In 2025, the cryptocurrency industry finally shed its status as a permanent legal underdog, transitioning from a “pariah” sector defined by enforcement actions to a cornerstone of the new financial establishment. This wasn’t just a year of price action; it was a year of profound institutionalization, where the “unjust war” with regulators gave way to federal bank charters, national bitcoin reserves, and the passage of landmark legislation like the GENIUS Act. From the courtrooms of the SEC to the highest offices in Washington, the power dynamics of the space have been completely rewritten.

This list, curated by the Bitcoin.com News editorial team, ranks the five individuals who most architected the landscape we now inhabit. Our criteria for inclusion and ordering includes but is not limited to: Impact on market structure, political influence, narrative dominance, and raw economic performance.

These are the titans who defined 2025.

5. Brad Garlinghouse

For years, Brad Garlinghouse was the general of the besieged XRP army. In 2025, he became the victor who sued for peace, and got everything he asked for.

This year, the long-running SEC case that defined Ripple’s U.S. overhang finally reached its endpoint. The SEC ended its lawsuit against Ripple, with Ripple agreeing to pay a $125 million fine and both sides dropping their appeals—closing one of the most consequential enforcement sagas in crypto history.

Garlinhouse and Ripple defended itself against the SEC directly, but also indirectly through the Fairshake Super PAC. Ripple was one of the largest donors to Fairshake, with over $50 million to the Super PAC during the 2024 cycle. Trump was elected, and the Biden-era anti- crypto SEC was finished.

Ripple didn’t treat the post-SEC environment as a victory lap, it treated it as a regulatory runway. Ripple applied for a U.S. national bank charter and received conditional approval from the OCC for a national trust bank charter. Internationally, Ripple secured approval from Dubai’s DFSA to provide regulated crypto payments and services in the DIFC.

From a markets perspective, Garlinghouse oversaw Ripple onboarding over 800 banks with $200 billion in annualized tokenized remittances and the launch of several U.S. spot XRP ETFs.

Garlinghouse was one of 2025’s biggest winners, especially considering where Ripple was two years ago, but had less of an overall influence on the rest of the market the way our top four did.

4. Brian Armstrong

Number 4 on the list is Garlinghouse’s brother-in-arms in the unjust war against the SEC. 2025 validated the bet Armstrong had been making for years: You (and the industry as a whole) don’t win by dodging U.S. regulation, you win by forcing it to clarify itself.

Throughout the hostile Biden era, Armstrong’s strategy was often criticized as too cautious or “compliance-pilled.” In 2025, that strategy paid the ultimate dividend.

Early 2025 delivered one of the clearest “end of an era” moments in U.S. crypto enforcement: The SEC moved to dismiss its case against Coinbase.

This wasn’t just a corporate headline. It removed a market-wide overhang because Coinbase is a regulated on-ramp, a public company, and a core piece of institutional plumbing. When the biggest U.S. exchange gets a legal burden lifted, it relieves pressure for everyone.

Coinbase products had an amazing year. It serves as custodian for the majority of assets in spot Bitcoin ETFs (commonly framed as 9 out of 11 issuers at launch). Coinbase’s Ethereum L2 might’ve been late to the L2 party, well behind Optimism and Arbitrum, but in 2025 Base became the de facto Ethereum L2. There is no second best.

To put a bow on this year, in December, Coinbase laid out plans to expand into stocks, tokenized assets, prediction markets, and more, framing itself as an “everything exchange,” aka a super app.

Armstrong had a massive year, but his impact still sits mostly inside the crypto-to-TradFi bridge and the U.S. market structure story. The next people above reshaped the narrative layer of crypto itself in broader ways outside of crypto

3. Shayne Coplan

Shayne Coplan takes Number 3 because 2025 was the year prediction markets stopped being a niche and became a mainstream reference point. Polymarket was the project almost entirely responsible for that, and the brand that people quoted.

Part of Coplan’s 2025 story is the reversal. In late 2024, the FBI was raiding Shayne Coplan’s apartment, seizing his devices. By late 2025, the company was no longer being discussed as “that prediction market under scrutiny” in mainstream news. Instead, mainstream programs regularly discussed its data.

Polymarket (and crypto by extension) received another huge credibility boost when Intercontinental Exchange (ICE), the owner of the New York Stock Exchange, announced a strategic investment in Polymarket.

