Bloomberg has issued their customary list of the 50 most influential people of the year, and this year’s list includes Vitalik Buterin, founder of Ethereum. Bloomberg’s Top 50 list includes some of the most important movers and shakers of the past year in any industry. Some of Buterin’s list-mates include Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman and CEO of both SpaceX and Tesla, billionaire Elon Musk.
Buterin’s inclusion should not be surprising. The cryptocurrency market has exploded, bringing Bitcoin and Ethereum from the shadows into the mainstream. Ethereum itself has reached all time highs in recent days, peaking over $470 per coin.
Disruption
While the tech wonder boy is just 23 years old, his revolutionary technology is producing waves in the financial industry, for startup companies and with computer programmers world wide. The rethought technology platform is gaining particular traction in the crowdfunding and financial sourcing industries. According to the list makers:
“Yet the potential for Ethereum to upend how computers move money continues to attract Wall Street’s attention. Already it’s altering how companies fund development: Ether is a popular vehicle for buying into initial coin offerings, or ICOs, which bypass the traditional routes of venture capital and initial public offerings (and, to date, securities regulation). It’s helped blockchain startups raise more than $3 billion this year."