The Fortune Crypto 40: PayPal, OpenSea, Uniswap, and More

It is challenging to impress seasoned crypto enthusiasts with yet another cryptocurrency company ranking. Perhaps that's why the authors of the Fortune Crypto 40 emphasized that they were not swayed by personal preferences or the charisma of crypto entrepreneurs. Instead, they focused solely on market share and the prospects of companies operating in key segments of the crypto industry.

The Crypto 40 list is composed of eight different categories, which cover a wide range of areas from the traditional financial sector to the decentralized finance realm. These also include venture capitalists and companies that offer infrastructure solutions for the crypto industry. 

Fortune has compiled a list of five winners for each category. The magazine believes that most of these companies have demonstrated the potential for successful growth for decades to come, despite the multiple challenges and problems that the industry is currently experiencing. 

In this category, Fortune analyzed the achievements and potential of crypto exchanges, stablecoin issuers, and custodians. It's worth noting that in the CeFi (Centralized Finance) segment, there are platforms with centralized management that provide access to the digital asset market.

The top 5 CeFi companies identified by Fortune include Coinbase, Binance (the only non-US company), Kraken, Galaxy Digital, and Circle.

Fortune has classified traditional banks, exchanges, and fintech companies that have made significant progress in cryptography and blockchain technology as part of the “TradFi” category.

Among the winners, as expected, were giants such as PayPal, Robinhood, JPMorgan Chase, Fidelity, and Visa.

Fortune Crypto's category, which merges the world of money with spiritual and material values, evaluated companies behind the leading NFT marketplaces. The list took into account NFT trading volumes and commission fees earned by the companies.

The leaders in the sector are OpenSea, Yuga Labs with its Bored Ape Yacht Club, Sky Mavis, Art Blocks, and RTFKT (Nike).

The list of venture capital firms was narrowed down to those who funded at least 35 projects, taking into account both the profitability of their investments as well as intangible factors such as reputation and social responsibility. 

The winners were announced to be Polychain Capital, Animoca Brands, Andreessen Horowitz, Pantera Capital, and Blockchain Capital.

The companies in this category were evaluated based on their funding, number of employees, and public relations.

The rankings in Fortune included Chainalysis, Coin Metrics, The Graph, Dune Analytics, and Messari as the top companies in this category.

These infrastructure companies may not be in the limelight like flashy crypto startups, but they're the unsung heroes that keep the blockchain world running smoothly. This category includes mining companies, software developers, and equipment manufacturers. The Fortune Crypto 40 assessed players with a market capitalization of $400 million or higher in this segment.

Infrastructure companies like Ledger, Genesis Digital Assets, Bitmain, Alchemy, and Moonpay have played a crucial role in advancing the industry by providing hardware wallets, mining equipment, and other software solutions. While these companies may not be as visible to the general public, their contributions have been instrumental in shaping the crypto landscape.

The evaluation of this category was based on several factors including the level of decentralization, financial indicators, promotion activity, and project security.

The winners are the Ethereum Foundation, Bitcoin, Polygon Labs, Solana Foundation, and Offchain Labs (Arbitrum).

Fortune's Crypto 40 rating ends with the DeFi (decentralized finance) category. The magazine paid attention to the code audit of the protocol, DAO management, and the presence of a legal organization associated with the project. Additionally, the Total Value Locked (starting from $200 million) and trading volume (at least $100,000 per month) were considered.

 

Uniswap Labs emerged as the winner in the DeFi sector, surpassing other contenders such as Lido, MakerDAO, Aave, and Curve.

Fortune has declined to disclose the full methodology of their research, citing market competition. However, the publication's experts emphasized their preference for established companies over new ones, considering the scale of operations and financial success carrying more weight than a project's ideology or innovation. Nevertheless, Fortune acknowledges the possibility of significant changes in the market landscape in the coming years, with newcomers potentially overtaking long-standing market players to claim victory.

Fortune is a globally recognized and respected business publication that has been providing subscribers with valuable insights since its inaugural issue in February 1930.

The publication is renowned for its authoritative rankings, including the prestigious Fortune 500™, which have become the gold standard for evaluating business efficiency and reputation.

The Fortune Crypto 40 is a ranking that is based on the performance of companies and a survey of 200 financial executives conducted by Researchscape.