Introducing Fortune’s Crypto 40: Blockchain Companies Built to Last
In May 2022, a fraudulent stablecoin project called Terra imploded, setting off a wider meltdown that wiped out more than $1 trillion in cryptocurrency market capitalization. Inflation and broader market forces scared other investors away from crypto and drove several firms out of business. The rout reached its nadir in November, when the industry’s golden child, Sam Bankman-Fried, was arrested for running a Ponzi scheme, sparking a fierce backlash from regulators.
It has truly been a year from hell for crypto. But the headlines hide a wider story of how the industry has survived – and even grown stronger.
In March, the market cap of crypto topped $1 trillion, while Bitcoin traded well above $25,000 – both significantly above the peaks set during the asset class’s last major boom, in 2017. More importantly, crypto has matured tremendously since then, and attracting talented people who have joined long-time blockchain believers to build quality companies. Wall Street executives such as Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon have acknowledged that blockchain-based businesses are here to stay. And while the current Crypto Winter has washed away ill-conceived or fraudulent firms, others are showing that they are ready to make real waves in the world of finance and business. Therefore Fortune publishes the first Crypto 40 – the latest of our benchmark lists, like the Fortune 500, which recognizes the companies that matter most in business.
Crypto 40 includes eight categories – a recognition that the industry, once defined by crypto trading, is now far broader. We honor a wide range of businesses – from VC firms to NFT shops to computing companies to decentralized protocols – that have created great businesses around blockchain technology. Alchemy, for example, provides plug-and-play tools for companies looking to build products and services around Ethereum and other blockchains. Meanwhile, Yuga Labs is spurring the creative economy by giving customers control over the intellectual property associated with popular digital collections like Bored Apes. Together, these 40 companies build the foundation for lasting digital businesses.
The Fortune Crypto 40 also reflects the fact that the industry is no longer made up of edgy startups. In fact, the category called TradFi – crypto-language for traditional finance – is made up of market backers who have innovated with blockchain in surprising ways. For example, PayPal is integrating its crypto services with the popular Ethereum wallet MetaMask – a move that could introduce millions to decentralized transactions – while Fidelity now allows clients to integrate Bitcoin into traditional pension funds.
To determine the winners, Fortune relying on a range of empirical calculations, combined with surveys of more than 200 financial managers conducted by Researchscape. The results are both unbiased and rigorous, providing a list of companies – and in some cases non-profit foundations or decentralized collectives – that have large customer bases, solid revenue streams and the respect of their customers and partners. (Further details on the methodology can be found here.)
Crypto 40 also aims to reward transparency and sound business practices – qualities that have all too often been lacking in the still young industry. Some entities that would have ranked higher based solely on metrics fell off our list because they don’t meet high standards of transparency. Binance, for example, is by far the largest centralized crypto company in terms of trading volume, but it slipped in our ranking due to legal issues and a lack of transparency about reserves and business operations.
The rankings that follow include some familiar names and some surprising misses. (We expect some brooding; we congratulate the top editors.) Above all, the Fortune Crypto 40 is another example of the publication doing what it does best: telling readers about companies making an impact in the business world.
This article appears in the April/May 2023 issue of Fortune with the heading “Ready for reboot”.
