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Most Influential 2021: Devin Finzer

OpenSea was most recently valued at $10 billion.

Updated May 11, 2023, 6:26 p.m. Published Dec 10, 2021, 8:16 p.m.
(Adam Levine/CoinDesk)

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

(Kevin Ross/CoinDesk)
(Kevin Ross/CoinDesk)

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KuCoin Hits Record Market Share as 2025 Volumes Outpace Crypto Market

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KuCoin captured a record share of centralised exchange volume in 2025, with more than $1.25tn traded as its volumes grew faster than the wider crypto market.

What to know:

  • KuCoin recorded over $1.25 trillion in total trading volume in 2025, equivalent to an average of roughly $114 billion per month, marking its strongest year on record.
  • This performance translated into an all-time high share of centralised exchange volume, as KuCoin’s activity expanded faster than aggregate CEX volumes, which slowed during periods of lower market volatility.
  • Spot and derivatives volumes were evenly split, each exceeding $500 billion for the year, signalling broad-based usage rather than reliance on a single product line.
  • Altcoins accounted for the majority of trading activity, reinforcing KuCoin’s role as a primary liquidity venue beyond BTC and ETH at a time when majors saw more muted turnover.
  • Even as overall crypto volumes softened mid-year, KuCoin maintained elevated baseline activity, indicating structurally higher user engagement rather than short-lived volume spikes.

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Solana’s new phase is ‘much more about finance,’ says Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante

Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante (CoinDesk)

The Solana ecosystem has spent the past year doubling down on a financial infrastructure, Backpack CEO Armani Ferrante told CoinDesk.

What to know:

  • Solana’s latest phase looks a lot less flashy than its memecoin-fueled highs, and that may be the goal.
  • Armani Ferrante, CEO of crypto exchange Backpack, told CoinDesk in an interview the Solana ecosystem has spent the past year doubling down on a more sober focus: financial infrastructure. A
  • fter years of experimentation as the wider crypto industry focused on NFTs, games and social tokens, attention is now shifting back toward decentralized finance, trading and payments.