Most Influential 2021: Devin Finzer
OpenSea was most recently valued at $10 billion.

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

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Pudgy Penguins: A New Blueprint for Tokenized Culture

Pudgy Penguins is building a multi-vertical consumer IP platform — combining phygital products, games, NFTs and PENGU to monetize culture at scale.
What to know:
Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
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Deus X CEO Tim Grant: We aren't replacing finance; we're integrating it

The Deus X CEO discussed his journey into digital assets, the company's infrastructure-led growth strategy, and why his Consensus Hong Kong panel promises "real talk only."
What to know:
- Tim Grant entered crypto in 2015 after early exposure to Ripple and Coinbase, drawn by blockchain’s ability to improve traditional finance rather than replace it.
- Deus X combines investing and operating to build regulated digital finance infrastructure across payments, prime services, and institutional DeFi.
- Grant will be speaking at Consensus Hong Kong in February.










