Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao is the most popular personality in the cryptocurrency industry, according to cryptocurrency tax software CoinLedger.  

The study is based on combined social media followings on X and Instagram, highlighting the influence of key cryptocurrency figures.  

Zhao has a combined social media following of more than nine million on both X and Instagram. More than 8.6 million of his followers are on X. 

He is the co-founder and CEO of Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume as of July 2022.

Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin takes the second spot, having a combined social media following of 7.7 million. Block Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey claims the third position with a combined following of 6,400,000.

Michael Saylor, executive chairman and co-founder of MicroStrategy, emerges as the fourth most influential personality in the cryptocurrency world, commanding a combined social media following of over 3.2 million.

Cathie Wood, CEO of investment management firm Ark Invest, takes the fifth spot with a combined social media following surpassing 1.6 million. 

Chamath Palihapitiya, an early investor in Bitcoin, takes sixth place with a social media following of 1.6 million. 

Marc Andreesen, co-founder of venture capital firm Andreessen Horowit, is the seventh on the list, followed by Digital Currency Group founder and CEO Barry Silbert and Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong.

Despite his fraud convictions, Sam Bankman-Fried took the 10th place, with 1.06 million followers.  

“This data offers a fascinating insight into the people within the crypto sphere who hold the most influence, and many of the names that feature in this study helped to popularize the cryptocurrency industry,” said David Kemmerer, Co-Founder and CEO of CoinLedger.

He added that hundreds of millions of people who now invest in cryptocurrencies wouldn’t have been afforded the opportunity to do so without their influence. 

(Editing by Seban Scaria seban.scaria@lseg.com)