PANews reported on December 5 that young founders in the crypto industry accounted for 9 of the 30 seats, or about one-third, in the 2025 Forbes "30 Under 30" financial list. This list focuses on outstanding North American business leaders under the age of 30. In 2025, a total of 14 founders from 9 blockchain or crypto companies were selected.
Among them, Polymarket founder Shayne Coplan has attracted much attention for his decentralized prediction platform that allows users to bet on the US election; multiple founding teams of decentralized exchanges (DEX), such as Osmosis founders Sunny Aggarwal and Dev Ojha, and Drift Labs co-founder Cindy Leow, are also on the list. In addition, the founding team of Cortex Labs, which focuses on AI blockchain, and Entropy founder Tux Pacific are also included in the list.
Although this proportion is the same as in 2024, it is lower than the record peak of 21 blockchain leaders selected in 2021. It is worth mentioning that some of the 2021 inductees, such as Caroline Ellison, former CEO of Alameda Research, have been sentenced for FTX-related scandals.
