Announcing Fortune Crypto 40

by Arthur · February 23, 2023

The past year brought brutal setbacks for the crypto industry in the form of financial scandals, regulatory punishment and public distrust. However, all of this overshadows the fact that crypto is still a trillion-dollar industry and that hard-working entrepreneurs continue to build products and services that push blockchain steadily into the mainstream. It is time to recognize them.

Therefore Fortune is launching the first Crypto 40, a new franchise that will recognize the leading companies in eight categories of crypto, ranging from traditional finance (“TradFi”) to infrastructure to DeFi to NFTs. By doing so, Fortune will draw on its nearly century of expertise in telling readers who’s who in the business world.

There is no shortage of crypto lists and rankings, but almost all of these are completely subjective and often constitute a popularity contest decided by a few editors. Fortune Crypto 40 is different. This new franchise builds on the tradition of the magazine’s other famous lists – including the iconic Fortune 500 – and uses a rigorous, data-driven methodology to identify the leaders in each field of crypto. Fortune also partners with respected research firm ResearchScape to ask crypto and financial leaders which companies they consider best-of-breed.

One purpose of the Fortune Crypto 40 is to recognize the many good actors working in crypto. Contrary to the worst caricatures, the industry is not just made up of the likes of Sam Bankman-Fried, Three Arrows Capital bros and Razzlekhan. The reality is that most people in crypto are nothing like these sociopaths – and after a year of being plagued by associations, the companies and projects they built deserve to be recognized.

But our new franchise has a different purpose: to promote transparency and accountability. While business success will be the primary criteria in determining who lands on the Crypto 40, winners will also be chosen based on reputation and transparency. Of course, there’s no guarantee that a bad apple won’t appear on the list – we all learned the hard way from Bankman-Fried that criminals can be hard to spot. But the use of these additional criteria will at least help to screen out unpleasant actors and give a boost to companies that do writing.

The first Fortune Crypto 40 will be revealed in print and online this spring as part of the April/May crypto-themed magazine. To read more about the eight categories that make up the list and to get a taste of the methods used, this page has a detailed description. Good luck to all the companies.

Jeff John Roberts
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@jeffjohnroberts