Fortune, a well-respected business publication, has released its inaugural Crypto 40 ranking, revealing the brightest and most promising companies in the crypto industry.
The list recognizes companies that have withstood the test of time and are built to last for decades, even amid the industry’s most challenging periods.
The Crypto 40 comprises eight categories, each with a ranked list of five winners, ranging from traditional finance to decentralized finance.
Fortune’s Crypto 40 comes as no surprise, as the lack of such rankings in the crypto industry has been long-standing. While there are numerous lists, they tend to reflect the subjective preference of a handful of editors and mostly focus on personalities rather than companies. Fortune’s Crypto 40 provides a definitive list of the most critical crypto companies that are worth watching out for.
Categories and winners
Fortune Crypto 40 comprises eight categories that recognize various crypto entities, including traditional finance companies that have made significant inroads into the crypto world, venture capitalists, and infrastructure firms. The winners of each category include:
CeFi – This category recognizes crypto-first firms, such as exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and custodians. The winners of this category are Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and Circle.
TradFi – This category recognizes companies from the world of traditional finance, including banks, exchanges, and fintech firms that have made significant inroads into the world of crypto and blockchain. The winners of this category are PayPal, Robinhood, JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, and Visa.
NFTs – This category ranks companies behind leading NFT marketplaces and collections. The winners of this category are OpenSea, Yuga Labs, Sky Mavis, Art Blocks, and RTFKT (Nike).
Venture Capital – This category evaluates key investors in the crypto space. The winners of this category are Polychain Capital, Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz, Pantera Capital, and Blockchain Capital.
Data and Analytic Companies – This category recognizes companies that specialize in the new science of blockchain and token research. The winners of this category are Chainalysis, Coin Metrics, The Graph, Dune, and Messari.
Infrastructure Firms – This category recognizes the top companies that carry out much of the behind-the-scenes building activity that has helped crypto grow into a trillion-dollar industry. The winners of this category are Ledger, Genesis Digital Assets, Bitmain, Alchemy, and Moonpay.
Blockchain Protocol Firms – This category acknowledges entities that support and build tools and products for various blockchains. The winners of this category are the Ethereum Foundation, Bitcoin, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, and Offchain Labs (Arbitrum).
DeFi – This category recognizes legal entities closest to a given network that operate through a decentralized autonomous organization. The winners of this category are Uniswap Labs, Lido, MakerDAO, Aave, and Curve.
Fortune’s criteria and selection process
Fortune’s Crypto 40 methodology includes several key criteria, such as market share, transparency, reputation, and media recognition.
To evaluate companies, Fortune partnered with leading crypto analytical firms and commissioned executive surveys from respected polling firm ResearchScape.
The publication has not disclosed the full methodology for competitive reasons but has provided a broad overview of each category and some critical criteria.
According to Fortune, the selected criteria will generally favor incumbent companies over newer ones and may reward scale and business success over design or innovation. The ranking is expected to be fluid in subsequent years, as nimble upstarts disrupt and grab the crowns of complacent incumbents.
