Fortune Crypto 40 selects Ethereum as top protocol, Bitcoin ranks second Fortune Crypto 40 selects Ethereum as top protocol, Bitcoin ranks second
Ethereum earned primary focus in the new benchmark that lists the top 40 crypto businesses across eight categories.
2 min read
Updated: Apr. 10, 2023 at 2:47 pm UTC
Cover art/illustration via CryptoSlate. Image includes combined content which may include AI-generated content.
In its newly launched Fortune Crypto 40 benchmark, the media firm ranked the top 5 firms in the crypto space in each of the eight categories.
The categories include centralized finance (CeFi), traditional finance (TradFi), Venture Capital, Non-fungible tokens (NFTs), Data, Infrastructure, decentralized finance (DeFi), and Protocols.
To find the top 40 firms, Fortune used various empirical metrics along with surveys of over 200 financial executives conducted by Researchscape. Fortune claims the results are “impartial and rigorous.”
The top 40 crypto firms by category
The benchmark ranked the Ethereum Foundation as the top protocol, followed by Bitcoin. Polygon Labs, which develops Ethereum scaling solutions, and Solana Foundation, the non-profit responsible for developing the Solana ecosystem, ranked third and fourth, respectively. Offchain Labs, the firm behind Ethereum scaling solutions provider Arbitrum, secured the fifth position in the Protocols category.
Coinbase topped the CeFi category, followed by Binance and Kraken. Mike Novogratz-led Galaxy Digital and USD Coin (USDC) stablecoin issuer Circle grabbed the fourth and fifth positions in the benchmark.
PayPal’s integration with MetaMask placed it at the top of the TradFi category, which ranked the top 5 firms innovating with blockchain technology. Stock trading platform Robinhood, which enables crypto trading, came in second, followed by JP Morgan Chase, which launched its own blockchain Onyx.
Fidelity, which received flak for allowing pensioners to invest part of their retirement funds in Bitcoin, ranked fourth, while Visa secured the fifth position.
Polychain Capital ranked first in the VC category, followed by Animoca Brands and Andreessen Horowitz. The last two spots in the category went to Pantera Capital and Blockchain Capital.
As the largest NFT marketplace, OpenSea secured the top position in the NFT category. Yuga Labs, which launched some of the top NFT collections, including Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club, ranked second.
Sky Mavis, creator of the popular NFT game Axie Infinity, and generative art NFT platform Art Blocks ranked third and fourth, respectively. RTFKT, which Nike acquired in 2021, is the fifth NFT firm in the benchmark.
In the data category, Chainalysis ranked first, followed by Coin Metrics and The Graph. Dune and Messari secured the two other spots.
The Fortune benchmark also included crypto firms that offer infrastructure for the industry. Non-custodial wallet provider Ledger topped the category. Bitcoin mining giant Genesis Digital Assets, not to be confused with the Digital Currency Group lender that filed for bankruptcy, secured the second spot.
Bitcoin mining chip developer Bitmain ranked third, followed by Alchemy, which provides plug-and-play tools to build products and services on blockchains. Crypto payment solution MoonPay ranked fifth in the infrastructure category.
DeFi is all about Ethereum
Fortune listed Uniswap Labs, Lido, MakerDAO, Aave, and Curve as the top five contenders in the DeFi category. It is worth noting that all the DeFi applications are built on Ethereum.
In fact, according to DefiLlama data, these are the top five DeFi applications in terms of total value locked (TVL). The five DeFi applications have over $31 billion in TVL at the time of writing, as per DefiLlama.
Furthermore, the Fortune benchmark includes a high number of Ethereum-based applications, not to mention that two out of the five top protocols are Ethereum scaling services.
But the focus on Ethereum may have been a result of the fact that Ethereum controls nearly 70% of all DeFi activity.
Mentioned in this article
Ethereum 
Bitcoin 
Binance 
Coinbase 
Galaxy Digital 
Kraken 
Circle 
Uniswap Labs 
Yuga Labs 
OpenSea 
Animoca Brands 
Chainalysis Posted In: Aave, Bitcoin, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, Uniswap, Binance, Coinbase, Kraken, DeFi, Exchanges, Featured, NFTs
Author 
Monika Ghosh
In 2020, Monika immersed herself in crypto, maintaining skepticism yet firmly believing blockchain could address key issues like financial disparity and transparency. A book-lover, she's also a passionate food enthusiast.
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In this article
Ethereum is a decentralized, open-source blockchain platform that enables the creation of smart contracts and decentralized applications (DApps).
Bitcoin
$97,334.55
Bitcoin, a decentralized currency that defies the sway of central banks or administrators, transacts electronically, circumventing intermediaries via a peer-to-peer network.
Binance
Binance is a global cryptocurrency exchange that provides a platform for trading more than 100 cryptocurrencies.
Coinbase
Coinbase is a digital currency exchange and wallet service that allows individuals to buy, sell, and store digital currencies, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin.
Galaxy Digital
Galaxy (TSX: GLXY) is a digital asset and blockchain leader providing access to the growing digital economy.
Kraken
Kraken is a San Francisco-based digital asset exchange in euro volume and liquidity that trades various currencies, including Canadian dollars, US dollars, British pounds, and Japanese yen.
Circle
Circle Internet Financial Ltd is a global internet finance company, built on blockchain technology and powered by crypto assets.
Uniswap Labs
Uniswap Labs is a corporation that builds products on top of the Uniswap protocol to make it simple and easy to use. Its headquarters is in New York, New York, and it was created in 2018.
Yuga Labs
Yuga Labs is one of the savviest marketers of NFT brands, including Bored Ape Yacht Club, a collection of 10,000 Bored Ape NFTs—unique digital collectibles living on the Ethereum blockchain.
OpenSea
OpenSea is a decentralized peer-to-peer marketplace for buying, selling, and trading NFTs.
Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands, a Deloitte Tech Fast winner and ranked in the Financial Times list of High Growth Companies Asia-Pacific 2021, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification.
Chainalysis
Chainalysis builds trust in blockchains between people, businesses and governments.