Most Influential 2021: Antonio Juliano

In the world of crypto, exchanges rule. Antonio Juliano is chief executive of dYdX Trading Inc., the company behind one of the fastest growing decentralized exchanges, or DEXes, which briefly overtook Coinbase by trading volume this fall. Though the comparison may not be precise, as dYdX specializes in derivatives not spot trading. Still, Juliano’s exchange executes hundreds of thousands of trades a day for a couple thousand users, many of whom hold a stake in the platform through its governance token (issued Sept. 8). The exchange – backed by crypto notables including Three Arrows Capital, DeFiance Capital and Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) – also implemented some of StarkWare’s layer 2 scaling solutions to save users on gas costs and trading fees. Juliano, 28, is an alum of Coinbase and Uber.

The Complete List: CoinDesk’s Most Influential 2021