CoinDesk began presenting its annual Most Influential list this week, recognizing the individuals and groups we believe had the greatest impact on the crypto industry over the past 11+ months. U.S. President Donald Trump led the way as CoinDesk's first recognized individual, alongside other individuals who drove crypto legislation.

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Most Influential 2025

The narrative

U.S. President Donald Trump has arguably had the largest effect on the crypto industry and the discourse around it this year. He's signed executive orders, pressured Congress to move on legislation and generated billions of dollars' worth of paper profits through affiliated crypto businesses since retaking office earlier this year.

Why it matters

CoinDesk's Most Influential is by design a look back at the past year, making a note of those who most heavily shaped the industry. And this year, policymakers — particularly U.S. policymakers — featured very heavily.

Breaking it down

This past Monday, Blockchain Association CEO Summer Mersinger said the industry will control the narrative around crypto if it can speak with a unified voice. "The public narrative matters, and we're going to lead it," she said. This goal makes sense; the industry has spent years arguing that the public narratives around crypto — that it's primarily a useful tool for money laundering and other criminal activity, that the markets are volatile and that crypto continues to lack legitimate use cases — are incorrect. Trump and his family's involvement in crypto demonstrates another new narrative the industry has had to face: That it's a useful tool for the most powerful man in the world to profit.

Read more, and about some of our other selections for this year's Most Influential at the links below and keep an eye out for the remainder of the list to be published this upcoming week.

Donald Trump

Don Jr., Eric and Barron Trump

French Hill

Bill Hagerty

Bo Hines

Paolo Ardoino

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss

David Sacks

Brandon and Howard Lutnick

Ross Ulbricht

Shayne Coplan

The Lazarus Group

Market structure update

As of press time, it's still unclear when exactly we might see the Senate hold a markup hearing on market structure legislation. As a reminder, there will likely be two: One from the Senate Banking Committee and another from the Senate Agriculture Committee, for their respective versions of the bill.

Democrats laid out a list of their priorities in a document circulating earlier this week; many of the points in that document resembled the items from the framework Democrats had previously shared in September, though this week's document said the Democrats negotiating had accepted certain parts of the existing discussion draft.

Some of the sticking points include provisions addressing financial stability, market integrity and ethics — implicitly pointed at President Donald Trump and his family's crypto interests. It's unclear whether that last point in particular might tank negotiations. Earlier in the week, Sen. Cynthia Lummis said that she had been negotiating with the White House, and that point in particular had been contentious.

Still, time is running out on the Congressional calendar for any real progress to be made in 2025. A firm hearing has not yet been scheduled as of Thursday afternoon, though Banking Committee Chairman Tim Scott's office did note that he had met with the CEOs of Bank of America, Citi and Wells Fargo.

“We are making real progress toward passing digital asset market structure legislation that will help cement America’s role as the crypto capital of the world. For months, my colleagues and I on the Senate Banking Committee have received valuable feedback from across the banking and crypto industries. I welcome the opportunity to have constructive conversations about increasing financial inclusion for more Americans while protecting investors and ensuring the United States remains at the forefront of financial innovation," Scott said in a statement on Thursday.

This week

This week

• As of press time, there is still no confirmation that either the Senate Banking or Agriculture Committees will hold markup hearings on their respective drafts of crypto market structure legislation, though Banking is rumored to hold a hearing of some sort this upcoming Wednesday or Thursday. As a reminder, a markup hearing is a crucial step before the bills can advance in Congress.
• The Senate also plans to vote on a bloc of 97 of Donald Trump's nominees to confirm them to various positions, including CFTC Chair nominee Mike Selig and FDIC Chair nominee Travis Hill, sometime this upcoming week.

If you’ve got thoughts or questions on what I should discuss next week or any other feedback you’d like to share, feel free to email me at nik@coindesk.com or find me on Bluesky @nikhileshde.bsky.social.

You can also join the group conversation on Telegram.

See ya’ll next week!