Overnight, Coplan became a newly minted billionaire, the youngest self-made in history, and the CEO of one of the world’s most cited sources of truth.

Polymarket is no longer just a crypto niche; it is a universal replacement for polls (not just political, but financial, geological, anything!). In 2025, we saw the platform’s odds cited by everyone from The Wall Street Journal to cable news pundits as the gold standard for up-to-date predictions. The platform’s volume exploded, driven not just by election cycles but by the realization that prediction markets are broadly more accurate than traditional polls.

Coplan’s genius was a combination of knowing he had product-market fit coupled with holding steadfast when the pressure to fold was highest. In an era of decaying trust in traditional media and institutions, Polymarket provided the one thing everyone was desperate for an uncolored lens on what people think.

Copland’s not higher on the list because while Polymarket shaped narrative, its impact was still mostly informational. It didn’t control the macro pipes of liquidity or regulation the way Number 2 and Number 1 did. Also, quite frankly, Copland didn’t win as bigly either.

2. Paolo Ardoino

Paolo Ardoino is Number 2 because 2025 was the Year of the Stablecoins, and Tether is the largest one. Like everyone on this list, Ardoino went from pariah to insider. Finally, he is no longer just running a stablecoin company; he is running a financial institution.

In 2025, Tether solidified its position as the 17th largest holder of U.S. debt, holding over $130 billion in Treasuries. For perspective, this is more than Germany or Australia. Ardoino has effectively made Tether too big to fail for the U.S. Treasury, a leverage point he has used brilliantly. With a projected profit of $15 billion, Tether is now one of the most profitable companies on Earth per employee.

That’s not just “good for crypto.” That’s macro-relevant. Many predict weakness in the future for stablecoins due to a proliferation of competing stablecoin products coupled with falling bond yields. Tether’s distribution gives it a massive advantage in both. Also, Tether was a business during ZIRP, unlike almost every other stablecoin.

But Ardoino’s vision extended far beyond stablecoins. He diversified Tether into a Bitcoin-backed infrastructure conglomerate. Tether now holds over 100,000 BTC and has become the #1 Bitcoin miner in Latin America. His launch of the QVAC division for decentralized AI compute, and the USAT compliant stablecoin showed a willingness to adapt, while his solar kiosks initiative in Africa reveals Tether’s focus on distribution.

Tether is huge, and Ardoino executed. But the person at the top of our list was responsible for turning everyone else on this list from a fighter into a winner.

1. Donald Trump — Person of the Year

Love him or hate him, there is no denying that the crypto landscape of 2025 was sculpted by Donald Trump. He is our Person of the Year because almost all of the positives (and many of the negatives) can be directly or indirectly attributed to President Trump.

Trump’s re-election didn’t just change the laws; it changed the vibe.

He legitimized crypto on the legal level and changed the vibe at the cultural level. Although the latter was positive and negative. More on that later.

The antagonism that characterized the previous administration vanished overnight. After assuming office, President Trump acted quickly to fulfill many of his crypto campaign promises:

• Freed Ross Ulbricht
• Established the Bitcoin Reserve
• Appointed crypto-friendly Paul Atkins as SEC Chair

In July, Trump signed the GENIUS Act into law, creating a U.S. regulatory framework for payment stablecoins.

He sits at Number 1 because he is the multiplier effect for everyone else on this list:

• Garlinghouse’s and Armstrong’s victories? Accelerated by the new regulatory stance.
• Copland’s legitimization? The changed regulatory stance and called off the Biden-era attack dogs.
• Tether’s treasury holdings? Legitimized by the administration’s recognition of stablecoins as a vital demand for U.S. debt.

The positive vibe shift in government and traditional finance was matched by a polarizing cultural shift along political lines.

Trump’s personal proximity to crypto markets made almost all people politically opposed to him also opposed to Bitcoin and crypto. Trump and Melania’s memecoins are, at best, embarrassing black eyes on the industry. The World Liberty Financial project and the $WLFI token have drawn criticism from lawmakers and market participants alike (many of whom are crypto-aligned) who argue Trump’s crypto ventures could pose conflicts given his role in shaping regulation.

Donald Trump almost single-handedly shaped the entire market’s psychology: bullish policy tailwinds, paired with reputational volatility.

That’s why Trump sits at #1 on a crypto Persons of the Year list.

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