Most Influential 2021: Devin Finzer

Devin Finzer is the co-founder and CEO of the world’s largest non-fungible token (NFT) platform, OpenSea. Finzer says his interest was sparked by the feline-themed token project, CryptoKitties, in 2017, the same year he started developing OpenSea as part of startup incubator Y Combinator. Sometimes called the “eBay for NFTs,” Finzer’s decentralized marketplace, run by a team of 20 and backed by venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), routinely sees daily volumes in excess of $100 million.

The firm was most recently valued at $10 billion, making it one of the largest crypto companies operating. There are questions of whether OpenSea will follow competitor platform, like Rarible, in issuing a governance token. The recently hired Chief Financial Officer Brian Roberts, who shepherded ride-hailing app Lyft through a public listing, has said “it would be foolish not to think about going public.”

The Complete List: CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2021