders, representing a 3X increase compared to the year prior.